Honey ice-cream

First ice-cream of the season. Honey.

 Only 3 ingredients. Cream, eggs, honey.

Just perfect for this warmer weather. :)

Spring pasta!

The neighbour's ducks are laying like crazy. Yeah! We received quite a bit of that bounty, and the first thing that springs to mind - Pasta! Duck eggs are just perfect for making pasta, and baking. But that will have to wait.

So on to making tagliatelle.

Broad beans and asparagus from the garden. Some leftover chicken. Plenty of parsley. A perfect meal! :)

Salami

Remember the pig we cut up? Well, the salami is now ready to eat. And it is delicious! Definitely worth all the work.

Maybe this is not the best picture. But every time I have some slices on the board, they disappear!

Smooth lips

I have been experimenting with my own home-made lip balm.The first batch was Lavender/Chamomile lip balm. Can double as hand balm, too.

6 TB almond oil
1 TB beeswax
dried chamomile & lavender flowers (or fresh)

Heat almond oil in little pot, add flowers, let steep on low heat until the oil smells of the flowers.
Strain oil, squeeze flowers. Put oil back into pot and add beeswax. When beeswax is melted pour mixture quickly into little wide-mouthed jars or similar. It will set within a few seconds.

The second and current batch:3 TB olive oil
4 TB almond oil
dried/fresh chamomile & lavender flowers
1 TB beeswax
1 TB coconut oil
1 TB honey*

Heat olive and almond oil in little pot, add flowers, let steep on low heat until the oil is lovely fragrant. Strain oil, squeeze flowers. Put back into pot and add rest of ingredients. When everything is melted, pour into little jars.
*The honey may have been a mistake. Either there was too much of it, or it just does not work with honey. It didn't melt into the rest of the liquid. So that's why you can see the honey at the bottom of the little jars. It does taste nice, though. The mixture has a touch of honey. But as soon as you get close to the bottom of the jar, it gets a bit too sticky.

Smelly Armpits #2

Or the lack thereof. Don't blame me if you start sniffing your armpits to check whether it is working.

Here is the recipe for your own home-made deodorant. It is such fun to make and really easy.

Adapted from a Jackie French recipe:

4 tbs almond oil
1 tbs beeswax
1 tsp lavender oil
1 tsp juniper berry oil
1 tsp clove oil

Heat oil and wax till wax is melted. Take off the heat. Add the oils. Stir to combine. Pour into a wide mouthed jar. It will set very quickly.

You only need to apply the tiniest smear in the morning.
This is the recipe Tassie Gnome used. I used rosemary, lemon and lavender. But I think any anti-bacterial oil will work well.
It smells lovely!

Should you see...

...two people sniffing their armpits (their own, not each other's) and saying, 'Gee, they smell nice!', that's us at the moment. Just ignore us. We are harmless.
I am sure we will get over it. Soon. There is a good reason for it, though. I made some deodorant and it's incredibly fragrant and lovely.
Blame Tassie Gnome, she got us on to it. Thanks! :)