Let's all get naked and wet!

Sumatran Caviar, or Fun with Chemistry

nobody@vox.com(DeAnne) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:58:05 -0600

I've been dying to try some recipes being done by the leading
deconstructionist and molecular gastronomy chefs like Wylie
Dufresne. So, I ordered some goodies from WillPowder.
They arrived yesterday, and I immediately set out to try making coffee
caviar.

Step One - Prep by gathering ingredients; Sodium Alginate, Calcium Chloride, table sugar, and cup of fresh brewed Sumatran coffee. In this instance, I used hot coffee. I believe now that that is a mistake, in that I think it starts the reaction too soon.  I also used coffee at the strength one would normally drink it.  However, the taste is less than impressive that way.  I think the flavoring agent needs to be intensely concentrated into a simple syrup for it to be as vibrant a mouthfeel as I was shooting to get.
Step Two: Sift the sodium alginate and the table sugar into the coffee. (1 tsp SA, 1 Tbs sugar)
Step Three: Stick blend together until powders are completely incorporated.  I got a lot of foaming with the hot coffee, which seemed to start the gelling process a little sooner than it should have.
Step Four: Heat over high heat to about 205 degrees F, or 96 degrees C. Strain and chill.
Step Five: When the coffee alginate has cooled to at least room temp, prepare the calcium chloride bath by blending 1 tsp CC into 2 cups water.  Also prepare another bowl of fresh water with nothing added to it.
Step Six: using a dropper or food syringe, drop beads of the alginate into the CC blend, let sit for about 30 seconds, then move into the fresh water bath. (Sorry, couldn't get pics of the process while I was doing it.) This is the results of the first batch.  The alginate mix was so thick and gelled that it wouldn't easily come out of the dropper, and rather than forming spheres, it sortof created little tadpole looking shapes.  Neato, but not what I wanted. Also, the flavor was weird.
Step Seven: Improvise! I did what any chocoholic would do, I took the first batch and added chocolate and about a 1/4 cup of cold water and whisked it smooth.  The consistency was much more liquid.  I flowed easily through the dropper, and created perfect little spheres when dropped into the CC bath.  And the taste was better, but still not what I'm hoping to get.  Next time I think I'll start with coffee syrup, coffee liquor, and maybe even a little godiva liquor.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

What's in the soap pot today?

nobody@vox.com(DeAnne) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:28:12 -0600

Today I'm batching Spiced Orange Tea soap. It's an organic green tea based soap, infused with 5 fold California orange essential oil, Egyptian clove oil, and a generous addition of ground fresh spices for exfoliation. This is one of my fave soaps to make. (And use. There's always a bar of this in my shower.) It's one of the soaps that I let cure in the public areas because it makes the place smell so amazingly good.

In other news, I had to take our puppy back to the pound to be spayed. I don't know why they won't let me use my vet, but they won't. You have to take adopted animals back there. Poor Bugaboo did not want to get out of the truck. She kept giving me this look like "I'm sorry I chewed your bed, sat on your cat and pooped on the carpet! I'll be good, please don't leave me here!" Heartbreaking. But then, I'm a big ol softy. I can go get her after I pick up Boy from school. It was insane getting there this morning. There was some accident that shut down all 6 lanes of the main road through town. There were helicopters, 3 fire trucks, a gross of cop cars...it was crazy. I really hope that whomever was involved is ok.

So anyway, back to the soap pot. I hope everyone's day goes smoothly!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Working in the soap mine...

nobody@vox.com(DeAnne) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:29:40 -0600

Today I'm batching Tea Hee. It's a green tea based soap with the essential oils of Bulgarian wild harvest Lavender, American organic Patchouli, and Egyptian organic Geranium. It's a surprisingly great smell, even for people that run and hide from patchouli normally.

If there's time, I'm going to try and batch some Pirate Bay into traditional soap. It's wildly popular in glycerin, but I've had a lot of requests for a traditional version.

Speaking of wildly popular; Christmas soaps are now on sale for a huge discount. Get your Frankincense and Myrrh (Boswellia carterii and Commiphora myrrh) and Galilee (Frankincense, Rose of Sharon, Spikenard, Cedar, Myrrh, Hyssop, Cinnamon, Cassia, Calamus, Aloes, Sandalwood and Styrax) while supplies last. Help me make room for Spring soaps. ;)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

back in the saddle again...

nobody@vox.com(DeAnne) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:13:14 -0600

It's the new year, and I'm back in the studio making stuff. As I was doing inventory, I realized that I was out of damn near everything. Big production starts again as soon as I can clear space for the drying racks. Today I'm making Winter Salvation Body Butter. I love making it, my hands and elbows and arms are always so smooth and good smelling by the time I'm done. This year, now that I've nailed down a really great supply for evening primrose oil, the butters are even richer than before. Hopefully it'll stay cool enough to ship them for a few more months, as the butters tend to go liquid in temps over 90 degrees.

I'm infusing them with roman chamomile and bergamot this year. It smells amazing. I'm really happy with this product now.

This week I'll need to get some Spiced Orange Tea and some Tea Hee into production, I'm almost completely out of both of them. Yay for making soap. I always build up stocks significantly before the holidays, and then I spend most of my time shipping and making custom orders, so I'm pretty excited to get back into the studio and start making stuff again. That's my fave part, the making of the soap. It's so very zen. I tend to take the slow route, and stir and think, and stir and think. Soapmaking is my very own quiet philosophy time, as silly as that sounds. ;) I mean, it's not like I'm defining new metaphysics or anything, but hey, remind me to tell you the one where Socrates and a platypus walk into a bar....

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Xmas Shipping Reminder

nobody@vox.com(DeAnne) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:04:11 -0600

Just a quick reminder that the last day to place an order for guaranteed delivery by Xmas is Tuesday the 18th.

Also I've now added the Giant Microbes as ala carte items, so you can send someone the plague without sending the whole basket. :)

And now, back to gift wrapping!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Blueberry Muffins

nobody@vox.com(DeAnne) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:05:13 -0600

So today is Dear Husband's birthday, and when I asked him what he'd like for his cake, he asked for blueberry muffins. So, blueberry muffins it is. :)

Here's a fabulous recipe for them, should you want to join us in a global celebration of Man. :)

INGREDIENTS

    * 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    * 3/4 cup white sugar
    * 1/2 teaspoon salt
    * 2 teaspoons baking powder
    * 1/3 cup vegetable oil
    * 1 egg
    * 1/3 cup milk
    * 1 cup fresh blueberries

Topping:
    * 1/2 cup brown sugar
    * 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
    * 1/4 cup butter, cubed (cold butter works best for me, but I use a pastry cutter for blending.)
    * 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Note: If using buttermilk instead of white milk, also add 1 tbsp vanilla.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I'm not dead!

nobody@vox.com(DeAnne) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:09:20 -0600

I'm just slammed!

The shopping season hit with a vengeance, I'm a little worried about running out of stuff. My parents are in town. Man's parents are in town. Boy's birthday is today and I'm elbows deep in trying to bake and decorate a Bugaboo cake. (Bugaboo is a creature from Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother universe.)

<img src="http://www.jillthompsonart.com/images/cast_bugaboo.jpg">

And of course, I'm missing ingredients, so need to go to the store. And I need to ship orders, deposit checks, find my coffee, retain my sanity, wrap giant presents, and prep the house for a horde of 5 year olds. (Gods help me.)

Hope all is well in y'all's world!

Oh...and how freaking annoying is it that Vox can't translate basic 1995 html. I mean, what the hell, people?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Mineral Makeup and the formulations thereof

nobody@vox.com(DeAnne) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 12:50:49 -0600

I decided that mineral makeup was crazy expensive, given that I probably had most of the ingredients already in the studio. Some of the brands out there are selling for near $100 a gram. That's like 80's drug prices...what are they thinking?

So, I needed to order some oxides which I didn't have, and I got a few that just looked too cool not to own, and have been playing for the last couple of days trying to make mineral makeup. I'm pretty sure I've succeeded.

Well, by succeeded, I mean I've created a makeup that's the right color for *me*...but considering how olive I am, it's probably way too dark or way too light for most of my friends. However, I've gotten some test bunnies...er...friends...who are willing to come over and let me experiment on them. Hooray for brave friends. :)

On the development list still are blushes and eye shadows. I dunno if I'm going to offer mineral makeup as a product line or not. I'm still researching the various FDA requirements...and the FDA, like all 3-initial organizations, writes documents in a language not normally spoken outside of the hushed halls of bureaucracy. There's a reason that every cosmetic company in the world has a team of $500 an hour attorneys...it's because of the FDA. Swear to god. I also need to look at whether or not my insurance covers a cosmetic line. So...that's on the list of things to do.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

What's that on your scrubs?

nobody@vox.com(DeAnne) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:13:04 -0500

This week, I'm mostly working on product development. I'm trying to perfect a liquid soap that is both natural and pretty...harder than one might think. Hence the reason all commercial liquid "soaps" aren't really soaps, they're detergent based on sodium laurel sulfates. As to getting a transparent liquid...there I've had no luck at all. But still, the research continues.

I've been spending a lot of time working on a Body Caviar, which I'll probably have to rename, to keep people from trying to eat it. The original formula is an anhydrous formulation with DC® 5562 Carbinol Fluid, but I've been trying to find a natural oil that I can use instead. Primarily to match the rest of the product line, although, carbinol is a great product for bath and skin applications. It's a functional silicone fluid (Bis-Hydroxyethoxypropyl Dimethicone) that's unique due to its polar organic substituents. The silicone and organic combination does really neat things on the skin, and it makes an outstanding suspension aid for pigments, salts, and sunscreens.

The "beads" that I'm using are spherical particles of trimethylated silica (Silica Silylate) that provide a vehicle for the absorption and delivery of lipophilic materials . I'm really happy with the performance of these small (1000 μm) ones. I use a larger bead with a much stronger shell for non body applications, such as certain aromatherapy modalities, but these smaller beads are performing very well in initial tests.

And I was just reminded by a phone call that I need to work on some formulations for a friend's baby. Bless her heart, the poor little thing is just itchy all the time, so I'm working on some evening primrose oil based solutions that I hope will bring her some comfort. I'm going to finish up the carbinol experiments for the day, and get to work on excema solutions.

(You know, if I'm going to play Mad Scientist, I really need one of those machines that goes zzzzzzzpth!, and an Igor. Ooooh, and a basement with a platform that raises to the sky, so during lightning storms I can stand on it and curse the elements. Mwhahahahahaha! Erm. Sorry. I think perhaps the fumes in here are stronger than expected...)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Pumpkins of Dooooooooom!

nobody@vox.com(DeAnne) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 22:06:32 -0500

We carved pumpkins today after rescuing these monsters from a local
pumpkin patch. Once they were opened, and seeded, I got easily 10
pounds of pumpkin once I pureed it all. I made a few loaves of
pumpkin bread today, but I see pumpkin soup, pumpkin bars, pumpkin
cookies, and probably pumpkin ravioli in our future. We've got
pumpkin, oh...yes we do. ;)

Anyway, here's Boy and Pumpkins. :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiderfarmer/sets/72157602567495183/

Read and post comments | Send to a friend