Good Clean Fun

I'm a liquid pump soap kind of girl. I can never seem to wrangle wet bars which often end up on the floor, or sliding around my counter. In the shower I will inevitably find the slippery buggers under foot, often while I have soap in my eyes, leading to some acrobatics that my body was not made for. However,  I do have a nice collection of bars of soap that I was given as presents that I want to use, I plan to use, because they just smell so good.
I received such gift a month ago. I loved the smell so much I would often stop in my bathroom to just smell the little bar wrapped up in its cute packaging. So when I saw the following tutorial on Pintrest I knew it would be the perfect thing to try next. I was going to turn my beautiful bar of soap into a gallon of liquid soap! I just looked so quick and easy.

Source: thefarmersnest.com via Tanya on Pinterest

Or so I thought.

I gathered everything I need. It actually took a few tried to find glycerin as I was looking in grocery store pharmacies (I was already there after all) but had no problem locating it in the first-aid section of a large pharmacy. The actual process was straight forward it only took a few minutes to prepare. I grated the soap, threw it in a pot with water and glycerin and let it dissolve. Since my bar of soap was 5oz instead of the 8oz in the original post on The Farmer's Nest I adjusted the other measurements accordingly (I knew all that math I learned in school would come in handy some day).

So after following all of the instructions, letting it cool overnight, giving it a stir, I ended up with.....soapy water.



Liquid soap looking a little too watery

It looked nothing like what the tutorial had promised. But since I knew the process was pretty basic I was certain that I should be able to get liquid soap out of this. To save my precious bar of soap I decided to concentrate the soapy water. I ended up letting it simmer for around an hour. After letting it cool and set it looked more like what I was expecting.


Waiting for second attempt at liquid soap to set

Of course I had let it concentrate a little too much so had to add a little more water back in and mix. But in the end I did end up with liquid soap. And after two days of heating the mixture the house smelled wonderful!

Conclusion:
I did not end up with a gallon of soap as in the tutorial. As was suggested this is likely since the soap I used was softer and required less water. I did manage to fill 2 soap bottles and refill a slightly larger one in my kitchen.

The soap does not seem to lather as much as commercial liquid soap, but this may be due to the original soap rather than the process of turning it into liquid. I was also not able to get the right consistency. It comes out a little snotty (sorry for the descriptive, it is the best I can think of). I will admit I did skip mixing it with an electric mixer in the end, and instead whisked it by hand. I also may not have added enough water back in.




Finished Product

Since it is a very quick and easy process, and I have more bars of soap in the house, I will try it again. Next time I will start will half as much water as it is easier to add more water in the end than it is to concentrate it back down. I will also mix with an electric as instructed.

For the Love of Veggies

If you are at all like me you have a fridge full of limp veggies that you bought will all intentions of eating. You start off well, you did buy them with a plan to eat them after all, but leftovers get pushed to the back where it will eventually waste away, shrivel up, or turn into a pile of goo, to be remove the day you eventually get around to cleaning your fridge.

I do get pangs of regret as I toss out these forgotten veggies. This problem generally only happens in the winter months (which in Canada is from October to June) as I am able to select only as much as a need from my small, yet fairly productive, garden during the summer. The rest continues to grow waiting for the day when I need to return for some more.

With this in mind I have started to become interested in re-growing veggie from things you get at your local grocery store. This solves two problems for me: 1. I do not have to feel as bad about the shrivelled up veggies I am about to toss as part of it will continue to live on; 2. I am able to grow new vegetables that I can enjoy and only harvest as much as I need. It also helps that I can  be a little cheap, and this way I get 2 for the price of 1.

When I saw this pin on growing celery from the discarded end I wanted to give it a try next time I brought some home from the store. I enjoy celery, but it has to be #1 veggie that is destined to never leave my fridge looking the same as when it went in.



Source: chickensintheroad.com via Tanya on Pinterest

 

About 2 weeks ago the opportunity arrive. After I finished cutting up what I needed, and placing the remainder in the fridge, I placed the bottom piece in a bowl with water. It probably sat there for about a week before I had time to think about it again. By this time I could see a few little roots develop. Since it is not fit to plant outside here in April I decided to plant it indoors with the plan to transplant it into the garden once it is warm enough.

And if you were wondering, yes the rest of the celery that I had placed in the fridge is still there waiting to be tossed.

Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes with Cauliflower Icing....yum?

After the success of the Guinness Chocolate cupcakes I decided to go out on a limb again with these avocado cauliflower cupcakes.


Source: glorioustreats.blogspot.com
via Tanya on Pinterest

I wasn't actually looking for odd cupcake combinations to try. It happened after finding a pin how to decorate cupcakes. My friend sent me a message about how she was trying to focus on eating healthy when she was distracted by my pin that appeared on her Facebook news feed:





Source: sweetlifebake.com via Tanya on Pinterest

So to balance everything out I decided to look for healthier cupcake options, and I came across this recipe for Chocolate Avocado and Cauliflower cupcakes. When I originally pin it I did not actually intend to give it a try. But after I kept on seeing it on my Pintrest and seeing the interest in it I decided to give it a shot. 

The cake turned out great. It was a nice dense chocolate cake almost like a brownie (if you like a fluffy cake like you get with boxed mixed this is not for you) and once cool I was not able to taste the avocado. The batter is very thick and will need to be scooped into the cake tins as it will not poor. I may also have over-cooked it a bit as a toothpick will not come out clean when cooked like other cakes (I did not trust and left them in the oven for an extra 3-5min).

On the other hand the icing was a complete flop for me. The recipe posted on the Sweet Life is from Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious and calls for 2 Tbsp of vanilla extract. I am now questioning if this should be 2 tsp as my icing turned out to be a very runny mess and would not stay on top of the cupcakes. My cauliflower may also have not been drained well enough after it was steamed. Either way I scrapped the icing and just went with a standard buttercream.

These were not nearly as good as the Guinness cupcakes but I will likely make them again. Hopefully I can get the cauliflower icing to work next time.

Are there any other strange cupcake combinations that you enjoy?