I've been making some of the soap for gifts

I'll be gifting some of this soap in less than a month. I didn't want to make the soap too far in advance, as glycerin soap gets "weepy" with age, IME. I don't know exactly what that age is, maybe a few to several months. In any case, I wanted to make this as close to gifting, as I could, but still insure that I would have extra time, in case it didn't go as planned. (You know life -- it never goes as planned!)

This is the honey-almond-oatmeal soap.

I used a goat's milk glycerin soap base, bought at Michael's with a 50% off coupon, honey-almond soap fragrance, bought at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon, honey from my pantry, oats from my pantry, the cardboard box from some spaghetti noodles, lined with plastic wrap and sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, from my pantry, at the end of pouring, I sprayed with rubbing alcohol, from my cupboards.

Since there is so much information on making melt and pour soap, already, out there. I thought I'd just give you some specific info on questions I had for my own batch.

How much oatmeal (or other dry matter like coarsely ground herbs/flower petals) in a batch of soap?

• no more than 1/4 cup ground oats (1/3-1/2 cup rolled oats) per 1 lb of soap base. I used about 3 tablespoons of ground oats, per pound and a quarter.

What form of oats to use in soap?

• the type of oats used in bars of soap is somewhere between colloidal oatmeal (finely ground, like a flour/meal), and quick-cooking oats. I took my regular rolled oats and ran them briefly through my coffee grinder, to get the right grind.

How much honey to add to soap base?

• some recipes called for as much as a couple of tablespoons of honey per pound of soap. I used 1 tablespoon of honey per pound and a quarter.

What to us for a mold?

• I used a long, narrow spaghetti noodle box, roughly 10.75 inches by 2.75 inches. This will give me 4 almost square bars of finished soap, that I will cut with a chef's knife.

How do I prepare the box for a mold?

• I used duct tape to tape the open end, closed. I used glue stick inside, to glue that opening flap on the inside, shut.
• I used an x-acto knife to slit the top of the box, down the center, and then the ends of the box, so that once slit, I had "flaps" that opened up the box, for a long, narrow tray, about 1  1/2 inches deep.
• I sprayed the inside bottom of the box, very lightly, with spray adhesive. This isn't completely necessary, but I wanted the plastic wrap to stay in place, when un-molding the soap. A little glue stick would also work. I allowed the glue to partially dry, for 20 minutes. It was tacky at this point. See notes on reusing box, as it didn't go perfectly.
• I then lined the box with a sheet of plastic wrap. This was tricky, at first, but ultimately worked out. I was able to reposition the plastic wrap, as needed, when lining the box.
• before pouring in the soap, I lightly sprayed with non-stick cooking spray -- this step was super helpful in un-molding the soap.

How do I find out how much soap to use for my box mold?

• I didn't want a bar as thick as the depth of the box, but one that was a little over an inch thick
• I calculated the cubic measurement of my box, with about 1  1/4 inches as my depth (width multiplied by height/depth multiplied by length)
• I entered my cubic inches into this calculator online to convert cubic inches to liquid volume
• for my box, my cubic inches was 36.95, and I used 1  1/4 pounds of soap base
• my resulting bars are about 2.68 inches by 2.75 inches, but only 1 inch tall. A lot of soap seemed to remain in my melting can. So, for future bars of soap, in this box, I'll add about 2 extra ounces per pound, of soap base. I can always pour extra soap into a yogurt container.

How do you keep bubbles from forming on the surface of the soap, after pouring?

• immediately after pouring the soap into the mold, I sprayed/spritzed the surface of the soap with rubbing alcohol, using the spray top to my fine-mist spray bottle (a repurposed body mist bottle)

How do I keep the sides of the box from bowing out, after filling with soap?

• I used 2 hardbound books -- before pouring the soap, I set a book right up against each of the long sides of the box, holding the sides of the box in place -- a very lightweight, make-shift vise of sorts. It worked well-enough for me, to yield bars with straight sides.

How long do I keep my soap in the box?

• I left mine in overnight. The next morning, I tried flipping the box over to un-mold and the soap wouldn't come out. So, I put the box into the freezer for half an hour. 

Will it come out of the mold easily?

• I had trouble getting my soap bar out of the mold. I used a table knife to loosen it. It was primarily stuck in the corners. I undid one of the taped ends of the box, to retrieve my soap.

Can I reuse my box mold?

• this is why I went to the trouble to adhere plastic wrap to my box. I want to make a differently fragranced set of soap, when this batch was done, using the same box. Ultimately, I did get the soap out of the box. I will reline the box with new plastic, I think, and try to reuse the same box.

What do you do about the lines and marks from the plastic wrap?

• I wasn't careful enough with lining the box with the plastic, so the obvious answer for me is to be more careful to line the box next time, without wrinkles, as much as possible.
• otherwise, you can smooth out many imperfections on your soap, using a plain terry towel. I simply buffed my soap until the markings were less obvious. This is homemade hand-crafted soap, so some imperfections are to be expected, and desired. Having added oats to the soap worked great as a camouflage for some of the imperfections. My next batch will have semi-ground lavender buds in it, again concealing some of the imperfections from pouring into a make-shift mold. 

How do you cut the large bar into individual bars?

• After measuring and lightly marking my long bar, I used a chef's knife, with a quick push downward (no sawing). Worked like a charm.

I like how this hand-crafted soap turned out. It was easy enough, and the cost was reasonable. I was able to buy the 2 ingredients that I lacked, the soap base and the scented oil, with coupons, substantially reducing my cost per bar. Each bar came to just under $1, including tax. The top photo shows 1 bar of hand-crafted soap along with one of my hand-crafted spa cloths (at about 80 cents each). Those two items together, tied with a pretty ribbon, would make a nice gift, and the total cost is under $2.

To wrap each bar of soap, I will use some cellophane that I have here. I have a large cellophane bag that  I will repurpose, by cutting into squares for wrapping individual bars.

Next week, I'll make the lavender soap, to pair with the lavender-colored spa cloths that I knit. 

How to make crispy fried noodles out of thin spaghetti, for topping Asian soups and salads

These aren't exactly like commercial crispy chow mein noodles, but they are very good in their own right.

I was making an Asian cabbage and chicken salad the other day, and wanted to top it with crispy noodles. I've made crispy lasagna noodle squares before, so I knew this was possible to do from dried pasta. I thought you might like to try this sometime, too.

Here's what I used and did:

• dry, thin spaghetti noodles -- I used whole wheat and it was "thin spaghetti" (if you use someting else, you'll have to adjust your timing of cooking the pasta in water), about enough for 1 serving of pasta
• 3 teaspoons corn starch
• oil for frying, no more than 1/2 of a saucepan of oil (too much can overflow when noodles are added)

Break uncooked noodles in half. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop the thin spaghetti into the water, and stir to separate. Set the timer for 4 minutes. (This thin spaghetti normally takes 5-7 minutes to cook. So, for other pasta, I'd subtract 1 minute from the low end of cooking time suggestion.)

After 4 minutes, drain the noodles, thoroughly. Spread on a dinner plate.

Sprinkle the noodles with 1 teaspoon of corn starch. Use a fork to toss the noodles and corn starch together.

Sprinkle, again, with 1 teaspoon of corn starch, and again toss with a fork to distribute the corn starch.

One more time, sprinkle the noodles with the last teaspoon of corn starch. Use your fingers to toss the noodles, thoroughly, picking up any corn starch on the plate beneath the noodles.

Allow to stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Bring oil up to about 350 degrees, over Medium heat. Test the oil with one piece of spaghetti to see if it begins sizzling right away. When test piece is sizzling, well, remove it from the oil.

Drop small pinches of the noodles into the hot oil, in 3 separate spots in the oil. The oil will foam up significantly, from the moisture in the noodles. When the sizzling is almost done, the noodles should be cooked.

Use a slotted frying scoop to remove cooked noodles, and place on a paper lined plate. About half way through frying all of the noodles, transfer the fried noodles to a new plate lined with paper. Continue using the old paper-lined plate for remaining noodles.

After the noodles have cooled, they can be kept in a tightly-sealed container in the pantry for a few days.

I am considering frying regular white spaghetti noodles, to use in haystack cookies, this holiday season. I'll let you know how they turn out.