Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

 

 

2012 was a wonderful year for Casco bay Soap Co. and I know that 2013 will be even better!

Merry Christmas!

Hot Chocolate

A re-post.  But I LOVE to make this!  I am making up a few more batches of my homemade Hot Chocolate in between soap making to give as gifts.

 

Plain and simple, I love hot chocolate. For those of you that know me personally, I love to cook & bake. Food to me is creative, a visual treat and a comfort. During the holidays, I made a big batch of hot chocolate mix, kept some for my own personal use and gave some away little glass jars to friends. I wanted to share with you the recipe that I use, it is from Epicurious.com It may have few extra steps, but it is well worth it.

 

 

Ingredients:

4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split crosswise (see tips, below)
1 1/2 pounds high-quality semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
8 ounces milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process

Directions:

Place sugar in large bowl. Split half vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape seeds into sugar, and add pod. Work seeds in with your fingers. Cover snugly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature.
In food processor fitted with metal blade, process semisweet chocolate and milk chocolate until finely ground, using 4-second pulses. (Process in two batches if necessary.)
Remove pod from sugar. Add ground chocolate and cocoa powder to sugar and whisk to blend.
Store mix airtight at room temperature for up to six months.


To serve:For each serving, heat 8 ounces milk in small saucepan over medium heat until scalded (or microwave 2 1/2 minutes at full power). Whisk in 1/4 to 1/3 cup mix. Serve with unsweetened softly whipped cream or marshmallows.

Tips: •Save the other half of the vanilla bean for another use, such as a second batch of vanilla sugar, which keeps indefinitely and can be used in baking, coffee, or simply to sprinkle on fruit or waffles.

Even better top with your own homemade marshmallows. I will post that recipe down the road. I have made them a few times and boy, are they good. Melt in your mouth, pillow soft, and boy do they toast up nice over a campfire....

Rich and steaming, a mug of hot chocolate will help soothe away the winter cold. We are expecting a winter storm in the form of 8-12" of beautiful snow in the next day or so, a mug of hot chocolate is just what I will be mixing up. Keep warm!

FREE Shampoo Soap Bars!

Be sure to stop by and check out the blog Barefoot By The Sea and their Holiday Gift Guide.  Casco Bay Soap Co. Shampoo Bars are a featured give away!  AND enter to win 2 FREE bars of my Shampoo Bars sent to you, anywhere in the USA!  Winner will be selected on Dec. 12th.

From the blog ~ "I'm so excited to kick off the start of the holiday guide!  I've got some fabulous shops, artists and products I'm excited to introduce you to!  We've also got some great giveaways planned so stick around over the next couple of weeks!

http://www.barefootbysea.blogspot.com/2012/11/casco-bay-soap-co-feature-and-giveaway.html

Jumbo Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Seems that I post (re-post?) this recipe every year.  These Jumbo Peanut Butter Cup Cookies are AMAZING!  My hubby and I will be baking these up on Sunday.  He and I are starting a tradition of baking cookies together at the Holidays now that we have a large enough kitchen to hold the both of us.  These will be on the list of cookies to be baked (along with a few other, I will post them too).

I LOVE cookies. Love them. Crispy, chewy, sweet, salty, sandy, buttery, chunky, warm, cold...love them!

I worked for a cookie company for about 2 years after we first moved to Maine. Yes, I'm still carrying around a few extra lbs. from that job. We made plain Sugar Cookies sprinkled with coarse sanding sugar that just melted in your mouth. Ginger Krinkles with a yummy amount of ginger, Chocolate Chip cookies with coconut that made them soo tropical-ish and chewy.

I don't make cookies often, because I will devour them. I have no control. And I don't eat them often, because when I do, they have got to be the best. I mean it. No packaged cookies, no store bought cookies even from the bakery section, they have got to be really good. This time of year, it's all cookies all over the place, and I will be making a few batches of my favorites. First up, Jumbo Peanut Butter Cup Cookies. And being a thrifty Yankee, I bought Peanut Butter cups on sale after Halloween and saved them in my freezer until now. Bake up a batch on a cold wintry day and enjoy.

Credit for the recipe belongs here, at Tasty Kitchen:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/jumbo-peanut-butter-cup-cookies/

Jumbo Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
 Ingredients:
½ cups Butter, Softened

¾ cups Smooth Peanut Butter

¾ cups Granulated Sugar

¾ cups Packed Brown Sugar

1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 whole Eggs

⅛ teaspoons Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

2 cups All-purpose Flour

½ cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

10 whole Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Unwrapped And Chopped

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 or 375 degrees (see note below).

In a large bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Stir in vanilla extract and eggs. Incorporate salt, baking soda and flour together into the dough until all ingredients are moist. Stir in chocolate chips and chopped peanut butter cups.

Roll cookies out between the palms of your hands to be the size of golf balls. Place 6 cookie dough balls on a lightly greased baking sheet and using a fork, press down to make a cross hatch pattern.

Note: For chewier and softer cookies, bake at 350 degrees for 11-12 minutes. For crunchier cookies with slightly soft centers, bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.

NYA Holiday Craft Fair, This Saturday!

North Yarmouth Acaadamy Hoiday Craft Fair is this weekend, Saturday December1 from 9-3.  Find me and my soaps in the Cafertieria section of the fair.  I will have LOTS of Holiday fragranced soaps, soaps in Holiday packaging and felted soaps too.   Hope to see you!!

From the NYA website:

"This annual event is held in conjunction with a town-wide holiday celebration. Over sixty vendors from across the state will present a diverse variety of crafts including artwork, photography, jewelry, candles, soap, alpaca products, blown glass, woodworking and much more. Enjoy a sit-down lunch at the NYA Café and listen to holiday music by the NYA Chorus".

Busy & Holdiay Soaps Available!

I've been extremely busy!  My hubby and I sold our house very quickly at the end of the summer and had to move into a cute (but small) studio apartment temporarily while we waited to buy our new home.  FINALLY we are in our new house and trying to spackle, paint, organize and unpack (plus, we put our house contents into storage and those need to be moved over) AND here are the Holidays!  Phew!

I am at the Brunswick Winter Market every Saturday in Brunswick from 9:00 - 12:30.  I bring over 35  different soaps and will have the Holiday fragrances with me starting this weekend.  Hope to see you!!

Soaps are avaialbe on the website too. And I am happy to meet you locally for a soap pick up.  Just email me (cascobaysoap@aol.com).

Cranberry - Fig - Sweet, tart cranberry and smooth, subtle figs.

Gingersnap - Warm, creamy, ginger and perfect!

Apple Cider - Smells like warm, spiced apple cider.

Pumpkin Spice Scrub - Traditional pumpkin fragrance, warm and spices. 

Naughty & Nice - Spicy Clove & Warm Vanilla

Star Anise - Like fresh, black licorice OR those delicious Anise cookies your grandmother had in her cookie jar.

Naughty Pine - My Maine Pine soap, renamed for the Holidays.  Fresh fir needle fragrance.

Visiting Common Ground Fair!

My friend Angela and I went to The Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine on Friday (along with a reported 18,000 other folks). It is an amazing, 3 day fair put on by The Maine Organic Farmer And Gardeners Association (  http://www.mofga.org/ ).   Full of soo much to see, do, learn, eat!  Livestock, Herbs, Health & Healing, Food,  Fleece, Farmers Market, Farm & Homestead, Youth Tent, Exhibition Hall, Environment, Entertainment and soo much more!  I knew about 7 or 8 vendors selling their amazing crafts, giving talks or selling food. Here are some pictures from the fair...

Every year they have a new poster, this one is just beautiful! Garlic scapes!

Here is a shot of the fairgrounds before it got too busy....it was an overcast day, but a comfortable fall day.

And here we move into the craft area...pretty wooden spoons!

Fun pottery/clay slabs with old fashioned carvings.

 Here we are visiting our friend Jinger of Yo Mammas Apron Strings.  She makes very cute and fun retro aprons.  Jinger made me a special Casco Bay Soap Co. apron last year.

(Again, very dark in the tent, maybe I need to learn how to use my camera better!) This is Jeff, he is a wood turner.  Makes amazing bowls (I have one), rolling pins and here you see some people crouching in the foreground spinning the tops he makes.

 Inside the big crafts tent was a bit dim, but here we are stopping to see our friend Sara who makes Deliha Pottery.  I LOVE her style.  I have 2 mugs that I enjoy drinking my nightly tea from.  :)

Again, dim inside the tent, but these folks are our market friends Charlie & Terrill and they make up Tandem Glass.  I have a beautiful white glass bowl that they made.  The have gorgeous items!

Evelyn selling her beautiful wood burning and painted artwork.  Her little girl is hiding behind her!  Soo cute!

Inside the Youth tent...we know this lad!  Well, we know him, but we don't think he knows us.  He is part of Swallowtail Farm Kids!  Swallowtail Farm is in Whitefield and our friend Lauren vends with us at the Brunswick Winter Market and her kids are very involved in the farm.  Here they have made soda pop!  A crowded table prevented us from getting close, but they were selling Rootbeer, Sarsaparilla and Elderberry Pop that they made!  I am sure they sold out!

 These girls were selling cute felted acorns and dolls, I just loved them!

 And in the foodie section of the fair I found this farmer roasting her peppers! Soo cool!

 And packaged up ready to take home!  I wish I bought some...

Cool vertical planting idea.

Learn about Maine apples....

 Our Freeport Farmers Market friend Lucy, selling Lucy's Granola!!

Time for lunch!  I choose a grilled cheese and Angela enjoyed some Indian food.  There was Wood Fired Pizza, Soups, Sandwiches, Smoothies, Ice Cream, Hot Chai, Potato Chips, Fish Tacos, you name it!

 And of course, I checked out the soaps and bought some too.  I do enjoy homemade soap and admire all these soap makers selling their handmade soaps.

 And over in another area, there were spinners, just sitting and spinning their fleece in the middle of the fair!

 Johnny's Selected Seeds has a massive display at the Fair. Here are some of their gardens.

Learn about compost with worms (I think it is a very cool thing)!

 Oh, and this is fun (but hard to see) they bake beans in a beanhole.  Digging a hole in the ground, staring a good hot fire and lower a bean pot down into the ground, covering it with soil and cooking the beans for hours. When they are ready, folks line up for a bowl of beans!  Fun!  I want to do this in my backyard! 

And HOW COOL!

 Here they are busy rolling out the pretzels, getting ready for the crowds!

And over in the livestock area, Scottish Highland Cows!

And a "Wee one too!

We had a great time at the Fair!  I plan to go back next year and bring my childhood friend, she is looking forward to it!

My friend Angela and I went to The Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine on Friday.  It is an amazing, 3 day fair put on by The Maine Organic Farmer And Gardeners Association (  http://www.mofga.org/ ).   Full of soo much to see, do, learn, eat!  Livestock, Herbs, Health & Healing, Food,  Fleece, Farmers Market, Farm & Homestead, Youth Tent, Exhibition Hall, Environment, Entertainment and soo much more!  I knew about 7 or 8 vendors selling their amazing crafts, giving talks or selling food. Here are some pictures from the fair...

Every year they have a new poster, this one is just beautiful! Garlic scapes!

Here is a shot of the fairgrounds before it got too busy....it was an overcast day, but a comfortable fall day.

And here we move into the craft area...pretty wooden spoons!

Fun pottery/clay slabs with old fashioned carvings.

 Here we are visiting our friend Jinger of Yo Mammas Apron Strings.  

She makes very cute and fun retro aprons.  Jinger made me a special Casco Bay Soap Co. apron last year.

(Again, very dark in the tent, maybe I need to learn how to use my camera better!) This is Jeff, he is a wood turner.  Makes amazing bowls (I have one), rolling pins and here you see some people crouching in the foreground spinning the tops he makes.

 Inside the big crafts tent was a bit dim, but here we are stopping to see our friend Sara who makes Deliha Pottery.  I LOVE her style.  I have 2 mugs that I enjoy drinking my nightly tea from.  :)

Again, dim inside the tent, but these folks are our market friends Charlie & Terrill and they make up Tandem Glass.  I have a beautiful white glass bowl that they made.  The have gorgeous items!

Evelyn selling her beautiful wood burning and painted artwork.  Her little girl is hiding behind her!  Soo cute!

Inside the Youth tent...we know this lad!  Well, we know him, but we don't think he knows us.  He is part of Swallowtail Farm Kids!  Swallowtail Farm is in Whitefield and our friend Lauren vends with us at the Brunswick Winter Market and her kids are very involved in the farm.  Here they have made soda pop!  A crowded table prevented us from getting close, but they were selling Rootbeer, Sarsaparilla and Elderberry Pop that they made!  I am sure they sold out!

 These girls were selling cute felted acorns and dolls, I just loved them!

 And in the foodie section of the fair I found this farmer roasting her peppers! Soo cool!

 And packaged up ready to take home!  I wish I bought some...

Cool vertical planting idea.

Learn about Maine apples....

 Our Freeport Farmers Market friend Lucy, selling Lucy's Granola!!

Time for lunch!  I choose a grilled cheese and Angela enjoyed some Indian food.  There was Wood Fired Pizza, Soups, Sandwiches, Smoothies, Ice Cream, Hot Chai, Potato Chips, Fish Tacos, you name it!

 And of course, I checked out the soaps and bought some too.  I do enjoy homemade soap and admire all these soap makers selling their handmade soaps.

 And over in another area, there were spinners, just sitting and spinning their fleece in the middle of the fair!

 Johnny's Selected Seeds has a massive display at the Fair. Here are some of their gardens.

Learn about compost with worms (I think it is a very cool thing)!

 Oh, and this is fun (but hard to see) they bake beans in a beanhole.  Digging a hole in the ground, staring a good hot fire and lower a bean pot down into the ground, covering it with soil and cooking the beans for hours. When they are ready, folks line up for a bowl of beans!  Fun!  I want to do this in my backyard! 

And HOW COOL!

 Here they are busy rolling out the pretzels, getting ready for the crowds!

And over in the livestock area, Scottish Highland Cows!

And a "Wee one too!

We had a great time at the Fair!  I plan to go back next year and bring my childhood friend, she is looking forward to it!