Homemade Goat Soap

Here are the ingredients/things that you are going to need:

36 oz of olive oil                                  40 oz Goat Milk
75 oz vegetable shortening                   4 oz essential oil (optional)
13.7 oz lye                                             Herbs to your liking (optional)
lg glass bowel                                        lg stainless steel pan & spoon
thermometer                                           blanket 


First thing you have to do is go out & milk the goat. Add Lye to goat milk that is room temp. in a lg glass bowel, being very careful as this will get HOT and produce fumes. Please do not take a deep breath of this to see it will cause a large coughing spell I know this from experience LOL. It will sometimes get very thick in the cooling process so stir from time to time, it will be brownish in color. Melt vegetable shortening in stainless steel pan, remove from heat and add the olive oil to the melted vegetable oil. Let both mixtures (lye solution & the oils)cool to 98- 100 degrees. Slowly & carefully pour the lye solution into the oil while stirring. Stir to trace (starts to thicken) each batch will vary with the time it takes to reach trace. I use a hand blender to stir. Once trace has been reached add whatever essential oils & herbs that you want . Pour into molds lined with freezer paper or sprayed with pam. Rubber maid drawers organizers work well. Keep covered very well for the next 24 hours. Unwrap & cut into bars.. Let age for 4-6 wks on a rack where air can circulate around bars & turn everyday.


This is the basic recipe since you want to make the coffee soap you will need 1 to 2 cups of coffee grounds. Add this once you have reach trace. As far as the essential oil or fragrant oil use whatever you would like it to smell like Vanilla, choc... This is making me want a Carmel Mocha Latte LOL

                                                                                                          

                    Tips

 Make sure to use safety glasses/gloves when working with lye it is very caustic & will cause burns... once a chemical reaction takes place called Saponification it is rendered harmless. Soap cannot be made without the use of lye. Please read & follow the safety rules on the lye container. I sometimes let my oil set in the sink with cold water around to help in the cooling process. Place apiece of heavy cardboard over each mold before wrapping in a blanket.

 Soap On the shelf ready to be placed in the rack system that John built for me... It works great & will hold up to 12 batches of soap. Each shelf will hold 32 bars of soap. Which is the amount that each of the wooden molds make.

OK so you don't have a goat .....you can buy powdered goat milk & canned goat milk. If you are lucky enough to know somebody that has goats and milks them even better :) Goat milk soap is good for the skin. Since you are adding the coffee it makes a great hand cleaner.
If you need anything call or leave a comment & I will get back to you :)

 

 

Freezing Pumpkin

Halloween is over & the pumpkins are cheaper .... found some for $1.00 ea sure beats $3.99 ea... SCORE... so I picked up 15 & off to the house I went with visions of pumpkin rolls, pumpkin pies, & my favorite pumpkin Butter.

The first thing I do is wash them off outside & let them sit to dry as I get things ready. Things you will need: Aluminum Foil, knife, trash bag, lg pan for baking, lg spoon, lg bowl, Blender, Qt freezer bag & cutting board

All ready....set oven to 350 degree..... go get a pumpkin, if there is still a stem on it cut it off then cut pumpkin in half length wise. Remove seed & scrape pumpkin out with lg spoon... this is where the trash bags comes in, put the seeds & scrapings in trash bag. Place on pan wrap with aluminum foil .... bake for at least 2 hrs or till done. Amount of time to cook will depend on size of your pumpkin. Pumpkin flesh should be soft & a fork will stick in with no force needed.

 

I am baking 2 at a time...this takes alittle longer....this is to show you the types of pans you can use..... when using a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan be careful because pumpkin is full of water don't spill it & burn yourself :) when cooked remove from oven, remove aluminum foil & allow to cool.. Pour off water

when cooled scrape the flesh out of the skin & spoon into a lg bowl...Throw skin into trash bag.

 Repeat this until you have enough pumpkin & are ready to move on to next step.. you can proceed from here but I like to run mine thu the blender first.. makes for smother pumpkin puree to use in pies, cakes, cookies & pumpkin rolls.


 I would always run into trouble trying to hold the freezer bag open & pour pumpkin into it... I found that if I take a lg cup place the freezer bag into in turn the top of the bag over the top of the glass made it alot easier. I put 2 Cups into ea qt freezer bag because most recipes call for 2 cups. Zip lock the top while pushing the air up & out.

Repeat this till you have used all your pumpkin. Lay bags flat on a cookie sheet & freeze.. when fully frozen remove from cookie sheet & place in a pile in your freezer. Now your are ready to use your pumpkin in any recipe that calls for pumpkin. The best part it's fresh pumpkin no chemicals, pure pumpkin :)

 

 

                                                                               I used 5 med sized pumpkins to get this amt .. all together I ended up with 30 cups of pumpkin..that's 6 cups for ea pumpkin .... I used 2 cups in Gooey Pumpkin Bars & there are 2 more bags not shown

                                                        

Hope this works easy for you ...any question call me or leave a message below.. I will get back to you

Pumpkin Butter Next :)