The Soap is Luscious

I used the first bar of the soap I made this week.  It is amazing!  The lather is rich and creamy, more so than the homemade soaps I buy here and there.  I'm so pleased

I still have a fair amount of lye, but it will take a while to accumulate enough tallow from stock-making for soap.  Soapmaking was a rewarding, quick project for me, so I might find a different recipe and try again.  Do you have a soap recipe to recommend?

Reminder: International Ice-Cream-For-Breakfast Day

A week from today, eat ice cream for breakfast.  Just for fun!  Just because it's midwinter! In unity with my family!

I didn't give you advance notice last year, sorry, but I'm all over it this year. 

Baking Cookies with Ben

Ben always wants "a kitchen job."  He is a good kitchen buddy - compliant, pleasant, and easily entranced.  Today he wanted to help with the bread after breakfast, but we both forgot.  He kept at me and it was so cold outside that I said we could bake cookies.  So we started on Oatmeal Chip Cookies from Mennonite Country-Style (oatmeal, choc chips, and coconut).

He put the measuring cup on the cabinet pull.

 

 

Then I realized that I was embarking on a recipe that made 7 dozen cookies and there were rusks and a full 9x13 apple cake in the house already. That is a lot of sweets for a family where the adults are nominal sweets-eaters.

 

Fortunately, Rebecca advised me that I was simply thinking ahead (riiiiiiight) by freezing little lumps of cookie dough to bake later when the house was shorn of sweets.

 

 

 

I think the idea is to plop the frozen lumps of dough onto a cookie sheet, bang them into a hot oven, and bake for the required time plus a few extra minutes (right?).

That reminds me:  I need to do a post on how I experimented over Christmas with freezing yeasted goods to bake later.

Jar Cozies

I've been using canning jars for lots more than canning.  I use them for packed lunches, leftovers, and transporting food to potlucks and parties.  They're tempered glass, so they don't break easily.  They don't leach chemicals into the food and glass is easier to recycle and breaks down faster than plastic.

What's not to love?  The clashing of glass in a lunch bag or picnic basket, that's what. 

While the jars might not break easily, I don't want to tempt breakage by letting them bang up against anything in transport.

 

So I made two jar cozies to cushion the jars.  I just made 2 fabric cyclinders, one longer than the other and one made out of some quilted cotton from the re-use store.  I stuffed the longer one down into the quilted one and folded the top over and under to stitch down as a neat edge. 

 

I couldn't resist a fun patch here and there, but I didn't want to get too cutesy with sturdy, hardworking kitchen tools.

Because yes, the cozies have been wonderful. I can even stick a serving spoon down the side. I love this kind of functional sewing!

 

Any other jar-transporting tricks to share?

(Linking up with the Eat Make Grow Blog Hop for no-spend February!)

Going Home

My grandmother died last week, peacefully, mercifully.  Her funeral was yesterday.  She chose the scripture and songs, one of which was Dvorak's "Going Home," a sweet, simple song.

There are two things I have grudgingly come to appreciate about funerals:  the reunion-like quality of all the people who gather, and the way death cuts through my trappings and gives me a chance to reflect.


Ben made a potholder for his granny (my mother), Grandma's eldest.

 

He thought Granny would be sad because her mother died.  He was right. 

I'm going to be reflecting on Grandma's legacy for a while.  But these are my initial thoughts:
1.  She chose to love her family above all else, even when we changed in ways she could not approve of.  Other people in her generation judged their families unrelentingly.  My grandma chose to let that go.

2.  from the tribute I gave at the funeral: 

"Grandma always was as neat as a pin with firm ideas about cleanliness and tidiness.  Her home was always so soothing to me because it was clean and neat.  Everything always seemed right in Grandma’s world.  I am not so naïve as to think Grandma had a perfect life, but I loved how she created order and serenity around herself.  This is a skill that inspires me."

3.  from the unabridged tribute which I did not read at the funeral:

"Grandma clung to her homemaking ways when she and Grandpa downsized and moved into their cottage.  I remember Aunt Esther shaking her head because she wanted to take Grandma to buy a new coverlet for her bed, but Grandma wanted to cut patches and sew a coverlet herself.  I totally understand.  Grandma was from a generation of women who found their identity in making a home and caring for their families.  I know some of them resented it, and some of their daughters wished they would take time for themselves, but I guess I, a granddaughter, saw the rosy side of this nesting." 

The potholder, wrapped.  Everything chosen by Ben.

 

4.  My uncle Ron, whose own mother died when he was 16 and who married into our family, observed that our family is "fiercely together."  He said his family is "cordial" to each other, but nothing like this.  It's true.  Sometimes I get weary of the fierce part which leads to competition, jealous tiffs, and snide remarks, but yesterday I saw the gold.

Pondering.  Counting my blessings - I'm humbled and grateful.

Mend It Better: Book Review

You asked me to tell you what I thought when I was done reading Mend It Better by Kristin Roach. 

Here are the ideas from the book I want to remember:
1.  turning holes in a sweater into flowers by beading around them.
2.  covering up stains on children's shirts with appliques and decorative stitching.
3.  fix holes in socks with crochet instead of darning - the directions for starting crochet on any piece of fabric look very good.  I have a friend who raves about the usefulness of crochet for this reason.  I want to get serious about learning to crochet soon.
4.  patching holes in coat linings instead of relining the coat, especially using blanket stitch to decorate the edges. This can be a hobo look that is not really my thing, though.

The book covers all aspects of mending and does pull in contributions from other people.  However, there are three intriguing garments photographed with no attribution or explanation.  That annoyed me.  I post the photos here.  Aren't the clothes neat?  I want to know more about them!

 

 

The price on the back of the book is $18.95.  I'm sticking with my Sewing Stitch and Textile Bible for individual stitches, my Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing for techniques, and the library for whizzy new books.

Still Working on the Bierrocks

We made another batch of bierrocks for the freezer, for packed lunches.  I am not pleased enough with the results or confident enough of the technique to post a recipe, but I thought I'd share the bumps along the way.

This was on a Saturday, so I conscripted the children with their rolling pins (we have 2 child-sized ones for this very purpose and for play-doh, of course, and I'm not very careful about getting the play-doh cleaned off, it's true).  They rolled all the dough into little oblong-ish circles. 

My notes on the recipe indicated that "golf-ball-sized" balls of dough made bierrocks that were too big for the children's lunches.  So we aimed smaller and ran out of filling twice.  Twice!  I was annoyed.

 

The three fillings, in order of preparation:
1.  chopped, steamed broccoli mixed with a cup of strong cheese sauce (a white sauce flavored strongly with some onions, sharp cheese, and dry mustard)
2.  sauerkraut, grated cheese, and mushrooms
3.  peanut butter, apple butter, and raisins

Genevieve had the peanut butter ones in her lunch.  It was her idea to add raisins, and she said the whole thing was tasty.

But apparently I don't have sealing skilz because most of the bierrocks leaked their filling when they were baked - or maybe that was because of the white sauce being too much liquid for this application?  We'll pack lunches through this batch, and when we make bierrockas again, I'll let you know.

 

 

By the way, both our children get free lunches at their schools (for different reasons, but it means the same thing to our wallets).  Genevieve strongly prefers a packed lunch from home, but Ben waffles back and forth. 

On one hand, it's annoying to pack lunches and does cost us money, but on the other hand, the school food is inferior and shreds our home food culture.  I know my children are healthier eating home food, which is, in itself, a savings in the long run of medical expenses and missed school days and activities.  So I do cheerfully pack lunches for them and only occasionally suggest mildly that they could have a school lunch.