Test Kitchen Thursday! - Silicone Molds

Welcome to the test kitchen! For the last week I've been testing out a really cool product, now available just in time for CHRISTMAS! You guys, I'm SO excited about this, I've been recording my experience using these really cool silicone molds and have put together a compilation of the things I've made with them!


I do want to make note of a few main points to recap what I discussed in the video.

- I did NOT use any baking spray or oil during any of these tests.
- When releasing, gently pull the sides of each cavity first and then turn over and gently push the bottom.
- I cannot recommend these for jello/gelatin desserts, that doesn't mean you may not have luck with them, but they didn't work for me.

Overall, I recommend these for making ice, holiday baking, soap making or crayon making, and chocolate/candy making. This is a fabulous product & I think I'll get a second set so that I can keep one for soap making and a second one for the kitchen.

Buy them on Amazon now!

FTC Disclosure: Products were provided to me free of charge in order to supply a review for the product. All opinions are clearly my own as demonstrated above. Links to purchase products are likely affiliate links.

Tomato Patchouli Soap - Great Cakes Soapworks Soap Challenge!

Recently I've taken a liking to making my own soap. I've researched cold process soap making for over a year and it wasn't until just the last few months that I've been really ready to make my own. When I heard about the Great Cakes Soapworks soap making challenge, I knew it would be something I should try so that I could learn even more about this skill, or rather, art form. I signed up for the email notification so that I would be able to register for the next one and I waited.

When I got the email announcing the theme would be "alternative liquid" I KNEW this was right for me. Just the day before getting that email, I had made my own salsa and had saved the juice in my freezer. I registered as soon as I settled on a recipe and ordered myself a soap mold! (Prior to this, I had only done two soaps and had just used recycled boxes lined with plastic bags.)

When I realized the soap mold wouldn't arrive in time to make and enter the video into the challenge, I quickly found a container I could recycle to use and went to town making my soap!

Here's the video of me doing that, please go watch it and leave feedback here or comment on the video - (and yes, I know the lighting is a little dark but still very easy to watch!)

Tomatoes Are Amazing!

Now as for why I chose tomato juice for my alternate liquid, that's because I had it. But that doesn't mean I didn't want to do a bit of searching into the cosmetic benefits of tomatoes. According to a research study done at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, consumption of tomatoes, specifically tomato paste, has significant benefits in protecting your skin from the sun's UV rays.(1)

The lycopene in tomatoes is also studied and some results have shown that it can provide relief of oxidative stress in people with diabetes. (2) Again, this study likely focuses on the consumption of tomatoes rather than the use of tomatoes cosmetically.

According to this hair boutique article, if one were to apply tomatoes to their face, it could help maintain the skin's moisture & balance pH levels. In fact, Burt's Bees has an entire skincare line dedicated to highlighting the benefits of tomatoes for the skin. (3) 

Please review the references I'll cite below for more information.  Thanks so much for reading and to Amy of Great Cakes Soapworks, thank you x1000 for the incredible learning opportunity. I look forward to making more soap, I juiced some oranges today, dried and ground the rind, and dried the remainder of the inside to infuse in oil. I'll be making an orange soap in the near future!

Edited slightly to help show the truer color.

This girl happily entertained herself with a spoon while momma edited her video!
Thanks for your patience my darling!

References:
1) Hope, Jenny. "Tomatoes 'help Keep Skin Young' and Protect against Sunburn." Daily Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 07 June 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. 
2) Valero, M. A., A. Vidal, R. Burgos, F. L. Calvo, C. Martinez, L. M. Luengo, and C. Cuerda. "Result Filters." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 26 Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
3) Shelton, Karen Marie. "Tomatoes In Your Face & In Your Hair: Beauty From The Garden." Tomatoes In Your Face & In Your Hair: Beauty From The Garden. HairBoutique.com, 26 Sept. 2009. Web. 13 Oct. 2015

Adventures in Fermenting My Own Kraut

What do you do when  you have most of a cabbage left over because you only needed one leaf for your last project? You eat it! Or ferment it! (Or both!)

Here we have the two ingredients I need for making my own kraut. I used 1 small head of red cabbage (about 6" in diameter) and 1-2 tablespoons of kosher salt.

I'll include links at the bottom for where to get some of the tools to help make this job a lot easier.

Chop it all up and put it in a bowl, sprinkling salt between layers. One layer was about 1/4 of the cabbage.

Here's my full bowl of cabbage. Put the lid on the container and let it sit for 15 minutes, shaking it vigorously every 5 minutes. This helps the salt get the juices from the cabbage flowing.

Start packing your cabbage into your jar. Get a pickle packer or other pushing utensil. In order to pack the cabbage down aggressively enough with my hand, I ended up breaking my jar and wasting about 1/2 cup of cabbage. Darn it! That was a good, wide mouth pickle jar. :( 

Rescue another jar from the recycling bin, this time it's a tall pasta sauce jar. Pack the cabbage in as good as you can, it's important to pack it in firmly, this helps get the juices flowing well and helps you fit enough in the jar. If I hadn't packed it in well, I estimate it would've taken up twice as much room.

Find out that your pickle pebble (glass weight) doesn't fit in the top of a pasta jar. Cry.

Fill a snack baggie with sand and use that instead. Curse the jar gods for making your good wide-mouth jar break. Remind yourself to always use a pickle packer instead.

Cap off the top with a clean cloth (a paper towel works if the one you'd planned on using got thrown away due to broken glass fragments.)

Now let that baby sit for 3+ days to ferment nice and juicy!