A Day of Making

 It's been dreary here. We're supposed to be painting the foyer but it's just too wet and dark to think about it.

Instead The Mister wanted cookies so we made some. Bridget calls them Seven Layer Cookies but we always knew them as Hello Dollies. They were my grandmother's specialty. We also made a pan of Browned Butter Chocolate Chips. They were okay but not worth the trouble.

 After cleaning up one mess in my disaster of a kitchen I made another.

 I wasn't happy with that Castile soap I had made last week. It didn't look like the bars that others had made. I thought it was the oil so I bought some lighter olive oil to see if that was the issue.

 Now that's what I was looking for.

 It was lighter but it still behaved the same way. It was too thin a batter to move so it had to stay on the table in a heat pad incubator until I could safely tuck it away for the night.

 The next morning I had just what I was looking for. A loaf of creamy white soap made with nothing but olive oil, lye, distilled water and a very few drops of a slightly fruity/herby fragrance oil that does not discolor.

See the difference? The soap on the bottom was made with the darker oil and a few drops of lemongrass essential oil that I suspect may also have contributed to the yellowing. Now I have to wait at least 6 months to try it out and maybe 6 more to get it completely cured. As fast as time is moving around here these days-that shouldn't be a problem.