Smells like the holidays to me

It's been a while, and my first pre-New Year's resolution is to be a lot more attentive to this blog. I'm thinking of relocating it to a web address I already own, like soapmold.com or aromacrafting.com. I think I like the latter option best. The blog could be renamed to match. I think I'd like the creative freedom a lot more, too, than the options available here at Blogger.

The holidays are upon us, that's for sure. Everywhere you go, Christmas lights are blinking, winking, nodding and generally driving me crazy. The houses that are overloaded with the bounty of Christmas decorations from Target and Walmart are the ones that amaze me most. What drives people to these extremes and how big are their electric bills?

I prefer my holidays a lot more on the subtle and traditional side, which is especially handy when the economy is in the duldrums. Several large companies have already announced trimming the annual holiday party from their budgets, including my old employer, American Express. Let me tell you, those AmEx Christmas parties were legendary. No expense was spared. I'm sure cutting the parties will save the company thousands and thousands of dollars. Like I said, I prefer a low-key celebration. Egg nog and brandy, orange pomanders, Secret Santas...these are a few of my holiday favorite things. This year, to save our company a few dollars, we're having the Snowdrift Farm Christmas Party at the Wallace residence, and I'm excited! I get to help plan and implement a party for the people I work with every day. Carly, my 14 year old daughter and Robyn, my niece and SDF's General Manager and I will have a blast thinking of fun and creative ways to celebrate the season.

Speaking of orange pomanders (nice segue, huh?), I used a 50/50 blend of our Orange Pomander fragrance oil with our minty Eskimo Kisses fragrance oil and believe I have reached holiday scent blend nirvana. Just enough sweet citrus scent to make the mouth water and just enough minty goodness to refresh and rejuvenate the senses and the spirit. The idea came to me as I was dispensing these oils into our 5 mL sample bottles to include with our Goody Bags (free with every order, while they last). We'll have to see what else I come up with. I have a bottle of Holiday Balsam and a bunch of labels sitting on my desk, and Carly seems to need a job to make some spending money for her trip to the mall this weekend...

Smells like the holidays to me

It's been a while, and my first pre-New Year's resolution is to be a lot more attentive to this blog. I'm thinking of relocating it to a web address I already own, like soapmold.com or aromacrafting.com. I think I like the latter option best. The blog could be renamed to match. I thinkI'd like the creative freedom a lot more, too, than the options available here at Blogger.

The holidays are upon us, that's for sure. Everywhere you go, Christmas lights are blinking, winking, nodding and generally driving me crazy. The houses that are overloaded with the bounty of Christmas decorations from Target and Walmart are the ones that amaze me most. What drives people to these extremes and how big are their electric bills?

I prefer my holidays a lot more on the subtle and traditional side, which is especially handy when the economy is in the duldrums. Several large companies have already announced trimming the annual holiday party from their budgets, including my old employer, American Express. Let me tell you, those AmEx Christmas parties were legendary. No expense was spared. I'm sure cutting the parties will save the company thousands and thousands of dollars. Like I said, I prefer a low-key celebration. Egg nog and brandy, orange pomanders, Secret Santas...these are a few of my holiday favorite things. This year, to save our company a few dollars, we're having the Snowdrift Farm Christmas Party at the Wallace residence, and I'm excited! I get to help plan and implement a party for the people I work with every day. Carly, my 14 year old daughter and Robyn, my niece and SDF's General Manager and I will have a blast thinking of fun and creative ways to celebrate the season.

Speaking of orange pomanders (nice segue, huh?), I used a 50/50 blend of our Orange Pomander fragrance oil with our minty Eskimo Kisses fragrance oil and believe I have reached holiday scent blend nirvana. Just enough sweet citrus scent to make the mouth water and just enough minty goodness to refresh and rejuvenate the senses and the spirit. The idea came to me as I was dispensing these oils into our 5 mL sample bottles to include with our Goody Bags (free with every order, while they last). We'll have to see what else I come up with. I have a bottle of Holiday Balsam and a bunch of labels sitting on my desk, and Carly seems to need a job to make some spending money for her trip to the mall this weekend...

Fresh-baked cookies and bread

Have you noticed the price of a loaf of bread these days? We're talking at least $4 here in Tucson for a loaf -- 16 oz. -- of some-kind-of-grain bread. When a loaf of bread or a gallon of gas costs $4, something has to give.

I already boycott Walmart -- haven't stepped foot in one since 1994. Now I embark upon a similar embargo of bread and other baked items. In other words, expect to see a lot more bread and cookie recipes here.

Carly (my daughter) and I began baking this morning right after the breakfast dishes were cleared. We started with chocolate chip cookies, but doctored them up with a little Muesli. The smell of the baking cookies filled our kitchen and great room and attracted Bill and Liam pretty quickly. They magnanimously volunteered to "test" our wares. I am happy to report they were both satisfied with the results.

Trina's Chocolate Chip - Muesli Cookies

These cookies not only taste good, but they are chock full of high fiber Muesli cereal, containing uncooked rolled oats, fruit and nuts. We used Bob's Red Mill brand Muesli.

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups Muesli
1 cup semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips; I prefer Nestle's

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease baking sheets or line them with parchment paper. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients. Stir in the Muesli and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. I use three and keep them in rotation.

Bake for 9 minutes in preheated oven. They smell great when baking. If I could bottle this scent, I'd be a millionaire. In any case, cookies should slide right off the parchment. Allow cookies to cool before storing. Makes about 4-5 dozen.

We also had a plethora of aging bananas sitting on the kitchen counter. Five to be exact. Three of them were smaller and fairly well past their prime. Two others were of medium size and slightly old, displaying only a few black spots on their skins. I mashed them all together using our potato masher and had about 2 cups -- enough to make two loaves of Banana, Nut and Muesli Bread. This recipe will make 2 loaves of bread in 9" x 5" loaf pans. Since the oven was already set to the correct temp for this recipe, I made the batter up while the last of the cookies were baking. Once the cookies were out of the oven, the banana breads went in, continuing that wonderful scent of fresh baking.

Banana, Nut and Muesli Bread

1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
2 cups mashed bananas
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups bread or all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Muesli
1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two 9" x 5" loaf pans.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sour cream with the sugars until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the bananas and vanilla.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Beat into creamed mixture. Stir in Muesli and nuts. Pour into prepared pans.

Bake in preheated oven for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Talkin' Melt & Pour Soap

It's been a long two weeks since last I wrote. Sorry about that. School's started and we've had the Labor Day holiday in between, too. At this time of the year, I often think it's kind of like wiping the slate clean, tidying up and starting all over again -- my version of New Year's, I suppose.

Taking stock in our formulary, I noted that we are a little light on the melt and pour recipes, especially when you contrast it to the numbers of cold process soap recipes provided. Granted, I am a cold process soap queen -- even referred to as a master batcher (that's "batcher", not
"b-tcher") -- but there's a lot to be said for making melt and pour. Our friends at the Handcrafted Soapmaker's Guild will bestow a certificate of mastery upon both Cold Process and Melt and Pour afficiandos.

To that end, our Accounting Manager, Kaye, has undertaken the reworking of our melt and pour instructions as well as creating new melt and pour soap kits. Why our Accounting Manager? Besides accounting, Kaye has a Master's Degree in Art Education (and a degree in Phys. Ed, too). She's already devised our newest kit, Halloween Soap. The kit is available in two versions: Autumn Pumpkin and Boo Bar. Kaye has painstakingly rewritten our melt and pour instructions, including tips on advanced techniques. Take a look at Kaye's work here, on our Pumpkin Rustica soap recipe. (photo below)

Kaye has also been tooling around with some gorgeous glittery oxides we received from Englehardt and Rona, lo these many years ago. To me, they seemed like eye make-up. Bill got these samples about 5-6 years ago, and while I experimented with them in cold process soap (what haven't I put into cp soap?) and lotions, I am not a big fan of make-up, so skipped over the mineral make-up thing. Kaye found them in one of my drawers and has been creating these gorgeous melt and pour soaps, coloring them with the glitz and glamour of these oxides. I think they look terrific, but I ask you, who would ever use them? They look like works of art. Kaye's convinced we need to include these in an upcoming soap kit. So, stay tuned and look forward to more new melt and pour soap kits from Snowdrift Farm. We'd love to hear your suggestions, too.

The Thing About Ginger...

I think, sometimes, people have a certain idea of how an essential oil should smell. Even if they have never inhaled the pure volatile oil before, they still have it in their heads what the oil should smell like.

Take ginger essential oil (Zingiber officinale), for instance. And I have to admit, the first time I smelled it, I was a bit taken aback. I had it in my head that ginger oil should smell sweetly and not at all medicinal, not even in the slightest way. I was really sure of what ginger should smell like, and it took me a while to understand that real, true ginger oil has an earthy-woody quality to it that has nothing to do with candied ginger from the market. That's a whole different process. Ginger oil smells warmly, and is warming to the touch. It is spicy, but I would not call it sweet.

To get a little sweetness into ginger oil, consider adding some florals or citrus oils. Ginger oil blends well with eucalyptus, frankincense, rose geranium and rosemary, too.

Ginger is a great oil for massage therapy. I really like it mixed with a thin oil and rubbed into shoulders and knees. Between the friction and the warming action of the ginger, the heat feels fantastic.

A word of caution: ginger oil is somewhat photo-toxic, so please stay out of the sun for 24 hours after application.

Thai Ginger Warming Oil

Method:

Blend fixed oils in a stainless bowl. Blend essential oils and add to fixed oils. Stir and bottle in "squeeze" type bottles.

Oils

4 parts grape seed oil
1 part avocado oil
½ part wheat germ oil
1 part jojoba oil

Essential oils

sandalwood essential oil - 10 drops
ylang ylang essential oil - 5 drops
lemongrass essential oil - 3 drops
Ginger essential oil - 7 drops
Vetiver essential oil - 2 drops
Black pepper essential oil - 1 drop

The scent of this mix is rather earthy-spicy and warm. If you like it sweeter, add more ylang ylang and less sandalwood and only 1 drop of vetiver (or skip the vetiver entirely).

Amber Resins

Almost ethereal, a delight to inhale, I am pleased to report that Snowdrift Farm has sourced not one, but two exquisite amber resins for your consideration.

Floridly fragrant, our amber resins may be used in perfumery or burned on high quality charcoals. Both resins are imported from India and are made according to closely guarded, long-held family recipes and techniques.

The two resins contain a significant amount of benzoin and vanillin crystals, which give the ambers their characteristically sweet aroma. They may also contain essential oils and beeswax. Amber resins are often employed in perfuming, providing that special, impossible-to-define note.

Miscible in Artisan's, Perfumer's or Formulator's alcohols, amber resins melt down slowly in gently warmed base oils such as jojoba or sweet almond, too. The resulting oil may be used as is or in lotions, etc. You may also rub the resin, neat, over your pulse points. Your body heat will release the luscious amber scent and fill your head with exotic and sensual thoughts.

Krshna Amber resin

Our Krshna Amber is solid at room temperature. Rich and golden-looking, this amber contains a large amount of benzoin crystals which make it look like sparkling mica. The scent is light and sweet. The kaleidoscope of odors present in each whiff make it next to impossible to tell exactly what else is in there. The scent is hypnotic. I believe I detect a very light touch of patchouli, tree resins and a touch of rose.

Ganesh Amber resin


Ganesh amber resin is ruddy-brown in color. It is also a solid at room temperature, but is more waxy to the touch than the Krshna. Its scent is more musky than floral, though there is a significant benzoin content. If I had to make one distinction between the two ambers, I would class the Krshna as a more feminine base and the Ganesh as more masculine.

Dilute the amber resin in alcohol. Use the resulting solution in perfumes. You may also use the solution as a base note or part of your base note, if you are building a scent blend. Amber is the base note found in many Oriental and Floriental type perfumes.

Snowdrift Farm offers these two lovely resins in 5, 10 and 25 gram sizes. Drop us a line and let us know what you think.

Green Cleaners

Green cleaning is all the thing. We have several good customers who own maid services and cater to those who prefer only natural cleaning techniques and supplies.

While you can purchase green cleaning supplies at markets such as Ike's Markets, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, green cleaners are easy to make. Try our recipes and see for yourself how much fun these cleaners are to make and how nicely your home smells!

Provencal Ironing Water
Be sure to use purified or distilled water, for best results.
32 oz. distilled or purified water
1/16th to 1/8th teaspoon lavender essential oil (prefer Bulgarian)

Mix essential oil with water and shake vigorously before decanting into steam iron. For special gifts, this water, along with the laundry powder andlaundry rinse above, make a wonderful set. Great for linen collectors, and those who live away from home, like your college kids! Dispense into 16 oz. bottles with a special label: Shake vigorously before dispensing into iron.

Essence de Lavande Laundry Powder

All measures by weight (scale).

1 pound, very dry, grated cold process soap
8 oz. washing soda (not baking soda)
8 oz. boraxlavender essential oil - 1/2 oz. (I prefer lavender, but you can also use eucalyptus, or a blend.)

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl with gloved hand. Add essential oil by sprinkling on top. Mix again and dispense into containers. Ball Jars work well if you are giving these as gifts. Tie off with raffia at lid and attach a handmade tag with these instructions: For light loads, use 2 tablespoons; for sheets or heavy laundry, use 1/4 cup.

Include a wooden scoop, to complete the package.

Easy Sunny Citrus Counter Cleaner

Nothing will brighten your home more quickly than the fresh scent of citrus peel oils.
Do not use on finished wood.

7 oz. distilled white vinegar
1 oz. Perfumer's Alcohol
1 teaspoon polysorbate 20
20-30 drops lemon, lime, tangerine, grapefruit or sweet orange essential oils, or a combination

Place ingredients in a PET bottle with a sprayer attachment and shake vigorously.

Essence de Lavande Laundry Softener

All measures by volume (measuring cup).

Phase A:

32 oz. white vinegar
32 oz. baking soda
64 oz. distilled or purified water

Phase B: (optional)

1/2 oz. essential oil. (I use either eucalyptus or lavender, to go with the laundry powder.)

Mix the baking soda into the vinegar over a sink or other contained area, in a large glass or plastic jar. The two materials, when mixed together, will cause a "fizzing" reaction. Add water and essential oil and stir again. As gifts, dispense into plastic bottles and label with the following directions: Use 1/4 cup per load. Add in rinse cycle.