Stay Calm and Begin

It's begun....

Came home from work at noon,

started cleaning the bay window area,

that's where I always start!

Set up the tree,

Sorted out the mini lights

half of which were not working....

Added a few new strings.

Thoroughly (as in dusting

and washing windows, vacuuming,

and straightening all things)

cleaned the living room

and now the sun is already setting.

The tree still needs to be "trimmed"

plus all other things -  but,

It's begun ....

Are you starting your Christmas decorating this weekend?

The hardest part is to Start!

I'm beginning to get into the Christmas Spirit.

The lists have begun too!

Till next time ..... have a great weekend, put on the Christmas music, burn some incense and stay calm!

Pesto Sun-dried Tomato Cheese Torta

This cheese loaf appetizer

is a family favourite.

I first tasted this at my

nephew's wedding - made by his mom,

my sister-in-law Charlene!

She's a great cook

and always comes up with the best recipes!

This is a keeper ....

Cheese Mixture:

250 g feta cheese crumbled

1/2 lb butter cut into pieces (I use ¼ lb. butter and 150 g soft unripened goat cheese instead)

250 g cream cheese - softened

2 cloves garlic

few drops of hot sauce

Combine in food processor or whip with electric mixer until creamy.

Layer Ingredients:

1/2 Cup pine nuts roasted

2/3 Cup minced sun-dried tomatoes (pat oil off if using oil packed)

1 Cup Basil Pesto - or less (I just used enough to "dollop" it onto the layers).

To assemble, line 4-5 Cup bowl or loaf pan with plastic wrap (mold it tight to the container leaving lots hanging over the edge), sprinkle with the pine nuts first then spread on some pesto, then ½ the sun-dried tomatoes. Cover with half the cheese mixture, remaining pesto and tomatoes then remaining cheese mixture. Fold over plastic wrap and press down gently to compact layers, refrigerate to chill and set. When ready to serve, invert onto platter, remove plastic wrap and serve with sliced baguette or crackers.

 Warning - this makes a very large

appetizer so sometimes I cut the recipe

in half and make

smaller individual ones

molded in custard cups.

Warning #2 - if your food processor

is 40+ years old and it begins to smoke

while mixing this - you may need a new one.

Just saying ....

Happy Thanksgiving to all 

those celebrating this week!

May we all pause to give thanks

wherever we may be,

before the Christmas season hustle and bustle begins!

Till next time ..... are you dreading the Christmas frenzie or do you look forward to the hustle and bustle?

30 Years Young

30 short years ago

this little sweetheart/ray of sunshine

 came into our lives.

She is the apple of our eyes,

the icing on our cake,

the answer to our prayers,

and the best thing that ever happened to us!!!

These 30 years have been the best

years of our lives and

the next 30 promise to be the best of yours too!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

and

BLESSINGS

to our wee Bex....

Love you lots and lots!

Soapifying

For a long time,

I've been wanting to learn how to make soap,

but the process of using caustic lye had me afraid to try it!

It all sounded so complicated and

I didn't even know where to buy lye and needed to get

a better kitchen scale before even considering to

attempt this process.

This Fall while visiting our friends in Kentucky,

I was gifted with a beautiful piece of  handmade/handcut

soap and this got me going - finally!

I well remember my mom making a huge cast iron kettle

full of homemade soap. She used rendered lard and

fat drippings that she saved throughout the year.

Nothing cleaned the laundry like this soap!

I had the house to myself for the evening so
I gathered up the ingredients

and tools:

The Oils and Fats

9.6 oz. of Vegetable Shortening

9.6 oz. Olive Oil

6.4 oz. Lard

6.4 oz. Coconut Oil

An old Crock Pot,

a digital scale,

and a Stick Blender

The "flavourings":

1/2 Cup Oatmeal - ground fine

1 Tbsp. honey

1/2 oz. of Lavender Essential Oil

1 Tbsp. Cinnamon

The "scarey stuff"

4.463 oz. Lye crystals - eek!

12.16 oz. distilled water

(I used RO water from our tap)

Oh - and don't forget the 

rubber gloves!!

The "fancy" molds

Real molds are expensive!

O.K. - now I'm ready to start....

Melt the fat on low

Mix the scary stuff into the water

(caution - never add water to lye - always

lye to water)

I opted to mix this outside on the deck remembering

to lean back from it to not breath in the fumes.

This get's hot so be careful.

You should wear goggles as well as rubber gloves.

I don't have goggles but those who know me know 

that I have some cool kitchen glasses which sufficed.

Turn crock pot off and

blend with stick blender till

mixture traces (is thick like pudding and leaves a trace when stirred)

This takes about 10 minutes.

Cook on low - stirring on occasion

till the mixture looks like thick, waxy,

mashed potatoes (takes about 1 hour).

The temperature of the mixture will

be close to 200F when soapified!

You can use a PH strip test which

should read around 7 but I didn't have

one so I did the Zap on the Tongue test

to see if it was finished.

The smell of this soap as it cooked

reminded me of mom's soap!

Turn the crock pot off

and stir in the flavours.

Oh - now it smells really good!

This is where you can get really 

creative with different scents,

colorants and additives.

The combinations could be 

endless and fun to try!

Now it's ready to "glob" into

the fancy molds.

Tap them sharply

on the table or floor to make sure 

all the soap settles into the mold.

Cool and wait patiently (3 hrs. or overnight)

till the soap cools completely and hardens,

before removing from the mold.

WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART!

A piece scraped from the crock pot - it really is soap!

While I waited I went outside and rescued our

patio furniture from the crazy high winds we've

had here in the last couple of days - nothing compared

to our friends to the South - such devastation!!

I can only hope that all my blog friends from

Indiana and Illinois are O.K.!!!

Praying for all who have experienced this devastation.

Till next time ...... have you ever made scarey homemade soap?  I think I could get into this.....

First attempt at making Oatmeal, Honey, Cinnamon and Lavender Soap

The Great Escape

The Mad Dash Great Escape!!

You'll probably think we've gone mad

but we drove all the way to Winnipeg

last week and picked up our little "new to us" RV trailer.

The planning and scheming has begun

for trips and travels.

Along the way I snapped some pictures,

mostly while in transit,

as we dashed Escaped through

4 states, 2 provinces,

and along the beautiful shores of

Lake Michigan and Superior,

and then back again.

Our faithful GPS "Gertie" took us
through sleet and snow and rain

Stopping only to gas up, eat a little,

sleep and washroom breaks - Whew!

We travelled over amazing bridges and saw

beautiful fall colours, and thankfully not too many deer

(live ones - that is)! Couldn't believe the carnage

we saw along the interstate highways - so sad.

We could see that hunting

season is in full swing - they sold "bait"

along side the fuel - who knew that hunting

was such a big deal - eek!

As you can imagine,
we were so glad to arrive home again,
safe and sound and The Farmer
was elated to see that the soy bean crop
had been harvested and not lost as was feared.
It's all good.....
It was worth the drive to Winnipeg!!!

Till next time ...... dreaming of future travels and vacations.  Let the fun begin.....