Pancake Day!

Today is Fat Tuesday but it is also known as Pancake Day!  I learned all about it today over on one of my favorite sites, Tasty Kitchen:  http://tastykitchen.com/blog/

Since I live in Maine, where the Bblueberry is King...may I suggest some sort of Blueberry Pancake.  Here is a wonderful pancake recipe with a Maine Blueberry Sauce from William Sonoma.   Pancakes for dinner are a great treat, make some tonight!

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/pancakes-with-maine-blueberry-sauce.html

"This pancake batter combines all-purpose flour with buckwheat flour, a dark flour that has a nutty, slightly sweet flavor and firm texture. A warm sauce made from fresh blueberries adds the perfect finishing touch".

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 cup whole-ground buckwheat flour, sifted
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 1/4 cups buttermilk
4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 to 2 Tbs. vegetable oil

2 cups fresh blueberries
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1 Tbs. cornstarch
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 200°F.
In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the eggs on medium speed until frothy. Add the all-purpose and buckwheat flours, 3 Tbs. of the sugar, the baking powder, baking soda, salt, buttermilk, butter and vanilla and stir just until smooth.
Heat a griddle over medium-high heat. Lightly grease the griddle with oil or spray with nonstick cooking spray. Using a batter dispenser, dispense the batter onto the griddle. Cook until bubbles form on top of the pancakes and the batter is set, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip the pancakes and cook until golden brown on the other side, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while cooking the remaining pancakes.
In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the blueberries, the remaining 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. sugar, the lemon zest and 1/2 cup water and stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a simmer. In a small bowl, stir together the cornstarch, 1 Tbs. water and the lemon juice. Add to the berries and stir until the sauce is thickened, about 5 minutes. Serve the warm blueberry sauce over the pancakes. Serves 4.

ALL CREDIT FOR RECIPE AND PICTURE GO TO Williams-Sonoma Kitchen.

Using Maine Ingredients

I am very proud to be part of Maine Made. 

Creating all my soaps and products from scratch using my own recipes.    Each small batch product is carefully made just for you!

I use many Maine grown or harvested ingredients in my soaps and products.  I am always on the lookout to add more or find new Maine items to add to the soaps.  I have included for you below many of the current items that I use.

I use fresh ground yellow cornmeal, gown and ground, from Fairwinds Farm in Topsam Maine in my Citrus Scrub and Gardeners Scrub soap bars.  Fairwinds Farms sell at the Saturday Winter Farmers Market with me and are the nicest folks!  http://www.fairwindsfarmmaine.com/   I LOVE their cornmeal!  I admire the texture of the cornmeal, so course and chunky (but it can be made finer, if you like).  There are a few different color flecks in the cornmeal from the "real" corn. I love it!  It is a nice gentle but hardworking scrub for my soaps.

I use Oatmeal grown and milled by Aurora Mills & Farm in Linneus, Maine is used in my Oatmeal, Honey & Milk, Peppermint Oatmeal, Unscented with Oats and Cinnamon & Oats soaps.   As well as in my Tub Tea.  http://www.auroramillsandfarm.net/   These oats are soo hearty and add a great texture to the soaps.  Creating extra scrubbing power and gentle exfoliation for your skin.  Oatmeal is also know to help moisturize, protect and gently cleanse, while soothing itchy or inflamed skin.

Sea Salt is used in my Mermaids Garden and (new) Day At The Beach soaps and also in my Tub Tea.  http://www.maineseasalt.com/  Sea Salt is nice and scrubby, exfoliates and reportedly draws toxins from the skin. 

Local Beeswax is purchased from Keough Family Farm in Hebron, Maine and is used in my Body Butter bars.  It's not as easy to use as beeswax "beads" that I can buy commercially and already easy to measure out, but grating and shaving up the local beeswax is strangely satisfying!  And I love the aroma of fresh beeswax. 

Of course, my Balsam Dryer Sachets are chock full of Maine Balsam needles for that familiar Maine fragrance.  Soo dreamy and woodsy, it is my most popular Dryer Sachet. 

I add Vitamin Sea Seaweed from Buxton, Maine to my Mermaids Garden soap.  The Seaweed shows up as pretty dark to light green pieces in the soap.   Seaweed has become popular for it's rumored benefits to detoxify and remove toxins from the outer layer of the skin and to tone. I like it because it is from MAINE!   http://www.vitaminseaseaweed.com/contact.shtml  I don't harvest my own seaweed, because it needs to be properly cleansed and sterilized. 

Maine grown Calendula (from my farmer friend on the Mid-Coast) makes a BIG appearance in my  unscented Clandula soap.  I steep Calendula in warm Olive Oil, using the petals and full flower heads, for 3 weeks, then use that Olive Oil as the oil in my soap recipe.  The results are a very soothing, gentle soap.  I sprinkle many dried petals in other soaps as well for texture and appearing.  Lavender & Herb, Lemongrass & Sage and Buttermilk Baby all have Calendula petals. 

I am currently researching Maine grown Sunflower Oil to add to my soap recipe as well as Maine grown Lavender.  I did try growing my own for the past 2 summers and only ended with a wee bit.  My garden didn't seem to cooperate

If you have a Maine product that you think would work in my soaps, I am happy to entertain the idea.  The cost may be a bit more, but I think that using Maine made, grown ingredients and supporting our local farmer is important. 

Chocolate Pots de Creme

I made this for my sweetie on Valentines Day and boy-oh-boy is it good!

Makes just enough for two, which is perfect if you can't be trusted with leftovers.

The recipe (and picture) is Martha Stewart.  She always does it right.  Make this, it is delicious!

http://www.marthastewart.com/874411/chocolate-pots-de-creme

NEW!

My Valentine's heart shaped soaps were such a hit and a few customers asked for me to start carrying them beyond Valentines Day that I found a cute little way to put them together for year round sales.

3 mini heart shaped soaps packaged up with a "Just For You" tag are all ready for gift giving to that certain someone.  Need a small hostess gift?  Have a dear friend that is under the weather?  What about a teachers gift?  These little hearts are sure to brighten someones day.

My very same 100% vegetable soap is cut into 2 different, quaint, little heart sizes and shapes.  Packaged in a clear, mini sized takeout container with a metal handle, tucked into finely shredded wood shavings, tied with a sheer organza blue ribbon and complete with a gift tag.  The perfect little gift.

Soaps are a variety of fragrances.

Find these at market and on the website for $5.00 each.

Happy Valentines Day

Wishing you all a Happy Valentines Day!

Some Quick Cookie Love...

Valentines Day is tomorrow!  But I have a quick cookie recipe for you if you want to make something yummy for your family or friends.

Link to Shortbread Hearts on Martha Stewart.com:

  http://www.marthastewart.com/316927/chocolate-dipped-shortbread-hearts

I made these lovely Shortbread Hearts dipped in chocolate over the weekend.  I made the dough on Friday night in no time flat, one bowl means easy peasy clean up.   The dough sat in the fridge overnight and then on Saturday I warmed it up a bit, rolled it out and cut out sweet little hearts.  Dipping them in chocolate makes them a bit more special and really not that hard to do at all!

We had these for a light desert after a night of homemade pizza with friends.  The cookies are sturdy enough and not sticky or gooey to easily bag up and give away.   I slide a few into a clear cellophane bag, tied with a ribbon and this cute little FREE printable tag and delivered them to a dear friend. 

Link to tag over on Eighteenn 25 Blog: 

 http://www.eighteen25.blogspot.com/2012/01/free-download-made-with-love.html 

I love to bake and I love to share! 

Soap Curing...

When someone asks me to create a special fragrance soap I generally tell them that I will put it on the list of soaps to be made but that they also have to wait 4-6 weeks for the soap to cure, or "to be ready".  Often, I watch their faces to see how this registers with them. Do they know what I mean?  Most often, I just explain it to them rather than assume that they know. 

This is what I say:  Curing is the process of the soap drying out.  The water is evaporating and this helps it become a hard, long lasting bar of soap.  These harder bars of soap last longer, lather up better and overall is better soap.   Cured soap is harder, milder and more finished 

Below is a photo of a variety of my soaps curing on trays on one of my curing racks.

I have to plan ahead for the Holidays or seasonal soaps.  So that I have plenty of Apple Cider soap for September, I start making it at the end of July!   To ensure that the Christmas in Maine soap is ready for the beginning of November, I need to start making it around the middle of September.   Planning is a big part of my business, and I need to stay organized and watch that calender to plan plan plan ahead!

Hope that this informs you a little more about the soap making process.

Crafting beyond soaps....

Looks like I haven't been blogging in a few days....sorry about that!  Things got busy with the soap making and tyring to sell it and all.   You know what I mean.

My husband asked me what I was doing.  He was watching the Bruins game and I was cutting all these little grey circles out of felt.  I showed him the project and told him that I had to cut out 60 circles and then make them into flowers.  He said "that's crazy honey, that's alot of work".  I said, "well, it will be worth it and what else am I going to do while hockey is on"?   In the end, yes it did take some time but I think it was well worth it!  I ended up with a super cute scarf and I spent productive time with my hubby.

This is a link to the scarf project that I found on Pinterest. (Do you Pin? You can follow me on Pinterest here : http://pinterest.com/cascobaysoap/  )  A series of lovely felt flowers make up this beautiful scarf. I made made me scarf in grey and it came out super cute! I think I will wear it to market this weekend to "show it off".

 

http://watchmedaddy.blogspot.com/2011/12/felt-flower-scarf-tutorial.html

Have you done anything crafty lately?