Take a look by clicking the banner below. I'd love to hear what you think :)
Also: Safety Assessments should soon be in for the traditional soaps, as well as a range of shower gels, lip balms and bath goodies. Watch this space!!
Kevin x
Sunday, July 18, 2010
We're Redesigned!!
Well after a long day of very hard work, I've managed to completely redesign our site.
Take a look by clicking the banner below. I'd love to hear what you think :)
Also: Safety Assessments should soon be in for the traditional soaps, as well as a range of shower gels, lip balms and bath goodies. Watch this space!!
Kevin x
Take a look by clicking the banner below. I'd love to hear what you think :)
Also: Safety Assessments should soon be in for the traditional soaps, as well as a range of shower gels, lip balms and bath goodies. Watch this space!!
Kevin x
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Scented Wooden Roses
Hi all,
Made these today and I'm looking for opinions...
These are scented with rose FO and I really like them. I have all different colours so could do loads of different scents. Thinking of selling with a small (20ml or so) spray bottle, made like a room spray but stronger, that the customer can spray on the roses to refresh the scent.
What do you think?
Kevin x
Made these today and I'm looking for opinions...
These are scented with rose FO and I really like them. I have all different colours so could do loads of different scents. Thinking of selling with a small (20ml or so) spray bottle, made like a room spray but stronger, that the customer can spray on the roses to refresh the scent.
What do you think?
Kevin x
Monday, July 5, 2010
Spatchcock Chicken...!
Hi everyone,
I tried something new for the first time yesterday: spatchcocking a chicken!
Spatchcock basically means you cut out the bird's backbone and flatten it - like they do at Nandos. It's a lovely way of cooking a chicken on the BBQ as most of it cooks in the same amount of time. However, if you try it be sure to remove the keel bone which is the bit of cartilage and bone between the chicken's breasts (hehe!) as it makes the bird much easier to carve.
There is a good video tutorial for this here.
So anyway, I cooked the bird until almost done, then started slathering BBQ marinade all over both sides with a silicone brush every time I turned it over. The result was a delicious, moist yet flavoursome chicken.
I put the chicken in a pitta bread with a nice dressed salad and some coleslaw on the side. To accompany, I put some Jersey Royal potatoes in a foil pouch with oil, butter, salt and pepper and put on the BBQ at about the same time I started marinaded the chicken. They were delicious!
Here are some pics for you:
Go on, give it a go. I'm sure you'll love it!
With the leftovers, I have just finished making a scrummy chicken and mushroom risotto. Mmmmmmm!
Kevin x
I tried something new for the first time yesterday: spatchcocking a chicken!
Spatchcock basically means you cut out the bird's backbone and flatten it - like they do at Nandos. It's a lovely way of cooking a chicken on the BBQ as most of it cooks in the same amount of time. However, if you try it be sure to remove the keel bone which is the bit of cartilage and bone between the chicken's breasts (hehe!) as it makes the bird much easier to carve.
There is a good video tutorial for this here.
So anyway, I cooked the bird until almost done, then started slathering BBQ marinade all over both sides with a silicone brush every time I turned it over. The result was a delicious, moist yet flavoursome chicken.
I put the chicken in a pitta bread with a nice dressed salad and some coleslaw on the side. To accompany, I put some Jersey Royal potatoes in a foil pouch with oil, butter, salt and pepper and put on the BBQ at about the same time I started marinaded the chicken. They were delicious!
Here are some pics for you:
Go on, give it a go. I'm sure you'll love it!
With the leftovers, I have just finished making a scrummy chicken and mushroom risotto. Mmmmmmm!
Kevin x
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Swirly Spa Bars
Well not really sure they're swirls, more like marbled but I'm really please since these are salt bars which set up sooooooo quickly.
They contain around 50% sea salt which makes them really really soothing. They go hard like a stone and they're so lovely to use in the shower on a hot day.
It took me and Michael moving as quickly as we could, working as hot as possible to even get these in the individual moulds... Thinking I might try a loaf next time as there was lots of wastage near the end when it was setting.
Kevin x
They contain around 50% sea salt which makes them really really soothing. They go hard like a stone and they're so lovely to use in the shower on a hot day.
It took me and Michael moving as quickly as we could, working as hot as possible to even get these in the individual moulds... Thinking I might try a loaf next time as there was lots of wastage near the end when it was setting.
Kevin x
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Nutty Rocky Road
Hey everyone,
I've been doing a lot of cooking and baking lately and I have a recipe for you. This rocky road is simply delicious, even if I do say so myself! Try not to think about all that fat though, it is a treat after all...
These sweet treats are always a hit with EVERYONE. They'll sell out at bake sales and are sure to make someone smile when given as a gift. The recipe is not exact, I tend to just chuck everything in!
1. Place the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water to melt.
2. Bash the biscuits and nuts into smallish pieces and chop the cherries into a similar size and mix together with the marshmallows.
3. Once chocolate is melted, melt your butter separately and add to the chocolate. You now have to work very fast as the chocolate will begin to seize.
4. Beat the butter into the chocolate, and add to the rest of the mix.
5. Stir really well to incorporate and transfer to a baking tray lined with cling film. The mix will look grainy and you will think it is ruined as some of the fat sits on the surface. Don't panic, as it cools it will rectify itself!
6. Place in the fridge for a couple of hours to allow to set then slice into small pieces.
This should keep for a week or so, but it never lasts that long! Trust me! I like it with a thick dusting of icing sugar on top to finish it off.
Enjoy!
Kevin x
I've been doing a lot of cooking and baking lately and I have a recipe for you. This rocky road is simply delicious, even if I do say so myself! Try not to think about all that fat though, it is a treat after all...
These sweet treats are always a hit with EVERYONE. They'll sell out at bake sales and are sure to make someone smile when given as a gift. The recipe is not exact, I tend to just chuck everything in!
|
1. Place the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water to melt.
2. Bash the biscuits and nuts into smallish pieces and chop the cherries into a similar size and mix together with the marshmallows.
3. Once chocolate is melted, melt your butter separately and add to the chocolate. You now have to work very fast as the chocolate will begin to seize.
4. Beat the butter into the chocolate, and add to the rest of the mix.
5. Stir really well to incorporate and transfer to a baking tray lined with cling film. The mix will look grainy and you will think it is ruined as some of the fat sits on the surface. Don't panic, as it cools it will rectify itself!
6. Place in the fridge for a couple of hours to allow to set then slice into small pieces.
This should keep for a week or so, but it never lasts that long! Trust me! I like it with a thick dusting of icing sugar on top to finish it off.
Enjoy!
Kevin x
Ancient Orange Mead
Hi everyone,
I've recently made this mead and it's fermenting as we speak. As part of the process, I thought I would share some pictures and describe my method.
I must add that I am by no means an expert. In fact, this is my first ever mead! But it's easy enough so I urge you to give it a go. The recipe is a 'classic' and has been tried successfully by hundreds of people worldwide.
First, here's the recipe for a 1gal batch:
I also added a crushed Vit B1 tablet to each batch to help with the yeast as it was going rather slowly!
Next, a quick pic of the equipment and ingredients:
And here's my method:
1. Sterilise ALL of your equipment thoroughly... I use WVP but there are plenty of other methods if you prefer.
2. Mix your honey with some warm/hot water and add this to the container. I emptied the honey out of the jars, then added hot water to half full and poured this in too to ensure I got all of the honey out. In all, it needed just under 3.75 of these Asda Smartprice honey.
3. Chop your orange and get your stick of cinnamon, clove and raisins ready.
(Bit of a pointless pic but I thought it looked arty!!)
4. Add all of these to the container and top up with cold water to about 3 inches from the top; this is to allow for foaming of the yeast.
5. Once at room temperature, shake it up well to aerate and mix everything together take a SG reading for working out approx ABV etc. Bear in mind that this will go down a bit when you top it up with water but will go up as the sugar comes out of the fruits so this will only be approximate.
6. Finally, add the yeast to the mix and stir it in.
Voila! Now all you need to do is leave this in a warm dark place for approx 2 months and you will have a nice, tasty sweet mead (well, melomel actually but who cares?!) In a few days I will top up with water and leave it alone till the fruit drops!
UPDATE: After two days, although there was a nice foam on top, fermentation was quite slow so I added a crushed Vit B1 tablet and gave it a good shake. You can see, the raisins had rehydrated and everything is now floating:
I hope you find this useful!!!
A few notes:
I know some people have used specialist brewing yeast to make this and find it turns out FAR too dry. I know bread yeast isn't what you're 'supposed' to use for brewing but the idea is that it dies out after a certain alcohol %age, leaving some of the sugar unconverted and producing a nice sweet taste.
Also, I've made another one with a lemon and a lime in place of an orange on the recommendation of a friend of mine. I'm hoping it turns out well
Kevin
I've recently made this mead and it's fermenting as we speak. As part of the process, I thought I would share some pictures and describe my method.
I must add that I am by no means an expert. In fact, this is my first ever mead! But it's easy enough so I urge you to give it a go. The recipe is a 'classic' and has been tried successfully by hundreds of people worldwide.
First, here's the recipe for a 1gal batch:
|
I also added a crushed Vit B1 tablet to each batch to help with the yeast as it was going rather slowly!
Next, a quick pic of the equipment and ingredients:
And here's my method:
1. Sterilise ALL of your equipment thoroughly... I use WVP but there are plenty of other methods if you prefer.
2. Mix your honey with some warm/hot water and add this to the container. I emptied the honey out of the jars, then added hot water to half full and poured this in too to ensure I got all of the honey out. In all, it needed just under 3.75 of these Asda Smartprice honey.
3. Chop your orange and get your stick of cinnamon, clove and raisins ready.
(Bit of a pointless pic but I thought it looked arty!!)
4. Add all of these to the container and top up with cold water to about 3 inches from the top; this is to allow for foaming of the yeast.
5. Once at room temperature, shake it up well to aerate and mix everything together take a SG reading for working out approx ABV etc. Bear in mind that this will go down a bit when you top it up with water but will go up as the sugar comes out of the fruits so this will only be approximate.
6. Finally, add the yeast to the mix and stir it in.
Voila! Now all you need to do is leave this in a warm dark place for approx 2 months and you will have a nice, tasty sweet mead (well, melomel actually but who cares?!) In a few days I will top up with water and leave it alone till the fruit drops!
UPDATE: After two days, although there was a nice foam on top, fermentation was quite slow so I added a crushed Vit B1 tablet and gave it a good shake. You can see, the raisins had rehydrated and everything is now floating:
I hope you find this useful!!!
A few notes:
I know some people have used specialist brewing yeast to make this and find it turns out FAR too dry. I know bread yeast isn't what you're 'supposed' to use for brewing but the idea is that it dies out after a certain alcohol %age, leaving some of the sugar unconverted and producing a nice sweet taste.
Also, I've made another one with a lemon and a lime in place of an orange on the recommendation of a friend of mine. I'm hoping it turns out well
Kevin
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Homebrew: Making a Plastic Demijon
Hi all,
Something I've been doing lately is making homebrew! It's so cheap compared to supermarket prices but can be quite expensive to start out so I decided to make my own demijons from 5ltr water bottles. Here's how:
Here's all of the equipment you'll need:
1. Place the lid on the bottle, and drill a hole. I used 13mm as that's the size needed for my grommet.
2. Wash the blue bits out of the bottle, then place the grommet in the hole.
3. Insert the airlock and, voila, one shiny new FV!
I hope someone finds this useful!
Kevin
Something I've been doing lately is making homebrew! It's so cheap compared to supermarket prices but can be quite expensive to start out so I decided to make my own demijons from 5ltr water bottles. Here's how:
Here's all of the equipment you'll need:
- Empty 5ltr water bottle
- Drill & drill bits
- Rubber grommet (from any homebrew store)
- Airlock
1. Place the lid on the bottle, and drill a hole. I used 13mm as that's the size needed for my grommet.
2. Wash the blue bits out of the bottle, then place the grommet in the hole.
3. Insert the airlock and, voila, one shiny new FV!
I hope someone finds this useful!
Kevin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)