This evening I cleaned spinach leaves for salad. I refuse to buy prewashed at the price that Kroger charges. I thought about my Mom as I was snapping off the ends and how she used to lure me to her house with food. I repeatedly told her that I did not digest raw onions and she continued to “hide” them in the salad thinking that if I didn’t know they were there I wouldn’t be bothered by them. Didn’t work… to no one’s great surprise.
The Merlot soap is pretty, but not any shade of red, burgundy or any other wine color that I’ve seen. It’s a nice milk chocolate brown and smells vaguely of fruit. Doesn’t lather as well as the beer soap, but then beer and wine have little in common in terms of ingredients except alcohol. It was a fun experiment and still a great soap.
I took off work the past few days in celebration of Thanksgiving. I actually saw the top of my dining room table and the house looked relatively “normal”, whatever that means. Never mind that there are 4 large pots of mixed oils in the closet under the stairs waiting to be mixed into soap. I actually forgot them for a few days – what a pleasure.
Wednesday I’m heading to Whole Foods again for another demo. The first one on the Saturday before Thanksgiving was uneventful, as shoppers scurried around for the holiday meal ingredients. Not too many sales but it was fun and interesting. Our products are now on the shelf at the Briarcliff market and we’re hoping that sales will go well.
This time of year always finds me missing my family of origin. My parents did a great job of instilling traditions in me and I love passing down the art of enjoying the holidays. My daughter arrived Thanksgiving morning with huge bouquets of flowers and we commenced to arrange 23 small vases so there were flowers all over the house!!! My sister and I “traded” youngest children as my son was at her house in Cincinnati and her daughter at my house in Athens – so fun.
My favorite dish to make is….let’s see, it’s between the stuffing and the sweet potatoes. No recipe of course, just memories of yummy foods from my own mother who was Canadian and grandmother who was very southern – I think I cook by influence more on holidays than at any other time of year, and I love it. How can you go wrong when you put all the love that you remember from your childhood into a dish to bring to the table?
I hope to teach my kids to make the dressing that they love soooo much – it is vegetarian as my older two don’t eat meat. However, it didn’t happen this year as they are pulled in many directions by family, friends, boyfriends and life itself.
Soapmaking is very much like cooking for me. When I make soap too much I miss cooking and vice versa – at least I’m consistant!
What we don't see 