Ramen

  Today's food experiment was Chicken ramen.  I neglected to even take a photo of the finished product.  Needless to say it didn't turn out anything like the picture,  I didn't have some of the more traditional ingredients and I refuse to taint it with an egg.  Still making it from scratch was worth the effort cause this a simple dish that is gentle on the stomach being that is compromised entirely of broth, veggies, noodles and a little meat.

Recipe

Stock - home made or seasoned stock of choice
Noodles
cooked, seasoned Chicken
Veggies of choice


Directions:

The idea with ramen is that all the items are combined after having already been cooked - ie. fry off the chicken and cook noodles before combining with stock.  Essentially you should really be putting together.

Boil your noodles, add to the hot stock and garnish with slicked chicken and veggies.

Orange Coffee soap

A long long while ago now I made an experimental soap blend using coffee grounds and orange essential oils.  Initially this soap smelled like Jaffa cakes.  It was quiet a nice scent.  However, I was disappointed when I took the well cured soap off the shelf today.  The scent had completely changed!  Instead of smelling like sweet cakes it now smelt strongly of coffee with a citrus twist.  Don't get me wrong, the new scent is not bad.  In fact it is nice on another level.  I just enjoyed the sweeter scent it had before the curing process was complete.

This highlights the true trouble with scenting soaps. No matter how the soap smells after you have taken it out of the mould a month down the line it is going to smell completely different.

Update on soapy soap

Time for an officialish update regarding the sale of soap products via eBay.  Unfortunately I will be unable to sell my soap products via eBay for the moment as eBay, in their infinite wisdom, has suspended the sales feature of my account.  This is not the result of poor customer satisfaction but rather the result of me not selling enough products in a sales month.  Therefore, anyone wishing to purchase natural products from me is free to contact me with a customised order.  For the moment my soap operation has scaled back to a hobbyist state in the mean time. So I will likely post experiments in the future. :)

Rose cutting surprise!

Now, I've never been the best with plants.  I don't have a natural green thumb, so to speak.  Half my plants either die frm neglect or too much tlc. But this little rose clipping proved the benefits of leaving well enough alone.  I looked at it the other day and found these surprising new growths.  If I'm lucky, I will have a rose bush to plant soon.

Sweet meat treat - Bacon dipped in chocolate

Bacon dipped in dark chocolate

Okay, I know this one seems the slightest be peculiar.  However these treats do actually taste really good and are ideal as an alternative dessert or unique party snack.  If you choose your chocolate and bacon wisely it is even allergen free.  It is also a really simple to make - the most complex part is trying not to burn the chocolate while melting it as it goes very bitter.  You also only need to two ingredients Chocolate of your choice and bacon.

My one suggestion would be to choose a sweeter chocolate for this recipe as bitter chocolate overrides the bacon flavor.

Directions

Crisp up small pieces if bacon in a frying pan.  Boil water in a saucepan.  After the water has boiled take it off the heat and place to a side.  While the water is still hot break chocolate into small chunks and place in a small bowl or mug.  Sit the utensil containing the chocolate in the water, being careful not get the water in the chocolate in the process.  Stir the chocolate as it melts.  When melted simply dip the bacon pieces in the chocolate and put aside to cool.

This treat is enjoyable when hot or cold.

Scooter!

So, awhile back I bought a scooter as an alternative to bus travel.  It's sad to say I have't actually used it much since I got it.  This not because it's not useful but more because I have not had the opportunity to learn balance on it.  Between my brief spate of full-time work and my sporadic bad knee finding the opportunity to actually use it easily seems to escape me.  So I found novel uses for it.  The picture to the left shows the scooter again as a baggage carrier while the photo to the lower right shows me using the scooter to take my heavy basket around the supermarket.

Blasts from the past!!

Recently I have been reviving my interest in writing.  Wait, that sounds wrong. I never lost my interest; I simply got bogged down by daily life.  Unemployment certainly leaves you with plenty of time to spare.  As a result of this renewed fixation I was browsing through my old story notes - a archive of which goes all the way back to when I was 11/12.

While I was poking around I found this short story: Assassin in the night.  I originally wrote this piece for a school assignment.  It was part of a wider story board that I was writing at the time.  Although, reading back I realized how much I have changed from my original ideas - as this is a piece i still an interested in working on. 

Finding this piece gave me a slight shock and not just because I had forgotten I had written it.  It was just surprisingly nicely written for the work of a 11/12yr old.  It made me feel my skills had deteriorated through disuse.  But I guess that's why I started writing again - to improve my sills again.

Christmas Short story

So I'm still not dead.  Admittedly I have drifted away from blogger.  It hasn't been deliberate, it just seems energy consuming.  At the moment all my energy is being devoted to living, job hunting, and reviving my literary non-talent.  The result of this is several stories in the works and my first complete short story about a chance meeting: Cherished Smile.  Its nothing fabulous - it simply represents a practice at writing short works.  There will be sequel to it for those interest and actually romantically inclined - but I may leave that for next year!

I warn you though, it's dialogue heavy as my production stages actually involved the scripting of dialogue.  It would have been a nightmare if only one character was involved.

I'm back in business!

I took a break from sales for a full-time job, nom I'm back with my latest creation: Vanilla and ginger soap.  Isn't it pretty. It has a lusciously vanillary scent with ginger undertones. It can be found here with other items

Orange smoothie soap

Hey hey, it's been awhile since I last posted. I have been on a break while I completed my issue rotation and moved house. It's been a busy fortnight.  My last post showed the first stage of my orange, milk soap experiment.  Here's the final product -

Isn't it pretty?? Having read my last post I realised I made a mistake - this is the mix of orange and milk soaps not orange and olive oil

I currently am selling this batch on eBay for those who are interested (I know shame on my for using eBay but I have no luck with bid lazy.)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190847383036?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Plain olive with orange soap swirls

Tried another experiment making swirls. The effect is pretty but because of the way it has mixed I garuntee that the other end of the orange is pure orange soap. It was to thick when I poured in the other colour and as a result only some mixed. Oh well, more variety then.:)

eBay postage scammers were here

So as you would have guessed from my constant plugging I have been trying to sell off soap on eBay. I have done well over all. The majority of my 6 customers have been honest. Unfortunately a couple have been far from honest which is a little depressing.

Basically I ended up being threatened and harassed for extra monies when two customers told me that they had received the items with postage due. At first I believed them and refunded the money like I should according to eBay's polices and then these pair had the nerve to tell me I had to send them more money to cover the cost of the supposed postage due, evidence of which they never showed me! One left it alone after I calmly informed her that I had acted with in eBay's buyer protection scheme and that if postage due was paid then she was liable for it because she accepted it (! If you ever receive anything with postage due on it, refuse to pay it at the post office and they will return it to the original sender to pay the fees!). All I got was a crappy 'follow-up feedback'. Nothing really to worry about with the glowing feedback before it.

The seconds person has not been so easy to shake. Even though I have refunded all three transaction she made over three days she was still harassing me. But the funny part was in one message she had claimed to already have paid to receive the items and in the next she claimed to be going down to the post office to collect them! Believe me I was quick to report her....

Anyway I am now trying bid lazy.com

Now I am getting fancy

This pretty effect was created buy mixing coffee soap blend with milk soap blend. Might do this again. I like the effect!


This was related to my last post. Because I have been hand blending my mix the past few days I decide to take advantage of the thinness of the mix when it was poured into the mould.

Hand blended soaps!

On the left I have a batch of coffee soap made with recycled filter coffee (kindly given by Starbucks, as I am not at home and they coffee I have access to is instant). On the right I have orange citrus blend sitting a professional bikky tray. These are intended for family so I don't need to worry about fancy loaf shapes since they are not for sale.


You wouldn't believe how much trouble these were. I bought a cheap hand blender to mix these. It burnt out on a failed batch yesterday so I had hand mix these. Took me 30mins and the blended soap mix was no where near as thick as normal when I ladled it out because hand blending is so much slower.

Of course the hand blender burn out cause it was cheap crap from asda who, while the delivery service was fantastic,substituted my important ingredient for a cheaper lower quality one that was not fit for my purposes. Unfortunately the ingredient they substituted was the lye which meant I lost two batches before I went and bought more

My exciting Starbucks life

I have traveled all the way to Oxford and what do I do? Sit in Starbucks! Like a proud starbucktonia.... :)

My top reason: I can get a filter coffee + free refill + free wifi and sit in Starbucks in comfy chairs for hours on end.

Oxford e-commuting

Day 2 in Oxford and I am sitting in Starbucks.  I am such a boring person on holiday!!  I am currently planning to stay here for a week so I have been sat here planning how the hell I am going to do my assignments via e-commuting.

Bodliem library is the local uni library and I am so tired that I spent 30minutes trying to figure out how I could access the local electronic resources for journal article access.  Stupid me.  I can still access brighton journals over the Internet. Stupid stupid me.

I am tired apparently.

Facebook Brighton soap shop.

Our adventures with eBay have been going quite well. So well in fact I relised that between PayPal fees and eBay fees that the only way I can make a few pennies (and I mean a few...) is to only sell two packs for under a £1. At £0.99 on a three pack I was loosing money except when the three pack was purchased with other items. It's a shame because I would like to keep offering them. However I would have to put the price up a lot. 

If anyone would like to place a larger order, please contact me to discuss. :)

Coconut chicken curry.

First night in Oxford and ended up on autopilot cooking dinner for my aunt. Made a yummy simple curry. Very easy recipe for beginners.

Ingredients:

3 Chicken breasts
Spinach, 2 handfuls
Runner beans, a handful
Carrots, 1 large
Coconut cream
Onion, 1/2 medium
Ginger root, tablespoon.
Tandoori Curry powder, 2 tablespoons
Soy or almond milk
Rice
Olive oil
Salt
Cornflour, 1tsp

Directions:

Peel and finely dice your ginger and onion. Peel, quarter and finely slice your carrots. Small triangular shapes are perfect. Cut the ends of the beans and slice into small pieces. Lastly dice your chicken breast into small chunks.

Through cooking you will want to keep at hand the milk, coconut cream and tandoori curry powder as this cooks a bit like a stew so the liquid will boil off. Before you remove from the stove and during cooking you may want to add more of these ingredients.

Sprinkle some oil and salt into a pot of water and bring to a boil. Add rice, and simmer till cooked.

Place the ginger, onion, carrots, beans and chicken in a cold pan. A wok would be perfect but a large pot would suffice. Pour some oil onto the mix and sprinkle salt to taste. Mix so that the oil covers all the ingredients. When everything is covered in oil place on the stove at medium to high heat. Stir while the onions become clear and the chicken browns. When the chicken is par-cooked and onions turn clear add 1/4c coconut cream, 1c milk and 2tblspoons of curry powder. Stir until a light boil and then reduce heat to simmer. Cover pan and stir frequently until carrots are soft. At this point you may need to add more coconut cream, milk and curry powder. Add spinache and stir until wilted. If the sauce is not thick enough add some cornflour and simmer until thicker.

Serves 2.

Soapy soap

Please check my eBay account for items I have for sale. I am currently selling two variety packs and a pair of coffee-scrub soaps. :)

Off to Oxford

I'm off to Oxford. Weeeee

Green tea and mint Coffe-scrub

Wouldn't believe this was the same batch!

Need to give it time to harden though. Still soft as cheese

Progress of the green tea and mint soap.

This is the green tea and mint soap on day one.  The colour is more coffee like then the coffee soap.  I thing this shows how much colouring is put in commercial green tea soap to make it green...  Worrying indeed!

Coffe-scrub soap is for sale one eBay.
I am also selling a Variety pack as well.

Green tea with mint and exfoliating coffee grounds

Today I unmolded batch two of the coffee soap. Picture a shows it taking up my window sill. I am always surprised by the colour it turns. Every batch is different. The cylindrical ones look a bit like bird shells. I quite like the effect.

Picture b is today's experiment: green tea and mint with coffee grounds. I swear the green tea blend look more coffee like then the coffee batch does. Can't wait to see how they turn out.

Lemon teacake, gluten free recipe

Hey, it's been awhile since I posted an allergen friendly recipe. This one my grandmother just sent to me. It's very rare she sends me recipes so this one must actually taste good. :). Also being lemon flavoured cake it's probably dirt cheap to make.

As always to convert it a egg/dairy free recipe substitute your milk and egg alternatives. I reckon that almond or hazelnut milk would compliment the lemon flavour really well.

Edit:  Sorry about that.  For some reason the resolution of the photo has gone bad where I've uploaded it.  It was perfectly legible in the email i was sent. So  I will just have to type up the ingredients and instructions myself.

Ingrediendt:

6 eggs (separated) or 6 tablespoons of Orgran egg replacer.
1 cup caster sugar
2 tsps finely grated lemon rind
2 cups almond meal
1 tblsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp almond essence
IF you are using an egg substitute you will need some liquid. 1 cup of water or milk should suffice.

Cream cheese frosting

25g butter (or dairy free margarine)
60g cream cheese (or dairy-free substitute)
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Method

Cake

1) grease or line your baking tray and preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
2) a)  Using eggs - beat the egg yolks with the sugar and rind in a mixing bowl until fluffy.  Add the almond meal, juice and essence and stir together.
In a seperate mixing bowl beat the egg whites until peaks form and then gently fold the almond meal mixture into the beaten egg whites.

B) Without eggs - mix the almond meal with sugar and lemon rind.  add the milk, juice and essence and mix well.

3) place prepared mixture in baking tray and place in an oven for 45mins or until cooked.

Frosting

Beat your butter, cream cheese (or their dairy free substitutes) and rind in a bowl until light and fluffy.  Gradually mix in icing sugar until completely combined.  Smooth over cold cake.

No soap today :(

So I have been a little focused on soap the past week.  The secret is I have been avoiding my academic work (which is precisely what I am doing now).  I have a nice 17500 words to write for May over the course of a dissertation, and 3 separate essays.  The enormity of the work I have to get done makes me feel... A little stressed.

I have been coping with the stress by forcing myself to free write a paragraph of dissertation everyday and then by avoiding it with other things.  Bad tv programmes seem preferable to my work load.  Of course every day I put it off is a day I lose for work. So I am now trying to force myself to do more.

I did myself a bullet pint list today of highe priority items to finish.  Of corse the top 4 were academic ly relevant.  Impulsively I scrawled underneath Its Managable!! Which I underlined...  It's like a school yard charm.  Not sure it will work...

Coffee-scrub sold! Yay!

I made my first sale today! Woo! I did notice though that were a few others watching the item so I have relisted my coffee scrub soap on eBay for any one else who wants. I am selling them at cost at the moment. I may have to make more.

The lemon and ginger soap failed!!

This blog uses soaper jargon - here's a glossary.

Cold process: one form of soap making

Lye: the active ingredient to the soap making process - also know as caustic soda.

Saponification: the technical term for how oil and caustic soda form soap

Trace: the point at which the soap mixture ceases to separate.

Seize: a sudden onset of the trace point.

Discounting: reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe - not for the inexperienced!!

This batch was an experiment. I started by discounting the liquid. This should have been fine. But the appearance and texture of this batch indicates three things went wrong - the batch maintained an uneven temperature, the batch failed to mix sufficiently and the batch used a little too much lye.

First thing I noticed in the outside was the traces of soda ash. This is harmless. Soda ash appear, from what I have read, when the soap super heats inconsistently. This is because I don't insulate my soap (I rarely need to). The orange spots and the internal colour differentiations are signs that the soap mixture was not mixed properly when it went into the moulds. However, I had achieved a proper level of 'trace' so the oil was properly emulsified with the liquids. What I suspect happened is my mixture is it ' seized' in the mixing process. I have never had a mixture seize before. I now know it from the description. It is what happens when a soap mix forms a sudden heavy 'trace'. I think this has happened because I used a mixed liquid base and discounted the water. This has meant that the soap has pockets where it is oil rich and pockets where it is lye rich. This can be solved by re batching the soap but there is a third problem with this batch.

I made a classic mistake when I was mixing this lot. I measured too much lye. The 'superfat' level is only 1-2% which means the resultant soap is in this case too crumbly to hold together. Superfat is a term used to describe the percentage of oils level un-saponified during the cold process.The irony is I have made a block of soap with 0% superfat and it turned out perfect. But then every recipe acts different.

Lemon and ginger soap

This photo was taken 12 hours after I plopped the soap mixture into the moulds. I like the colour it as turned. The problem with using natural colorants is that you can't always get the exact colour you want and the colour is always tied to a specific natural source. So coffee soap will always be brown and orange juice will always make it orange so you can't really have bright blueberry coloured orange scented soap without getting a weird mixed scent (which might be nice but not necessarily the desired effect).

This soap is no where near ready to come out of the mould. By this point the coffee soap was. It's still slightly too soft to hold the shape. I am not sure whether its because of the difference in liquid base or because I discounted the liquid base to much. It should be fine but as it was the first time I tried discounting its hard to know until I unmould and try one.

Lemon and ginger soap

Today's batch - lemon and ginger soap! Made with olive oil, lemon and ginger. Wonder what colour it will turn... I wasn't expecting it to be such a dark brownish yellow. It is likely to lighten in colour though given the fact that the soap colours become more white opaque as they sophonify.

This is another one I an eager to try.

Coffe scrub!

Last night I tried my new Coffee Scrub soap.  I was very please with how it turned out over all, I must say.  I could feel my skin thanking me for using it.  The coffee grounds were a nice addition too.  It felt like they were massaging my skin as i used the soap.  I was surprised because I have never tried a soap with this kind particles in it.

My one concern with the bar is, you feel like just rubbing away until the bars all gone...

However, I have far to many and too little space, so I am trying to get rid of a few so i have listed on ebay!

Sandlewood scented soap

This soap was made to order - sandalwood is not a scent I would use. It is a really nice scent but one 10ml bottle cost £2.85 from Fresh skin UK, an inexpensive company. From other retailers I have seen the price vary from £3-5. The colour of this first stage is indicative of the later creamy colour it will become. These ones already have solidified but I can't seem to get them out of the moulds yet. I seem to have issues with this when I use metal moulds. It think I will have to wait for the normal 48-72 hour period to claim them from the mould, when they soap is dryer.

Coffee soap day two

48 hours since mixing, and 24 hours after unmoulding. The coffee soap is now showing a pretty dapple effect. Unfortunately it still smells like new soap.

Coffee soap - unmoulded!

My soaps have just come out of the mould.  They look quite nice.  I am pleased with the speckled brown effect. But they still need time to cure.

Coffee Soap

Today's feature - my homemade coffee soap, made from 100% recycled coffee.




Still not sure how these ones have turned out because they have only been in the molds for less then 24 hours.  But the colour still seems good - although it will change during the curing process.

Selling my soapy soaps!

Made in Brighton from olive oil and other natural ingredients.  All soaps I make are derived from natural sources and therefore contain no chemical nasties.  They are biodegradable, so your wash water becomes more earth friendly.  Olive oil is also good for all skin types but is particularly suitable for those suffering from eczema, sensitive or dry skin because instead of irritating damaged skin it soothes and moisturizes.  Each bar has its own qualities as well.



Milk soap is known for making skin smoother.

Orange juice soap acts as a natural astringent and therefore as toning qualities.

Peppermint is ever refreshing.

Chamomile leaves skin feeling clean.

I have loads of soap to off load. I started making them as a hobby.  It was a dangerous hobby because I still have a mountain of soaps.   Links to ebay listings below if anyone's interested.

Milk soap
Peppermint soap
Orange Soap 
Chamomile Soap

Going global!

It's always interesting when I look through the statistics for my blog. I think I am more in the statistics of my blog then I am blog writing itself (let's face it, I do this as free writing - it's whatever comes to mind. Doesn't necessarily get filtered first). I am actually fascinated by we're some of my page views are coming from. I expect to get views from the UK. It's where I am based. I expect views from aus - hello family! I even expect views from the USA - hello becky! But over time I have been getting page views from china, Malaysia, Gambia, Thailand, and New Zealand. This makes me wonder if dietary specialty recipes are more searched the even I realised or they re just searching 'random crap' and being redirected to my blog....

Blogger for iPad, the trial post!

I have just downloaded the blogger app for iPad. I tried to write a post on my iPad on chrome earlier and it was an interesting process. I could not actually select any on the side bar options or include photos. It was a little frustrating.

So far the blogger app seems to work better but I feel like I have less options. I can't see how to schedule posts or how to alter add descriptions. Although photos, labelling and location are all too easy.

Evernote; not just for iPad

Evernote is so so very useful for working on the go.  If you have Internet access and a mobile device or a computer you can access your notes from anywhere.  You can sync your files across multiple devices or access them from the web.  Best part is you get a free upload limit.

I currently use evernote on my iPad, mobile, and laptop.  But in the event I have none of these on me I can log into my account at Evernote.com, sign in and work away.  It has actually saved  documents from deletion what my computer crashed.

My only problem with Evernote? The platform is easy to use once you know how to use it, but for first time users it is not necessarily the most friendly product.

Passwords

Password are now a daily part of life. We need them for everything from email address to bank accounts.  Often we have so any that it becomes easier to have the same password for multiple accounts.  This is much easier to remember, however it is also dangerous!

A few weeks ago the company Evernote (excellent programme) was hacked. This means the emails and passwords of account were seized.  Thankfully Evernote blocked the accounts and issued a password reset globally. The problem lies in another area.

If the email address you use made use of the same password as your email account, this means the hackers can log into your email and steal your account.  In my case the password was identical to the one I used for PayPal.  This was a massive error and it was fortunate they didn't try to log Into PayPal.

There is good reason to have separate passwords for different accounts.  At the very least email accounts and PayPal,or similar services should be given unique passwords.  This way if one is hacked the others are safe!

Cheap cleaning products: bicarbonate of soda!

In my house bicarb can be used for most things because its gentle on sensitive skin