Take Classes at Hogwarts-- Seriously.

I am so incredibly excited to report that taking online classes at Hogwarts is a possibility. Not only that, but it is free (donations are accepted) and there are actual classes you can enroll in, taught by actual professors and actual assignments lovingly graded by prefects. First years take the same classes Potter himself took: Astronomy (ASTR101); Charms (CHRM101); Defense Against The Dark Arts (DADA101); Herbology (HERB101); History of Magic (HOM101); Potions (PTNS101); and Transfiguration (TNFG101). What a Fun Summer activity for kiddo-parent bonding! There is even a social side where you can start clubs (chat room style) and have study sessions with other die-hard Potter fans! Whaaat!

Take me to Hogwarts!

 

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Goat Milk Soap Recipe/ Brownsville Air Show

 

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This recipe is totally worth it!

My mother and I have a little side business where we make homemade bath products. It all started with goat milk soap and has expanded from there. I know every sales person says that their product is the best but ours seriously is. The lather is so incredibly rich and creamy and we add clays, oatmeal and botanicals to make it perfect for shaving and/or exfoliation, depending on your preference. We do custom orders for weddings/showers, etc. We will be selling these beauties at an airshow in Brownsville, TX on Valentines day weekend!! Check out the show here. But enough advertising... In the interest of transparency, I would like to share our recipe with the cyber world so that our customers and anyone else reading my blog can know what is in the soap they are introducing into their homes.

7lb. cold process soap:

10.5oz lye
15oz H2O
10.5oz Goat milk

22.5oz Olive Oil
21oz Coconut Oil
21oz Palm Oil
12oz Soybean Oil

1.5oz Essential/Fragrance Oil
1/4-1/2cup additive (Clays, botanicals, etc.)


**We do not use artificial colorants-- colors are achieved through clays and vegetable powders.
***Our vegan soaps use an equal amount of water in place of the goat milk. Also, we are our own testers-- we don't test our products on our kitties or any other animal.
****If you are going to attempt to recreate this recipe, please use all necessary safety precautions when dealing with sodium hydroxide (lye), which you can find here. (Keep animals and pets away, use gloves and eye wear, etc.)

You will also need...

large pot (I use one of those huge lobster ones)
stick blender
meat thermometer
molds (ours are handmade wooden ones that we line with glossy paper)
Glass container for mixing lye, water and goat milk
whisk

Start by making the lye solution as this takes the longest to cool. measure out lye, water and gm. make sure the water is in a glass container with high sides. Pour lye into water while whisking. when it is mostly dissolved, pour in goat milk. This will react, get very hot and turn orange. This is the fats in the milk reacting with the lye. leave this to cool in a safe place where getting knocked over is very unlikely.

Continue on by melting together olive, palm, and coconut oils in pot on stove. When there are no more solid chunks of palm or coconut, turn off heat and pour in soybean oil.

While waiting for your lye solution and oils to cool to 120degrees F each, you can line your molds, or do whatever else. It usually takes around 45min for me.

When your items are cooled, put your stick blender in the oil and turn it on so that it is blending while you pour the lye solution in. Be very careful, I cannot stress this enough Continue to mix it together with the blender for a good five minutes. This may seem excessive and boring while you do it, but it is important to mix thoroughly. If it is not mixed thoroughly, you could end up with lye pockets in your soap that will burn your skin when you use it. It is undergoing a chemical change as you mix it with the oils so let it do its thing and mix it up good! At this point, it should begin to become a little thicker. The consistency of runny cake batter is a good way to think of it. When your there, add the essential oil and additive, mix it in, and pour it all into your mold.

Once it is poured into the mold, be sure to keep it warm. We wrap ours up in blankets. This is important as it needs to keep as much of its heat as possible to continue its transformative journey from oils and lye to soap.

Make sure to be very careful not to touch the raw soap and do the dishes right away so that no little people or animals get a hold of this stuff.

We usually unwrap our soap in two days and cut it up then too. It will be safe to touch at this point. The soap will need to cure for 6-8 weeks before use to ensure that no trace of active lye is left in there and you are good to go!

PS: We will be at an airshow in Brownsville, TX on Valentines day weekend selling our lovely products!! Check it out here.

DIY Valentines Bath Bombs

I love all kinds of DIY stuff and bath products are the absolute pinnacle of my DIY ambitions. This is the most amazing bath bomb recipe because its full of awesome skin care stuff and fizzes up beautifully in the tub. I've been making them this way forever. Typically, I make my bombs in one of those clear plastic Christmas ornaments from Michaels, but since its Valentine's day is coming up and I had these handy heart shaped ice cube molds from IKEA, I thought this would be perfect. You will need...

1/2c Baking soda
1/4c Epsom salts
1/4c Citric Acid
1/4c Corn Starch
3tsp Castor Oil
1tbsp water
1tbsp Essential Oil
Couple drops food color

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Separately combine castor oil, fragrance, color and water. Begin pouring wet into dry in very small amounts while whisking. Don't just dump it all in, you don't want to activate the fizz. (You will see when you pour small bits of wet in, it will make a small fizzy reaction. That's OK as long as you whisk it in quickly.)

 When you've poured it all in, it should start to look and feel like sand, but should pack down easily when you put pressure on it with your hands-- think brown sugar consistency.

When it looks like the picture above, you can start to press into your molds. Spray your molds with no-stick cooking spray, especially if they are detailed, and start packing in with small layers, pressing it in evenly so that you get a nice, full result when you take your bombs out. When your done, stick them in a cool dry place overnight to dry and you will have an adorable DIY teacher gift!

Minecraft Multiplication Cards Free Printable link

 

Minecraft Multiplication Flashcards Free Printables

 

As anyone with a 5-13 year old child knows, Minecraft = Life. Therefore, getting my daughter to detach herself from the tablet to run multiplication cards is my cardio exercise for the week. Luckily, the lovely people on Pinterest have supplied me with Minecraft-themed cards that I can use to lure my child into my presence. Follow the link above and it will bring you to Blessed Beyond a Doubt. There you will indeed find a printable version of these cards, but you will have to put yourself on her newsletter list for the privilege of printing them. Whats one more newsletter in your already crammed inbox? Its a small price to pay for such a treat, I say.



Valentines Day Homemade Pop Rocks Attempt

This time of year, cute Valentines ideas abound and, when you are eight years old, pop rocks are the coolest thing in the world. Therefore, when we saw a homemade version on aol.com it was clear that a Valentines-themed attempt must be made. Find the original recipe we used here. The theory behind this recipe is that causing the candy mixture to fizz up with baking soda and citric acid before it cools will cause bubbles in the final product that will pop when you put it in your mouth. We may have made a mistake or two in this process because ours a) never fully hardened and it got gummy in your mouth-- much like the texture of now&laters, and b) was super duper sour because of all the citric acid. I also thought I would be smart and line the pan with tinfoil and therefore wouldn't need to dust the pan with cornstarch, but it was super sticky and did not come off the tinfoil easily. Also, you are not supposed to remove it from heat until the mixture reached 300 degrees, but my thermometer only went to 270. Anyway, here are the glamour shots and the ingredients I used:

2c sugar
1tsp. baking soda
1/4c plus 1tsp. citric acid, divided
1/2c light corn syrup
1/4c water
1tsp flavoring extract LorAnns's Watermelon flavor oil
Pinch of Cornstarch
Candy Thermometer (One that goes to at least 300degrees)

Dust a baking pan with a pinch of corn starch. Seriously, Do that. Use tinfoil anyway for easy cleanup but dont skip the cornstarch. Combine water, sugar and corn syrup in med saucepan and cook until its 300degrees. Remove from heat and add baking soda, 1/4c citric acid, and flavor extract. At this point, it fizzes up in the pan and you can pour it out onto your baking sheet and sprinkle remaining citric acid on top. Viola!

I used a filter to try to show the bubbles in the candy better =)

Nutella Stuffed Pancake. Heaven.

I really feel there is no description necessary here. I don't have to explain why nutella stuffed pancakes are the best thing ever. Heres how the magic happens:

Use parchment paper and make thin nutella circles just a little smaller than the size of the pancakes you intend to make. Some non-stick spray on the spoon will help here. Put them in the freezer for about half an hour and they will pop right off the paper when your ready

I love it!!

When you start to see a few bubbles form in your pancake, take one of your Nutella circles, place in the middle, and quickly spoon batter on top. Flip. Best day of your life.

Possibly the most amazing dinner food.

On Pinterest as always, I found a pic of the most amazing meat dish. Its homemade meatballs, wrapped in onion, wrapped in bacon, topped with BBQ sauce. **angels siiiing** So on my way home from work I grabbed all the necessary ingredients and, at the last moment, grew fat conscious and got ground turkey instead of ground beef. I could not bring myself to substitute the real bacon for turkey, though. :-) Find the original recipe I used here. Here is my version:

1/2c breadcrumbs
1/2c parmesan cheese
1 egg
1lb. ground turkey
salt to taste
2 yellow onions
12 strips bacon.
BBQ sauce.

Preheat oven to 425 and mix breadcrumbs, egg, parmesan, salt and ground turkey. Cut top and bottom off onions and peel off filmy outer layers. Chop onion in half and peel layers apart (See pic.) I got three "shells" from each onion, but it varies. I then took small handfuls of the meat mix and placed them in the onion shell. Wrap bacon around and secure with toothpicks. Place in an oven safe dish with sides (This will get greasy) and bake for 40 mins. Remove from oven, slather on BBQ sauce and bake for 5 additional minutes.

Meat in the onion "shell" before bacon

Done