Soap making

It all started with 8 ice bags full of beef tallow.  It had to be diced and ground. (Trust me, cause I forgot to get a picture of that.)

It was then rendered over a gas burner, in a cast iron kettle. After partially cooled, it was filtered through one of my embroidered tea towels. Yes, my vintage towel. 

Here the blacksmith with his safety glasses on is heating the tallow and coconut oil. To that he added pine tar. We have found that pine tar soap helps dry skin and other skin aliments. 


The glasses and an open window are necessary as he first mixed distilled water and lye. This mixture is dangerous and can be an accident waiting to happen. 

When you add the lye water (after it cools to 93 degrees) you mix with it quickly with the oil mixture using a beater blade and a drill until the mixture starts to set up. 

It is then poured into wooden trays he made. As you can see he got 1 and 1/2 trays full of soap. It was then covered it with heavy plastic and several layers of heavy towels.  It has to cure over night. 

The next day he cut it into 2 inch x 3 inch bars. 

We now have 51 bars to cure out. This process will take about 2 to 4 weeks. If we would be stingy and keep it all, it would be enough, we figure, for about 2 years. 

An old cookbook

Today I decided to clean out my cookbook cabinet shelf. I came across a cookbook that belonged to my late aunt Tessie. 

This recipe gave us a good laugh.  A 10 cent bag of potato chips????  So I turned the cookbook over and saw it was dated 1955. The potato chip of our choice back then were  made by a fairly local company named Backers. They are still in business today! I remember in 1962 stopping at the local grocery market while walking home from school.  We could get nickel or dime candy bars and nickle and dime bags of chips too. Sodas were 10 cents with a 2 cents deposit. When you took the bottles back you could get your money back. In our case, we never took the cash. Earl's market had the best candy counter. 

More interesting things found in this old book were some  "hints". I'm going after my hand cream as soon as I'm finished typing! 

Speaking of recipes, a friend told me about this blackberry lush recipe the other day. So today I cut the recipe in half and made it for the blacksmith and me. OMG is it good. 

Here's the recipe!


To see what I did on Saturday check it out here. Osage Bluff Blacksmith.

Tuesday at Grandma's

Never a dull moment!!

Shopping, canning, and eating out x 2

My bff and I left the house by 9:30 and headed to the outlet mall at Lake Ozark. My goal was to find one good pair of nice comfortable shoes. 

We picked and choose which stores to go in carefully. My bff recently had two surgeries on the same foot, just two weeks apart. We browsed at the Children's Palace, Body Works, Gold Toe, and then we hit the shoe stores. At Sketchers I found a pair of brown tie shoes I had been looking for. Our next stop was Naturalizers.  As I was trying on sale shoes, bff  found the  marked down rack. Before the blink of an eye she found  4 pairs, all for less then $18 a pair. What a bargain she got! I did find a pair of black slip on every day flats. Okay so I ended up with a total of two pairs of shoes.

We then headed to Eldon where I found some sausage seasoning at the Amish store. Across the street I parked in the handicap spot and we shopped at Dollar General. I showed her the CD's I bought for the grand daughter for $5.  They have 40 plus kids songs and the kids love to sing along. Bff has a 2 year grandson who is into music big time!

After a quick stop at Subway for lunch we headed home.

This is what I did after I got home. I canned pink grapefruits and Cutie oranges. I found the recipe for the grapefruits at Canning Granny. 


Before I could can my regular oranges I got a call from my son to go out to eat with them. They are on the list for tomorrow.

Someone sure enjoyed her chicken legs!

Diner was great. I had buffet which included BBQ fall off the bone ribs and golden fried chicken. Did I mention there was cherry cobbler and peach cobbler with Central dairy ice cream too?  On the way home, we stopped just a half mile down the road to visit with my Mom. She was so tickled to see the grand kids and great-grand kids. Thanks son and DIL for dinner.

The blacksmith called tonight. He was glad that they all three bagged a deer today. He will have about a 4 hour drive home in the morning. Red neck trailer and all!

I've got a free shopping weekend!

The blacksmith, his brother (a.k.a. my favorite BIL), and nephew left to go deer hunting up north today.

I tried to tell them, they put the topper on the wrong thing. But you know I'm a woman, what do I know?!?!?

They still loaded it up. 

And off they went.


So what's a girl to do, all alone? Let's go Shopping.


First it was Hobby Lobby, a girl needs fabric. Next stop was Missouri Blvd Antique shop, on to the car wash, and then lunch with my sister. 

One of my first stops was Yellow Moon antique shop. There I saw this antique back pack. It was twice the price of the new oak back pack I bought the son for Christmas.

I saw this child mink stole.  Sixty-five dollar would take it home. I so thought about Sarah at Makin' projik's and her little sweet cheeks. It would look adorable on her.

At Frenchie's Antique Mall I bought this cast iron muffin/pop over pan. It has both the mark of Griswold and Wagner ware. 


I stopped in at the Lutheran resell it shop. There I spent $6.00, a pair of pink snow pants for the grand daughter for $3, a $2 pillow for the blacksmith and his recliner, and a $1 wall hanging for the laundry room. 


And tomorrow's another day!

The last day of winter break

The kids came this morning to spend their last winter holiday with us. We started breakfast with fried eggs, which they love, and ended with hot homemade cinnamon rolls. (Sarah and Jeremy, notice your old Garfield cups?)


Here is my recipe for those delicious homemade rolls. 


Sweet rolls
4 t. yeast (2 pkgs) (I use rapid rise yeast)
1 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons butter
5 cups flour
1 c boiling milk (I used 2 minutes in the microwave on high)


Mix together yeast, water, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and the salt. Let stand while beating eggs, 2/3 c. sugar, and melted butter. Add to yeast mixture, then beat in 3 cups flour. Mix well. Add 2 c. of flour but do not beat until you pour the hot milk over it. Beat well. (I used the paddle on my Kitchen Aid for the entire process).


Let rise until doubled. Punch down, cover, and put in the refrigerator for 8 hours or over night. (It keeps several days in the refrigerator)


To make the best hot rolls, take dough, and with a small amount of flour, roll until about 3/4 inch thick. Cut circles. Grease your pan, but before adding circles brush the round edge with melted butter. NOT the tops. Let rise and bake @375 F for 15-20 minutes. When the rolls are finished, then brush tops with melted butter.


For cinnamon rolls, roll dough into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick, brush with melted butter, add white or brown sugar and cinnamon, roll, and slice. Let rise and bake @375 F for 20-25 minutes. Ice if desired. 


The day started at 17 degrees, but at 10:30 we were up to 40 degrees and Grandpa thought it was time to go outdoors. (He did have an ulterior motive.)




'  

Lizzie was first to drive the Farmall H. The trailer was loaded with cut firewood.

She thought it was a parade, by the way she was waving. 

Alex gets a lesson in how to dump the trailer.

Brady could almost drive the tractor by himself. 

Alex just enjoyed his ride. 

And off into the sunset they went . . . .       Gosh did Grandpa and Grandma enjoy this day!

New beginnings

Welcome 2012. It's here. It came before we might have been ready, but like it or not, we can't change it.

My day started at 6:15 AM when I kicked gently rolled the husband out of bed. He had to meet Tom, a fellow blacksmith, for trip to a New Year's day "Headache Hammer-in".  They would end up in Washington, Missouri at Washington Forge. I stayed in bed for about another hour and then decided it was time to get busy. All the Christmas decorations had been put away the day before. It was time now to do some laundry, dusting, scrubbing, vacuuming, and some cooking. I did sneak some sewing time in after the pork loin was roasting, the blackberry crisp was made, and the hot rolls were rising. 

The one thing I really missed today was the New Year's day parade. So tomorrow when it's officially on TV, will it be called "the day after New year's day parade"?  I will be glued to the TV to watch it then!

The blacksmiths came rolling back in about 4:30.  Tom would be eating dinner with us. 

Tom is all alone now.  He lost his wife Phyllis, the love of his life, just two weeks ago today. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor in September, had surgery, and a few weeks later had surgery again for a second tumor. Three  weeks later a third tumor came back and surgery was not an option. 

Phyllis was the sweetest lady. She was a bee keeper, a hospice volunteer, and a quilter.

She also volunteered at our local Runge Conservation Center. Here you can see her on the right coming to see my grand kids. She was the volunteer assigned to help us on a cold, windy, April day when we had a show there. 

This is one of Phyllis' unfinished quilts. Tom bought it along to see if I would be willing to finish it for him. Of course I would.  I can't say no to a friend. I just hope I can do it justice and make the tiny stitches that she made. 


So as we start this new year of 2012, I pray we all have our health, our happiness, and our family. It will be a new start for Tom, not an easy one. A new start for us, as we lost a friend. 


Rest in peace Phyllis.