Reboot and Reshuffle

Hey everyone, I finally remembered to purchase the washing soda and made laundry liquid (wash) yesterday. This should last me a few months and for a cost of about a dollar as I used my home made laundry soap!

                        

Just after my last blog post I made home made cottage cheese using powdered milk and juice from the lemons off the tree here. I'll be trying this again and using the lime juice next time to see how it works out.

This blog link was posted in a DTE forum thread but I altered the recipe a bit as I used 4 cups of water to 1 cup of powdered milk. I also used ¼ cup of lemon juice as I wanted it spreadable.

The "curd" draining

The recipe makes about a cupful. 

Soooo yummy! 

Last of all, as I’m finally socialising here and going out to dinner with the local over 50’s singles group, I shuffled through my “glad rags” to see what would fit, and is suitably warm enough, for the suddenly cooler weather. This involved lots of trying on clothing yesterday morning when I had my RMO (Rostered Morning Off).

I was pleased to find that it was worth keeping those clothes I was determined to fit back into one day as I now can *big cheeky, cheesy grin*. I’ve saved myself a small fortune there and damn if they don’t look better on me now than they did when I bought them as I’m still curvy but in all the "right" places. Yep, I’m full of myself but I worked hard for this and I feel I deserve the rewards. If I can’t love and respect myself and all I’ve achieved then how can I expect anyone else to?

There’s another Discover moment.

I’m hopeless at selfies and the natural light is awful here today as it’s raining so I’ll try to finagle someone in the group into taking a photo of me on my mobile phone tonight and update here tomorrow :D.

Cheers,

RobynLouise xo

Postscript: Managed a not so bad selfie!

Cheers, RL xo

Busy week, gifts from nature and special mail :D!

It’s been a busy week for me as I “lost” my RMO last Friday due to staff shortages and then was rostered on Saturday with the regular work schedule so Sunday was catching up on things around the house – laundry, house cleaning etc and catching up on a few hours sleep. I also tried out some  additions to my sourdough baking and ended up with this. It's in the freezer until I finish eating the current loaf.

 I had my regular RMO on Tuesday and had a friend visit and even though Wednesday was a real “stinker” at work with the humidity I was rewarded with these lovely views of the evening sky when I took Flash for a walk after I came home.

 Shame they were only taken on the mobile phone as the colours aren’t what my eyes could see but if you “picture” almost iridescent blue skies and peachy orange clouds I’m sure you’ll see why I was entranced with the view J.

I discovered these on one of my pumpkin vines this morning as I was watering them and squashing 28 spot ladybugs. The leaf pictured below is what happens when these decide to chow down on your curcurbita!

This morning, when I arrived home from work, I took Flash for a walk across the park to the post office and collected the Soap by Sandy that I’d ordered a couple of weeks ago. Darn Auspost took their sweet time delivering them…..grrrrr. I love them! Some are for gifts and some are for me. They are currently sitting on the kitchen bench where I took this photo and the lounge/kitchen area smells divine J.

Hoping everyone else has a wonderful week too….or at least a few delightful days!

Cheers,

RobynLouise xo

Brief summary of Rendering Beef Fat

I've had a request re fat rendering so I hope this helps those impatient to try tallow or other animal fat soap making. When I render the next lot of beef fat I'll do a photo tutorial for those who follow picture instructions better than text only instructions.

My original batch of beef tallow was made on the stove in a pot, mostly following the directions here -  http://justlikemynanmade.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/rendering-animal-fat-for-oils-part-2.html, but chopping the fat. Thanks Narelle :)!

Since then, after I trim the unwanted bits off, I just chop it into chunks about an inch or two in size and throw it all in the crockpot, without the water as it isn't in danger of burning/boiling in my crockpot on the lowest heat setting, and periodically check it. Please know your crockpot before you try this as it may need to be closely supervised the first time this is done. When it has melted, as much as it can, I turn off the crock pot, remove the undissolved pieces of  hard fat/gristle (they are cooled and fed to the dog) with a slotted spoon and let the fat go cold and set in the crockpot. Then I loosen the fat block, cut it into quarters for ease of handling, slice off the sediment (scungy looking) part on the base (more dog food!) and remelt to liquid in the crockpot on low heat setting again. I let it cool slightly, a thin skin should form on the top this time, then strain it through an old fine cotton tea towel into my pyrex jug and pour it into room temperature glass containers (hot fat and cold glass = nasty accident!), to let it set, if I'm not using it immediately. Glass containers with wide tops let it slide out in a block into a freezer bag and you can just pop it in the freezer until you are ready to use it. You can also slide it out onto a plastic bag or waxed paper on your zeroed scale and weigh it before you pop it in your freezer bag then write this on the bag for future reference when making soap batches. Ensure you write "Beef Tallow" on the bag and the date it was rendered otherwise it may be mistaken for something else.

Note: The fat can be strained after both heating periods if you don't have a dog for scungy bits disposal purposes :).

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Please use common sense when trying this as I take no responsibility for any accidents that happen.

KEEP CHILDREN, PETS AND HUNGRY INQUISITIVE MALE FRIENDS/PARTNERS CLEAR

As the title says this is a brief summary not an extensive tutorial. Any burns, fingers sliced off, dogs with digestive dysfunctions, curious children or pesky partners ARE NOT my problem.

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Cheers,
RobynLouise xo

Laundry Soap

I'm quite pleased with these and I'll probably medium grate them and swish about a tablespoon in hot water to dissolve it before placing in the soap dispenser of my front loader. As they contain eucalyptus oil I should be able to wash wool jumpers with them too. The laundry, where they are drying, smells of eucalyptus at the moment as the temperature has been in the mid-high 30C range this week.

Here is the recipe for anyone who wants to try it - though you may wish to wait until I've given it a try with my laundry first! :

550g Beef tallow
250g Copha (I used this as it was in the freezer and I've had it for a while)
200g Rice bran oil, 380g Water
146g Caustic soda 
I also blended through 30gm (grams not millilitres) of eucalyptus oil at trace.

Ingredients cost = $4.79 with the copha at $2.86 being the most expensive. As it costs me $4.80 to buy 1kg Planet Ark Orange washing powder when it's on special, and now they've changed the recipe somehow as it makes me sneeze, I think I have a good thing here and it will definitely last me longer than a packet of sneezy laundry powder!

Cheers,
Robyn xo

Reboot.....Back to basics in life

Friday mornings are one of my RMO's (Rostered Mornings Off) and as I needed to go to town anyway I decided to drop by the Regional Aquatic Fitness Centre (aka - the local pool!) and personally check out the facilities I'd seen online. You can never judge something from photographs - try house hunting to rent or buy and you'll see what I mean!

To say I was surprised is an understatement. The facility isn't huge but the pools are under cover and heated (yay, swimming all year round) and the Gym has a nice range of machines and weights to use without it being crowded or confusing. There's a spa too and water, sorry aqua, aerobics :). The Gym also has fitness classes that I can attend as they are in my non-working hours unlike a couple of local privately owned gyms that only had classes I wanted to do in my working hours. They also do introduction to the fitness machines and plan out an initial individual program for you when you join based on your fitness level and your little quirks - like my swinging vertebra.

This all led to my needing to work out a proper budget to see if I can warrant the $29/fortnight cost which covers both pool and gym fees. Paying a once off yearly payment is a fraction cheaper but at the moment I don't have that lump amount of cash available.

I averaged out my weekly wage since I've had this job, including public hols and Christmas shutdown, so I'm not working off the current nett pay but the average which is about $120 less a week than I receive now. I've over estimated costs with everything, and not included the money ex (still) owes me as well as adding in a clothing allowance which I probably won't use much anyway as it will only be for secondhand jeans for work, and then there's the unknown tax return I will receive this year as I nominated to be slightly over taxed.

I'll definitely have to jump into the sewing now or I'm going to have a cold Winter! Yeah, yeah I know I've been trying to destash for years but now it's become a necessary reality. LOL, now I'll also have to make the cash wallet envelope on my Pinterest board to keep all my regular payments in :). It's a bit of a bugger being paid cash wages these days.

Cleaning and groceries cost will reduce from what I've budgeted for as I'm baking bread and making my own soaps again as well as stockpiling specials more often now I have the initial base stockpile set up. In the future I hope to grow my own herbs/veges again so that will also lower the grocery cost. 

Yesterday, I made tallow based soap and changed the recipe again, as I wanted to include more tallow for eventual hardness and longevity, and therefore had to fiddle with the other oils so I had less cleaning and bubbly (I'm not that dirty :D) and more conditioning and creamy. I sort of need this now I've passed the half century *roll eyes*.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Beef Tallow 900g

Coconut Oil (not copha) 150g

Olive Oil 450g

Water 570g

Lye 206g

Fragrance 46.5g - optional - but I didn't fragrance mine as it may be used on a couple of little ones and all I have at the moment is clove or lemon myrtle oils which can cause reactions in some people as they are quite strong.

If you want to know basic soapmaking go here to Rhonda's DTE blog, as she has explained it wonderfully, and she also has her basic soap recipe there if you want to try it as well, or instead of, mine.

I can't post a soap recipe without a pic of the outcome so here they are.

When they are sufficiently dried out in about 6-8 weeks I'll weigh them and see how much I have. Should be around 2kg.

As the tallow was free, the cost was a total of $4.81 for the other ingredients as I bought the oils on great specials and the lye was regular price of $4.39/500g at the supermarket. Minimal gas used to heat the oils so even rounded up to $5 for pretty close to 2kg of all natural soap it's a bargain :D.

I made some laundry soap this evening but more on that later in the week as this post is already quite long!

Cheers,

Robyn xo

Hot process crockpot soap making

Last week I rendered my first lot of beef fat into tallow. I did it on the wood stove and, as it was fat from the beast we had just slaughtered, it cost me nothing but my time. About 4kg of fat became around 1400ml of tallow or approximately 1000g. The trimmings and leftovers became part of the next 3 feeds for 8 hungry 6 week old puppies :). I strained the tallow through cloth but I didn't need to skim it or clean it in any other way. I'll be doing this again as it's quite easy. I've also discovered grass fed tallow starts out yellow and turns a creamy colour unlike the white lard in the stores!

I've been wanting to try soap made with tallow for a while as it's supposed to be harder than that made with vegetable or olive oils. I've also been wanting to try hot process soapmaking so the soap can be, theoretically, used sooner.

The recipe I used is:

Copha                                 250g

Rice Bran Oil                       400g

 Beef Tallow                         350g 

      Water                                  380ml(g)

  Lye(in the plastic container)  142g 

       Lemon Myrtle essential oil    12  drops

and I prepared it mostly like I would if I was making cold pressed soap with the only difference being the cooking at the end of the process.

Melting the oil/copha/tallow 

   

Combining the melted ingredients. I then poured in the lye/water mix slowly while stirring gently but I was unable to take a photo at the same time.

After using a stick blender to achieve heavy trace

Halfway to cooked

Almost there

Next morning - the soap set in the mold

Bottoms up to cut

Finished blocks of soap averaging 136g each. They are still a bit spongy so will need some time to dry out and will lose a little weight in the process.

I think I'll need to cook them on a higher heat next time as it took quite along time on low. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for these to harden compared to cold process. From what I've read they should have been useable as soon as they are cut but I think the elevation here coupled with the soft rainwater used may have some effect on the hardness of the soaps.

Another three challenges to cross off my to-do list - rendering fat, making soap using tallow and making hot process soap :D.

 I'm on a roll!

Thanks for dropping by,
Robyn xo

Mystery Box reveal

Well, I finally had time to play with what was in the mystery box. The dyes, scent and cocoa butter and the sphere mold in the last picture.

 I'll obviously need more practice and there's more than one way to do this but I'm happy with how the first try turned out :). I painted the inside of the molds and poured the warm soap into them. Had a mild panic attack when the pigments bled and I could see colour in the bottom of the soap but it subsided as they cooled. The dragonflies are supposed to be purple with pale yellow wings! Need to do more research/experimenting in that department! Maybe colouring the soap mix is the thing to do.

The soaps on ropes should be nice and hard by Christmas and I can hand paint them with the pigments before then and give as gifts, except the defective one! I'll have to trial the painted soap to see if they run and how much. As they are approved cosmetic pigments they are deemed safe but a soap which colours the bathwater may cause a ruckus with one mother I know so uncoloured soaps will be the solution there. The ones below are cocoa butter soaps and those next to the mold,  are ordinary olive and rice bran oil soaps - before trimming.

All these are scented to some degree with cinnamon leaf oil as it has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. There's probably not enough to be an effective germ solution when washing but I was more concerned with the soap itself going off as, unlike commercial soap, there are no preservatives in this. Cinnamon is also an inhalant for colds and more appealing than tea tree or eucalyptus so it will serve multiple purposes in the soap.



I'll continue to experiment with my soapmaking with scents, colours and molds but the standard will always be Rhonda's recipe on the DTE blog . I have used soap made from Rhonda's recipe for washing dishes, making laundry wash and washing myself, including my hair, and it has never failed me. Sometimes basic is best even if variations are good for a change :)!

Cheers,
Robyn xo

Keeping busy trying new things...

..Like making soap from Rhonda's recipe at DTE blog. 

I didn't follow the recipe instructions very well as I had the oils heating before I put the caustic soda/lye in the water so it took ages for the temperature of the lye/water mix to cool down from 85degC to 50degC and I had to reheat the oil in the meantime. However it didn't spatter when I mixed the water and oil solutions (I was wearing my rubber gloves and sunglasses though) and blended nicely after about 10 mins of mixing with a stick blender. I then poured them into silicon molds I had purchased cheaply at the local supermarkets and waited, and waited, and waited for them to cool and begin hardening. 24 hours later, when  they were still mushy around the edges, I asked for help on the DTE forums. The advice was to put the whole lot in the freezer, still in the silicon molds, so I did this overnight and demolded them the next morning. The 2 soaps at the rear are the ones I kept unmolding early on to see if they were set, so they are a bit mangled around the edges but they can be hand soaps for the bathroom basin. I found another use for my scrapbooking stamps too!

  

I've made a few notes on my soap recipe for future soap making sessions

• Mix lye/water first or it takes much longer than 30 mins to make soap because of the long cooling time
• For intricate mold patterns lightly oil the pattern itself for a clean imprint if giving for a gift (not essential but me being fussy)
• Either half fill "presents" molds or cut the finished soaps in half sideways while soft or I'll have humongous soaps that will be a bit difficult to use
• Let soaps firm a little more before stamping 
• Research superfatting with essential or other oils - jojoba, almond - for home use and for gifting

.....And washcloths to use with them

I started the blue and cream knobbly knitted one the day before I went to visit DS after his accident. I'd purchased the different coloured yarns at my favourite op-shop at 50c/ball! As I was a passenger it helped to fill the time on the long drive and I had it finished, except for weaving the ends in, before the return trip had ended. The purple and cream crocheted one was made just before that but I also hadn't woven the ends in either as I couldn’t find my fine crochet hook. Think I'll double the yarn in the future like I did with the blue/cream one. I finally finished them a couple of days ago as I realised I could just use my large eyed darning needle to weave ends in - duh!

Cheers,

Robyn