It’s Sunday the 24th and this will probably be the last blog for at least a week. I’m spending today day packing and making sure I have all of the ingredients for my retreat dinner and that my list for the cooler (to be packed tomorrow morning) is correct. I do also have to cut my soap into 24 bars….hopefully the saponification process worked overnight and the soap will be good!
Michael and I have tickets to Theatre Charlotte this afternoon, so we will be spending time there, then June will be here around dinnertime, and Pat will come over and we will pack the car with everything except our overnight bags. We hope to take off at 6 AM tomorrow…..say prayers that we get there and back safely…..you don’t have to pray that we have a wonderful time…we always do!!!
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I was so productive on Saturday (9/23)!!! I got laundry going, then made bread dough (we have no bread in the house and I wanted to leave some for Michael next week). While it was rising, I mixed up my lye and oils for soap making. Susan came over for a visit and to see the start of soap making, and we had a nice visit while my bread was baking:
While my yeast bread was baking, I got all of my ingredients measured out for corn bread. By then my lye and oils were cooled off enough and I combined them and stirred them until I reached what is called ‘’trace’’…that’s when it has thickened enough that you should be able to see the trails of the whisk through the mixture. I whisked in my scent, and then poured 3/4 of the mixture into 2 molds. Then I added color to the remaining mixture and dropped it on top:
Just to have a little bit of artsy-fartsy looking soap...that's what I always do! I covered the molds with a blanket and they will sit overnight and should be ready to cut into bars tomorrow afternoon….then they will cure for 3 - 4 weeks (normally they cure for 6 weeks, but I shorted the water when I made this batch because we only have 1 bar of soap left in the house….and that will probably only last us for a month :~). The curing process is when the water is somewhat evaporated, so the bars harden up…otherwise they’d disappear wicked fast!) I didn’t end up doing anything with my soap shavings….I need to deal with them soon because my gallon freezer bag is getting very full :~).
By then my bread was done and Michael ran a half a loaf over to Kay & Pete as a small thank you for helping us defrost our freezer. I got the cornbread into the oven, and 40 minutes later…it was done:
Aren’t those mini-loaves just the cutest? I need cornbread to go with the dinner I am making on retreat…the 3 mini-loaves will go into the freezer. I spent a bit of time getting everything wrapped up and put away and dishes washed, and by then it was after 2 PM and I only had one more thing on my list. I made an ice box cake for my honey to eat while I gone….so he can think about me every time he has a piece :~).
Since we won’t see each other for a week, we had a date night with champagne:
and puffy things (egg rolls) and settled in to watch the last season of our show AS TIME GOES BY. It was a wonderful and romantic evening!
And Freya is very proud of herself....she has discovered that she can jump up on things:
If people from Poland are called Poles, then why aren't people from Holland called Holes?