Special gifts

My wonderful boss, well one of them, is retiring at the end of this month. I've only known her since March when I started here, but she is one of the most awesome people I've ever met. Her enthusiasm and joie de vivre is like nothing I've ever encountered before. When she found out I made soaps, she said, bring me some and I'll pay for them. That's the type of person she is; always willing to help out and believes in everyone's potential.

As part of my gift to her, I've made a gardener's soap and a chick and egg soap. The gardener's soap is for her to share with her husband, "Gardener Bob" as she refers to him. He went from being a banker to being a consummate gardener in his retirement. The chick and egg soap is a tribute to her many years of teaching kindergarten children all about chicks. I'm also including some whipped butter for her to use after cleaning up after gardening all day, as well as a most adorable poster.

Coloured with gold mica for the chick and antique blue for the egg. Scented with champagne for a light but refreshing scent.

Made with coffee grounds in the top layer of honey soap, a mix of honey and goat's milk soap in the middle layer,  and ground oatmeal in goat's milk for the bottom layer. Scented with chocolate fudge and vanilla for extra yumminess.

♫How dry I am, ♬nobody knows♭

My sister says everything reminds her of a song, and it does happen more often than not.

But back to this week's theme. My sister-in-law bought a u-brew place. Need I say more?

I "heart" wine. Get it?

This is why BB says not to use low sweat clear for embeds because it's hard to see them or the green layer below. D'oh!

Originally I was hoping to make more of a cascade of grapes, but the size of the balls weren't conducive to the overall shape of the mould, hence why they look the way they do (as opposed to me having had too much wine prior to making these soaps).

I scented the soaps with raspberry and chocolate, the idea being those are flavours you're supposed to taste in wine. Even though the scent isn't grape, the subliminal effect makes one think it smells like grape. Cool huh? Either that or the original scent is grape, but calling it sun-ripened raspberry sounds way more appealing.

Hope you're all having a happy Easter. Any excuse to eat more chocolate is a good one right?

It's cookie time

Every year, my friends get edible gifts for me because I figure it's one of those gifts that won't get re-gifted, and who doesn't like cookies? I tend to make the same cookies each year but since it's only once a year, no one seems to mind. One cookie I make that everyone seems to be impressed with is the Neopolitan cookie. It's easy to make, but looks like a lot of work.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup margarine or butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond or peppermint extract
5 drops red food colouring
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature

Line a 9x5x3 inch pan with waxed paper, allowing the ends of the paper to hang over the sides of the pan.

In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and beat until mixture is fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat just until the ingredients are combined. Slowly add the flour mixture beating on medium speed for about 3 minutes or until ingredients are combined.

Divide dough into 3 portions and place each into a separate bowl. Stir almond or peppermint extract and food colouring into one portion. Stir chopped nuts into second portion and the melted chocolate into remaining portion.

Pat the pink dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared loaf pan. Pat the dough with nuts over the pink dough and top with chocolate dough. Cover the pan and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours or until the dough is firm enough to slice.

Preheat oven to 350F. Remove the chilled dough from the pan by lifting the waxed paper ends, remove the waxed paper. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough lengthwise in half. Cut each cookie block crosswise into 1/8 to 1/4" wide slices. Arrange the slices about 1" apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are firm and light brown. Cool cookies on sheet for 1 minute then trasnfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Yield:  72-84 cookies.