The call of the Muse - It's not a destination

It took me a while as a young student of art and design to realize that the purpose of my school projects wasn't always to produce something incredibly beautiful for my teachers to admire.  Sometimes the whole purpose was to go through a process.  A process that tested my technical capabilities, challenged my mind and stretched the physical qualities of my medium.  Thus I gradually learned to expand my self imposed limits of creativity.  The outcome or final product was part of the process and interesting as such, but it wasn't the beginning or end of all.  This is not to say that everything I did as a student was very ugly.  Some was, but some was quite good (if I say so myself, I even won a few awards in student shows - sorry, I just had to brag a bit).

The freedom that one gets from adopting this mindset when creating is wonderful and it makes life so much fun.  I love to do.  I love to do things.  In the sense of doing something to make something.  Some thing.  The whole process is joyous.  I feel good while I do it and I love every step of the way.  The beginning of an idea.  It can be like a tiny sprouting seed that takes days to emerge, a little bit at a time.  Almost shy to expose itself.  Or sometimes it gushes forth like a waterfall, screaming for immediate execution.  I respond to the call of the muse when I can, but some ideas have been germinating for years and decades and are still abiding their time.  I tend to be a bit spontaneous, but even so there is always a preparation stage, during which the idea will mature, change, evolve.  And then there is the execution.  That is bliss.  It's the culmination. It's full of excitement and unexpected happenings, some happy and some disastrous.  But almost without fail there is the birth of the next idea.  Oh, what fun!  And then it's all over and I'm left with something.  Some physical thing that somehow became the product of the process.  But it is not the whole point.

Don't get me wrong.  I enjoy it if people genuinely like something I did for it's face value.  But they will never be able to experience it the way I have.  And I don't particularly have a need to explain.  Which is why I tended to be reluctant to put a title to my work in the old days.  I'm not a practicing artist so this isn't a big issue anymore.  These days I make whatever strikes my fancy.  Soap, mostly.  Creams, lotions, herbal remedies, bread and yoghurt.  I'll grow plants and knit, crochet, sew and maybe dye fabric and even bind a book one day soon.  And I do it for me.  Precisely to experience the joy of the process.  Except it is sometimes an issue.  It annoys me tremendously when people foster on me their preconceived notion that everything is supposed to be pretty or good or nice.  And then proceed to tell me so, when it obviously isn't.  Or the opposite.  Sometimes that just isn't the point.

If I ask you to taste something I made.  Share with me the laughter, when it tastes revolting.  Make that memory with me.  When I make something that would be considered hideous in any culture on this planet, don't insult my intelligence by admiring it.  Maybe that experiment wasn't about beauty.  Ask me what I learned.  And please don't tell me that my work in progress is ugly.  How do you know?  Why would you want me to know that?  What if I care?  And what if I don't care?  What if I'm having fun?  I'm playing. I am learning.  And I am living.  May I suggest you do that too.
...

Happy Easter

"Sweet is a small gift" was on the little slip of paper that was inside my Easter egg.  I like that a lot better than the slightly insulting admonitions of my youth like: "Money turns many into apes".  But I think they have started to make up new ones rather than use the fairly well known traditional sayings and adages.  My egg is the dark one in the middle, I don't like milk chocolate.  The others are for my daughters.

The small gifts that I had made for The first Day of Summer were appreciated.  I gave the lip balms, some face cream, a few soaps, some beautiful blue yarn that I picked up at a thrift shop and a book.  My mom also brought gifts.  She had picked up some old books, an old (1950's or 60's) German Encyclopedia about crochet and knitting and another on games and card playing which found appreciative new owners.  We really like to go treasure hunting in thrift shops.  There are so many interesting things to find and I also really like old books.  They are often much more current than one would think.  And if they are not, they can be really funny.

My mom gave me "Hlín, the yearbook of Icelandic women", 40 years worth, unbound.  So I guess she approves of my plans to start to dabble in bookbinding.  They date from 1917 to 1957 which was the last year it was published.  It fascinating to read.  I've found 2 soap recipes and quite a few tidbits about dyeing with plants.  Not to mention a few recipes for traditional food.  I have been taking a peep at them, but need to cut up the pages of some of them to get a decent look.  The paper is pretty yellow and I should probably photocopy the oldest onto acid free paper before it crumbles to dust.  I look forward to attempting to bind them.  I think they deserve some nice girly book cloth.  I may have to make my own.  But I can do that :)

But I forget, the point of this post was to say: Happy Easter.  Eat lots of chocolate!

The First Day of Summer

Well, the good new is that summer and winter froze together last night.  That signals a very good summer, which is comforting since the weather gods are throwing a spectacle of every variety they can think of at the moment:  Sleet, rain, wind and short (very short) sunny spells. The First Day of Summer is the first day of the year, according to the old Icelandic calendar and the beginning of the month of Harpa.  The Old calendar had two seasons, summer and winter, and people would count their age in winters.  We have been giving gifts on this day for five centuries, which is a lot longer than the tradition of Christmas gifts.  This day was also a special day for courting and romance.

I am having the closest family over for dinner and I made more lip balms.  I realized that the choice of a pink with peppermint or an orange with a flowery scent wasn't really for the boys, so I made a third lipbalm with Annatto oil to give a yellow colour and used Sweet orange oil.  I also have a few junk shop finds for presents (only for those who like that kind of thing) and I made some face cream which I put into new containers which I like very much, airless pumps.  So there will be a few gifts, but nothing expensive.  

Today is also the start of Easter, so this year it gets a bit jumbled with Easter decorations.  Of course they are all about spring and summer so that's fine.  And I am most definitely putting on some white clothes and a bright lipstick to greet summer and the new month of Harpa with a smile on my face. 

Lip balm - a perfect Summergift

I have been planning to start to celebrate the First day of summer in a more formal way than before.  It is the oldest holiday in Iceland and unique to this country, I think.  It's funny how I have gotten more interested in old people and traditions as I grow older.  It just seems that older people can teach me something about the world they knew.  With younger people, it's more like: Jep! Been there!  Done that!  Oh yeah!  That too!  No surprises there, really, so it's all a bit repetitious and slightly boring.  But older people are very interesting, they know stuff I never knew, lived in a time that's long gone and they aren't hanging around that much longer either.

I'm still a bit frustrated that missed some good opportunities to question my great aunt, Anna.  I just didn't appreciate soon enough how much she had lived through and how much I would learn if only I had figured out what to ask.  She always had an open house on the First day of Summer.  She didn't really invite anyone, we were just supposed to know and show up.  And we did.  It was an old fashioned coffee and cakes gathering of the most boring relatives.  But my father made sure we showed up.  I have been thinking that I should revive this tradition, except to do it with my closest family and do dinner.  I also want to give everyone a small present, like is customary to do on that day.  I'm not thinking of another mammon-fest, but just an occasion where I, as the matriarch (my mom is there, obviously, but she doesn't do family meals.  It's just not on her radar), give small summer presents.  And I thought of lip balm.  I have given people lip balm before and they like it very much.  I do too.  I think home made is the best and it literally takes minutes to do.

I have been looking for these sliding tins for some time in Europe and I found them at a British web page: Of a Simple Nature.  I bought a few (too few) and went ahead the other day.  I made two recipes, one pink and one orange.  I think they look so cute.  The red one has Peppermint essential oil, wonderfully fresh and traditional.  The orange was a first for me.  I mixed Alkanet and Annatto seed oils to get the colour.  It's very pretty, although it doesn't really show on the lips that much.  The scent for the orange lip balm was a combination of Vanilla and Rose.  It smells wonderful.  I figured I should do something sophisticated for those who are not fans of peppermint.

I have never written down my lib balm recipes, but this time I did.  So here it is.  It is a very small recipe, I did one for each colour and filled 6 tins each.  It's pretty standard, no glycerin or honey, but it is a consistency that I like.  I can be made softer by adding more oil.  Anyone can do it and I don't really know why everybody doesn't.

Just melt together in a waterbath or use the microwave (just use short bursts so it doesn't burn):

10 g / 0.35 oz.  Beeswax
10 g / 0.35 oz.  Coconut oil
17 g / 0.6  oz.  Castor oil

Pour into small jars or lip balm tubes.

For a pink colour: add some Alkanet infused oil and Peppermint essential oil
For an orange colour: Add Annatto infused oil and Alkanet infused oil about half and half or adjust to get the orange shade you like.  Add Vanilla and Rose essential oil.

Another colour might be yellow, with just Annatto infused oil.  That would probably make a very pretty lipbalm.  It is tempting to use the citrus oils for yellow and orange colours.  Some of them are photo toxic, but not all.  For example, Sweet Orange is not considered photo toxic, but Bitter Orange is.

From what I can gather the following citrus based oils would be safe to use in lip balm and creams and lotions:

Essential oils of:
Mandarin (Citrus reticulata)
Sweet Orange (Citrus sinensis)
Tangelo (Citrus x hybrida)
Tangerine (Citrus nobilis)
Neroli oil (Citrus aurantium)

Also the DISTLLED essential oils (NOT expressed essential oils) of:
Lemon (Citrus limon)
Lime (Citrus aurantifolia)
Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi)
It may be better to shy away from those if the method of production is unknown.

So maybe I'll add a yellow lip balm with Orange scent and that will be a perfect summer gift.

Colour... please

After the miserable months of January, February and March it really is time for some colour.  While winter has some lovely moments, the absence of colour is what makes it so difficult.  Absoluely everything turns gray and brown.  Spring brings back colour and makes the heart sing with happiness.  Just seeing colours can make one happy and I had to smile when I saw these multicoloured plastic eggs in the Good S some time ago.  I actually thought that someone with a terrible taste had dreamed these up as Easter decoration, but my husband said they are for Easter egg hunts.  Silly me.  But I bought them anyway, thinking that they might be used as molds for bathbombs or soaps or something.

I have been feeling a bit under the weather for the last couple of weeks.  I had a minor surgery and haven't been able to go to the gym.  As a result I have spent two weeks with the remote control firmly clutched in one hand while munching sweets with the other and generally experiencing the weariness that accompanies the end of winter.  I had lots of things that I wanted to do, but just couldn't bring myself to actually do any of them (except make fresh yoghurt, I did do that).  But then one evening I just got my butt off the sofa, got out my Grumpy, fed him and put him on his shelf, I made lip balm in two colours and flavors/scents and I used those funny little plastic eggs as molds for soaps.  So three projects in one evening.  Boy, did that feel good.

I just realized that easter isn't far off and now I need to start to prepare for that.  My mom used to decorate for Easter almost as much as she did for Christmas.  She embroidered little tablecloths, pillow cases and runners and we always collected the little chicks that decorate the chocolate Easter eggs that are customary here.  When my sister and I got up on Easter Sunday we would go to the living room where my mom had put our almost identical eggs on this runner that was embroidered with yellow chicks, easter lilies, tulips and eggs.  And there would be the chicks of Easters past and yellow candles.  We would rip the cellophane off the eggs, see whose egg was the prettiest and then start to breake it up to get at the sweets it contained as well as the most important: The saying.  There was always an old saying or adage inside.   And back then it could be anything.  I sometimes got the most horrid sounding things ("The stupid usually have a large head" springs to mind (it really sounds more poetic in Icelandic) and felt miserable, especially if the chick on my sisters egg had a prettier face than mine.  Nowadays they only put the nicest sayings in the eggs.

The egg soaps were a fun little project that I still haven't completed.  Getting the soap out has been interesting, to say the least.  So I will have to see if I can make them presentable or if they are heading for the rebatch bin.  This is all a bit fiddly and perhaps a little frou-frou, but they could be fun.  The colours did turn out differently than I had anticipated.  That means I learned something new.  Which is great.  I'll share the new knowledge in another post.

But I realized that I needed some retail therapy when I  saw photo's of Lilacs on a blog and it almost brought tears to my eyes.  Lilacs bloom in the middle of June in my world!  So I went out and got this big garish pink Hydrangea to brighten up my life. Just to tide me over until nature starts it's annual show.

I finally won!

The-ugliest-soap-anyone-ever-made-reward has got to be mine.  I made this soap sometime before Christmas and I had high hopes for it.  I thought it would be perfect as a gift to old people as a soap for a foot bath.  I had just gotten some Ginger essential oil and wanted to try it.  I had read that it's warming so I had this brilliant idea to combine it with the eggshells that I so ardently collected during the big bake fest.

When I used finely crushed eggshells in my Alkanet and lavender soap I liked it, but I like very scratchy.  I did however suggested that normal people could use it on their feet.  So I thought it a brilliant idea to do a special foot soap?  That time I had thought that the eggshells would sink to the bottom and form a layer at the bottom with a pumice kind of surface.  But they were pretty suspended throughout the body of the soap.  This time I sprinkled a layer on the bottom, thinking that the soap would soak in and automatically embed the eggshell in the bottom layer.  Well that didn't really work.  The result was a completely dry layer of eggshells that just sat on the bottom of my mold when I lifted the soap up.  What little managed to stick to the bottom of the soap was uneven and not pretty at all.  Fortunately, I had also put some eggshells in the main soap, so it wasn't a total disaster.  I still had a ton of exfoliating power in that soap.

I thought carefully about this recipe, but I can't find the recipe file.  But I wrote down the ingredients so I know it contains: Olive oil, Coconut oil, Soybean oil, Cocoa butter, Honey, Ginger EO and Peppermint EO and then the eggshells.  I think it might be 30% of the first three oils and then 10% Cocoa butter.  I used honey for it's lovely humectant qualities and it also gives a nice lather.  The eggshells need to be very finely crushed, or one can use poppy seeds.

I thought that since the colour was a sort of beige from the honey, it would look good with brown accents so I used cocoa powder for a line and sprinkled a bit of it on top with some brown sugar.
It looked fine in the mold.  But when I took it out to cut it it was horrendously ugly.  Not only was the bottom uneven and ugly, but the line looked dirty and the sugar on top just plain uninteresting.  I quickly shoved it out of the way so that no one would see it and puke.  And promptly forgot all about it.

Until today, I had cold feet, literally, so I went and found it and used it as foot soap.  I guess appearances aren't everything, because it works fine.  For feet.  Not for the body.  I tried it.  The eggshells are just a bit coarser than when I used them before (pounding them with a pestle in a mortar is a lot of work) and they did scratch my legs quite severely.   But that is very good for hard skin on the feet.  The scent of ginger with the peppermint is very nice, not too strong and maybe I should have used more.  Although I can't say that the soap alone made my feet feel warm, I'm sure it helped.  So all in all , not a bad soap.  But boy is it ugly.
...

Perfect sourdough bread - with a little help from a French friend

I love my sourdough.  I love it slightly toasted with some
 cheese.  And yes, I'm planning to make my own soon. The
Rose jelly is also a favorite and easy to make.

Another bread with a different recipe.  I've been making the same bread a few times but thought I'd try something a bit different.  So I found this website, chocolateandzucchini.com, which is the very best one that I have found so far.  It has very detailed explanations and she even tells you the why's.  I love that.  I need to know why.  I hate not knowing why, so this woman is my new hero.   She is French, but she writes it in English.  I just love her blog and highly recommend it to everyone interested in cooking, because this blog is not just about baking.

This recipe has worked very well for me every single time.  I have followed Clotilde's recommendation to make the starter in the evening and start the dough the next morning.  Clotilde is very good a explaining everything, but this is my shorter version of it.

200 g. Starter sponge.  This post explains how to make the starter.
400 g. Water
600 g. Various flours
           I usually use about 150 g. Rye, 250 g. Spelt, 200 g. Whole wheat and mix them with a whisk.
15 g. Salt (the recipe calls for 10 g, but I like salty bread)

Put the sponge in the Kitchen aid bowl and add the room temperature water and stir. Then add the flours.  Stir on the lowest setting for a few seconds.  Then let it rest for 30-40 minutes.  The rest allows the flour to absorb more water.  Then add the salt and any nuts or seeds that you want to add.  I've used sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and pine nuts.  Mix for a few minutes until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and looks smooth.  (This can all be done by hand, obviously).  I put olive oil on my hands to avoid the dough sticking to them and gently coax the dough out of the bowl and into an earthenware bowl.  As I do this the surface of the dough gets covered in oil, but additionally I put the plastic bag on top and wrap the bowl in a kitchen towel and put it by the shelf for an hour or two.

After that the dough will have risen.  Then I take the dough out and use a spatula to fold the edges into to the center.  I do this all around the edges of the bowl and then I cover it with plastic and wrap it a towel and let it rest for another hour.  Then I repeat that.  Let the dough rise until it has doubled.  If in doubt poke a finger into it and if the indentation remains, it is ready.  I fold the dough again and gently lower it into a pot.  To prevent the dough sticking to a pot.  I pour a bit of oil into it and add some flour.  Rub the mixture on the bottom and sides of the pot.  I have a terrible time remembering to cut slashes in the bread, but that looks pretty neat.  I found that using oiled scissors is much easier than a sharp blade or knife.  Put the lid on and put the pot into the cold oven.  Turn it to 240 C/460 F and let it bake for one hour.

Many people use dutch ovens or baking stones, but I own neither.  I have used a stainless steel pot with its lid to bake the bread.  It works beautifully even if it is rather unconventional.  When the time is up I take the pot out of the oven turn it upside down and knock on the bottom.  If it doesn't sound hollow I put it back in the oven.  Alternatively stick a cooking thermometer into the center of the bread.  It is done if that reads 100 C / 210 F.

When it is done, the bread needs to cool completely before being cut or it will be gummy.  I've found this to be true.  The bread lasts me a week and I don't freeze it, but it is easy to freeze half for use later in the week.

This recipe works really well for me. The bread rises beautifully and much better than when I have put the dough into a preheated oven like many other recipes suggest.  I am working on getting the courage to try the sourdough baguette recipe next.
XXXXX

Vanilla

The embroidery is a baby's duvet cover that my mother
made when she was expecting.  She says her mother made
her do it.  I'm glad because it is pretty.  The little bowl was
a gift from the artist and the tiny pearls are my sister in laws.
She makes very pretty necklaces and bracelets.

When I was little my mom always made vanilla ice cream for Christmas.  She made it in the ice cube tray without the inserts.  The tray was bog standard and not pretty at all,but she always used real vanilla corns.  That ice cream, naturally, had the holy taste of Christmas.  Just absolutely heavenly.  Homemade vanilla ice cream just can not be topped.  I have always hated to throw the used pods.  I just knew there was a use for them even if I hadn't thought of it.  Of course there is lots that can be done with it.  In powdered sugar it becomes vanilla sugar that is used in cake recipes and in alcohol it turns into vanilla essence.  I am now furiously trying to find excuses to buy vanilla so I can make something nice from them.  I also have this wonderful oil that I put cut up used vanilla pods into and now it is a lovely smelling oil that I rub on as a body oil.

I love the sweet and warm scent so I have been wanting to make Vanilla soap for ages and finally went ahead.  I wasn't quite the succcess I hoped, but it does smell lovely.  I had this vanilla in glycerin and it was dark brown.  I figured it would make a very dark soap so I thought I'd try to see how my white soap gratings would turn out in a dark brown base.  I also wanted to experiment with a cocoa line which I think Tiggy at FuturePrimitive  was the first one, at least she does it expertly. So the plan was to have a darker bottom with a cocoa line and then above that a white line!  How cool.  And on top  of the I would have a lighter layer of soap with the white soap shavings and I would have a bit of white soap for decoration.  I wanted to see what finely grated soap shavings would look like in a soap.  I wasn't thrilled that my Confetti soap resembled Spam just a tad too much.

I love the way those dollops almost look like flowers.

Well, that was the plan.  I thought that by using powdered sugar I could get an white line!  I should have known better, of course the sugar just melts.  Why I didn't try TD I don't' know.  But anyway the result was a soap that falls apart.  But I wiped away the sugary mess and pressed the two halves together and they managed to stick together, at least long enough to be photographed.  But all was not lost.  I just used the bottoms to make scrolls and squirls to use as decoration later.  I have to say that I'm still disappointed (and always will be) that it's not possible to make a pure white Vanilla soap.  I guess it's the memory of the creamy white Christmas ice cream with the tiny little dots that tasted so good.  But the top on this soap is pretty, with the white blobs looking a bit like roses (I stirred them with a toothpick).  So I think I'm liking this one, even if it fell apart.

I am just about to try it out properly in the bath.  I did try the off cuts when it was fresh and it was promising.  But here is the recipe.

40% Olive oil
25% Coconut oil
15% Lard
15% Cocoa butter
5% Rape seed oil

Water 33%
5% superfat

I used Vanilla with just a touch of Palmarose, Rosewood and Ylang Ylang to take away the cloying sweetness that pure vanilla can have.  I also used both sugar and silk in the lye solution and that should make for a good and silky lather.

So I'm off to have a nice long soap in tub.  The weather is miserable, rainy and feels even colder than when it snows.  So the warm and comforting scent of the vanilla is going to be lovely and I'll finish with a my precious vanilla oil and dream of spring.  At least the snow is melting.
.

Soap blog - It's been a year

I like to pick flowers from the garden to put in a vase in
the house.  I dearly love my peonies and the timing of
their flowering was a deciding factor in the date of my
daughters wedding.  This particular bouquet was the
inspiration for her wedding bouquet.

Today it is one year since I posted my first blog post.  I had surfed the Internet and read other peoples blogs for a long time before starting my own and it really took a lot of thought to decide what my blog should look like.  It obviously involved looking closely at other peoples blogs, not to copy them  but because I wanted mine to be a bit different, but not weirdly so.  I wanted it to reflect my personality and that was a lot more difficult than it sounds.

The photo for the header had to be something very wide and not very high.  Not a shape that one normally uses for pictures!  I cropped one that had a lot of green in it because I like that colour, it's friendly.  I chose a fairly simple template that had a white background and the orange headlines... well that was just a part of the theme and I hadn't fiddled enough to know how to change that.

That left the problem of soap photos.  I had some photos of the first soaps that I made.  I realized that my soaps were not necessarily the prettiest and I didn't (and still don't) have a light box.  The photos were bound to be ugly if they were close ups or boring if they showed one soap very, very far away.  So my solution was to pile a lot of stuff around the soaps so that there was something interesting to look at.  This afforded me with an opportunity to showcase some of the junk I pick up in flea markets and even some justification for buying more.  By tweaking the colours slightly I got a softer and more uniform look to the photos.  So now I had a look and then I needed to think about how to write and what to write about.

Having been an avid reader of blogs for a long time, I have my own likes and dislikes.  I like getting a glimpse of the person who writes the blog,  I like being told where ideas come from, I really like people who give credit to others, I love people who share recipes, methods, ideas and good suppliers.  I don't like blogs that look like they are isolated from the world and never speak of other soaps than their own.  I also favor blogs that show their followers and a blog roll.  I find so many interesting blogs that way.  I love to look at blogs from faraway places even if I have to resort to Google translate.  My own blog, when translated to my own language, sounds hilarious.  But I am grateful, anyway, for the translations.

I thought long and hard about sharing my recipes and my decision to do so was mostly because I found it enormously helpful when I was starting out.  But also because I was pretty certain that I would be preaching to the choir.  And that was who I wanted to get in touch with, other soapers, not customers.  I don't know if I would share my recipes if I blogged in Icelandic.  Maybe I would.  Although I really do think there are people out there who are completely disinterested in making their own soap.  These people are potential customers, but they probably have no interest in reading about how to make soap.

I was a bit shy at first.  I didn't want to expose myself too much.  What if no one wanted to read my blog?  How sad is that!  So thank you Happy Tiny Bubbles for being my first follower.  I was so thrilled.  I still am thrilled every time someone wants to read my blog.  But I  kept it a secret for the longest time.  I think my husband was getting suspicious that I was having an affair.  He'd ask me what I was doing as I hammered away at the computer and I would casually reply "Oh, I'm just writing down some recipe ideas" as I'd turn the computer screen away.  Today there is a handful of my closest family that know about my blog, but mostly it's still my secret.

When I started this a year ago I did it for me.  I wanted to interact with other soap makers and get an outlet for my own experiments and thought.  The blog has turned into a place where I store ideas and recipes and basically have fun.  I use my own blog to look for the recipes when I bake and I have a number of posts that are in draft.  I put my ideas down here and some make it to be posts, others just hang there until the right time comes along.  I expect that I will continue to post my soap recipes as well as to post about my ventures into bread baking and (hopefully) dyeing and bookbinding and paper making to name a few.  Where this blog takes me is anybody's guess.  But today I have given my blog an overhaul and changed it just a bit, mostly to reflect the season.  It may be snowing outside, but the calendar says it's spring.

I love the community of bloggers that I have gotten to know in this past year.  Many of them I have started to regard as friends and I am always excited to read their latest posts.  I thought it's about time I show my true face for a change as I thank all my blog friends for a fantastic first year.  I really look forward to another year of following others and writing about my own exciting new projects, soaps or who knows what :)
.

Yoghurt - homemade and to die for delicious

I have been picking up jars of all shapes and sizes to use
to store herbs and all sorts of stuff.  This one is perfect for
my yoghurt.  I hae two that I alternate.  I also can't resist
collecting coneswhen I see them laying on the ground.

I eat yoghurt every morning for breakfast.  I'm not adventurous (at least about food, I find it a bit of a bore to have to eat constantly) so I always eat strawberry yoghurt.  Last time I was on vacation I got in the habit of mixing my own from the buffet because they didn't have the European style yoghurt that I like.  I used unflavoured yoghurt that had an ingredient label that said something like: "Yoghurt and not much more" (many makes have all sorts of nasty sounding stuff in them) and then I mixed it with strawberry compote, almonds, walnuts, dates and rolled oats and whatever else took my fancy.  Oh, what a breakfast!  Much better than the small cup of yoghurt I had gotten used to.  So when I came home I started to think about making my own.  I've looked a yoghurt makers at stores and I've seen so many recipes through the years  and often thought about it, but... you know.  When you haven't done it, it just seems to be such a bother.

But I found this wonderful website, Smallnotebook.com and blog (I love the clean uncluttered look of it as well as the subject) about organzation and clutter and some really good instructions for making your own yoghurt.  So I just did it!

It was really much easier than I anticipated and the result was a stunningly good yoghurt.  I didn't use any complicated equipment, all you need is a candy thermometer that goes up to 180 F / 85 C, a pot, a jar and the oven.

I only used 600 ml (20 fl oz) of milk for my first try.  I measured the milk into a pot.  Put it on the stove, turned on the heat and waited for it to reach 180 F / 85 C.  It does so when it starts to bubble and threatens to boil over, so watch it carefully.  When that temperature is reached some people try to hold the milk at that temperature and that will supposedly give a thicker yoghurt.  I didn't try to do that, but took the pot off the heat and plonked it into a large bowl with ice and water to cool.  This cools the milk fairly rapidly (which I understand is better) and it should go down to 110 F / 42 C but not colder.  Then I poured some of the milk into a glas jar and stirred in 1-2 tablespoons of store bought yoghurt, unflavoured.  After that I poured in the rest of the milk and stirred the whole thing, gently.  Then I put it in the oven.

Now, my oven has a digital display so I turned it to 45 C.  But I also put a candy thermometer into a glass of water and stuck it in there, just to check the temperature.  It turned out that my oven is colder than it displays, so I turned it up until the candy thermometer read 110 F / 42 C, which turned out to be 50C.

The yoghurt stays in the oven for 7-8 hours and during that time it shouldn't be moved too much.  I did this in the morning and just about freed my oven in time for dinner.  For some people it makes sense to do this late at night and take it out in the morning.  Then the whole thing is put in the fridge to get completely cold.  After that it is ready to eat.

Mine turned out perfect.  Just the way I like it.  Much better than the organic yoghurt that I bought to use as a starter.  That was unusually thin and watery and I was worried that it wouldn't be any good, but that fear was unfounded.  I do not like yoghurt that has been thickened with gelatin or starches, but those who do like that can probably use those to thicken their homemade yoghurt if they want.  I've also seen recipes that used powdered milk in addition to regular and that will make a thicker yoghurt.  I use full fat milk for my yoghurt, but it can be made with reduced fat milk, although why anyone would want that is beyond me.

I didn't add any sugar to the yoghurt, but I defrosted some strawberries and added sugar to those and heated that on the stove.  When it cooled I whizzed it in a blender and put in in a jar in the fridge.  Now  I can make my own blend every morning.  I don't want everything to be mixed together too much, I enjoy the contrast of the sweet strawberries and tart sourness of the yoghurt.  But I have seen recipes that put sugar and vanilla into the milk before it is heated so I guess that is a possibility for those who have a sweet tooth.  I really recommend this to anyone who eats yoghurt.  It's like so many things that just taste completely different when home made.  And this way you know exactly what is in it.

Sowing seeds

It feels really strange to be sowing seeds now.  Outside everything is covered in snow and it feels like Christmas.  Apart from the ever increasing daylight.  This light is the first sign of spring here and now the sun rises at eight in the morning and it is still light when we get home from work.  But spring is still a long way away.  Traditionally, the danger of frost isn't really over till middle of June, but with warmer climate most people now start to plant out in May, but under close watch.   Even so this is the right time to start to sow seeds for an early crop.  This requires some preparation and thought and a lot of suitable vessels to sow seeds in.  I often buy seed trays and modules, but since most things have doubled in price in the last two years
I decided to make newspaper pots this year.

I think everyone should grow something to eat.  It's fun and there is nothing in the supermarkets that can compare with homegrown vegetables.  I have been growing my own for the past two years and really enjoy it.  I have a small allotment garden, but it's possible to grow quite a lot in pots on a balcony or even in a window sill.  I have already planted garlic outside because it needs the cold in order to develop cloves.  But at the beginning of March it is time to start to sow the first seeds.

I have put quite some thought into it this year and have written down how many plants of each vegetable I plan to grow.  Last year I was given some plants and that dictated a lot of what I grew.  I am now only going to grow what I really like to eat.  This year I need more broccoli, more carrots and more rutabaga.  And more lettuce of different sorts as well as rucola and spinach.  I love both.  No chard!  I tried it, it's just not good.  And I don't care if it looks good in the garden.  Plenty of things do.  I grow calendula, borage, mint, comfrey and violas to take care of the pretty part of the vegetable garden.  I did beans last year, They were kind of pretty too.  But I don't really like beans, so this year I'm sowing peas.  I love green peas... and beets.  And I want to grow more of some potatoes and less of others.  I was given 6 baking potatoes last year and they were just fantastic.  I also plan to try celery and I need two kale plants.  My sister in law told me that they make the best chips!  So I need try that.

It has been my experience that I sow too many seeds of each plant and end up with a glut which inevitably gets too much to keep up with and at least half of my seedlings die because I didn't prick them out properly.  This year I am only sowing a few more seeds than I want of each plant.
Then I plan to sow some seeds every 2-3 weeks, especially
lettuce, spinach and rucola.  That we I can extend
the harvest since those plants tend to bolt.

But back to the newspaper pots.  I made some last year when I had run out of pots and they worked very well.  They can be planted directly out so that the roots of the plants are not disturbed.  I have seen that in the UK they sell pretty wooden somethings to make them and being a great admirer of equipment in general and wooden equipment in particular, I want one.  But in the absence of a thingumajig I found a square vase that was perfect.

I was actually quite proud of myself for making them square this time, rather than round.  They fit much better into the tray that holds them.  I prepared the tray by putting newpaper in the bottom and then sprinkling a thin layer of soil on top.  This helps to keep everything nice and moist.

The pots themselves are very easy to make.  I used half the size of a tabloid, cut along the length.  Tabloid size is standard here for all newspapers.  So I cut the sheet in two and used two sheets to give it stability.  I then fold the piece leaving 1-2 inches / 3-5 cm (which becomes the bottom.  Then I roll the paper around the vase, scrunch the bottom and pull the pot away and put it in the tray.  I almost fill it to the top with soil.

Then I water it.  It's better to water before the seed is sown because watering will move the seeds around.  Alternatively water from the bottom.  I cover the soil with vermiculite or small size gravel.  It helps keep moisture in and looks tidy.

After sowing the seeds I label them.  This is very important.  I have often thought that I was sure to remember exactly what I sowed, but that is not so.  It's really important to label clearly and make sure that those labels don't get lost when the seedlings are potted on.  I finally cover the tray with a cut up plastic bag.

I put the tray onto a window sill and check it every day.  I lift the plastic off to ventilate if it looks too wet and once the seedlings appear I tend to take the plastic off during the day to let them get the most daylight.  I also stroke the small seedlings in order to mimic wind.  Or you can blow on them.  This will toughen them up and prepare them for real life.

I also use egg cartons for lettuce leaves.  Lettuce has really shallow root systems so that works perfectly. Toilet rolls are very good for peas and sweet peas and everything that has a long root system.  It is even possible to sow carrots in them and plant the paper rolls directly out in the garden when the weather gets nice enough.

I also use the plastic boxes that lettuce and strawberries come in.  Those really are perfect mini greenhouses complete with drainage holes and a cover.

The first seedlings are already appearing and I can just about believe that this time I won't kill them all, but grow them into healthy plants.  Oh, I look so forward to spring.