I think I have time to write out my soap recipe. I wasn’t going to write about the soap this afternoon, as I had a bunch of work to do, but I got it done and Papa is at work, so I think I can write this out. He may be off early, so I have dinner in the oven and the coffee made.

Anyway, about soap! You have to have an enamel pan to make it in. The lye will just eat up an aluminum pan and even eat through a cast iron skillet. I use my big enamel water bath canner to make soap in.

You don’t need to be afraid of lye. I have read recipes that say you should wear rubber gloves to stir the soap, etc. To me, that is silly. I just keep a wet rag beside me and, if the lye touches my skin, I just wipe it off. And you get lye at the grocery store over by the drain cleaner. I just use the Red Devil … it’s the 12 oz can. They call it drain opener. It’s crystals. I mean, be careful with it, but don’t be afraid of it. Keep the dog and cat and kids out of it, as it would burn their tonsils out.

Ok. I don’t cook any of it. I just throw it all in. Just pour in your pan the can of lye. Next, pour in 3 quarts of water. Stir this up with a wooden spoon until it dissolves. Next, put in the grease or lard … make sure it is at room temperature … 4 pounds of this. Don’t splash it … be gentle. Then stir it with your wooden spoon. Stir gently and go in one direction. Don’t beat it or it will curdle. Stir until you have the soap at the consistency of honey. This should take about 20 minutes of stirring.

After it thickens, then pour it into your molds. I just take the flat carboard boxes and line them with wax paper or butcher paper; not tinfoil or plastic wrap, as the soap would eat it. But just pour the thickened soap into the boxes. When it hardens up some, then cut it, like a cake, in square pieces. I think I used to get about 2 boxes of soap. Anyway, then just put your soap up in a cool dry place away from the critters and let it age for about a month.

Some folks say, “Oh, you gotta have soft water for soap making or rain water.” I just use faucet water and it’s hard as a rock. One time, my soap didnt harden up as I stirred it. I just added a bunch of dry laundry powder to it to thicken it. That made the best laundry soap you could imagine. I would cut up a bar and put it in my blender and then put it as a liquid into my washer. I would just use it for hot water washes and not cold. (It won’t dissolve in cold water.)

For hand soap, just use it as you make it with this recipe.

I have made face soap out of this by adding oatmeal.

I have also made goat milk soap by replacing one of the quarts of water with goat milk.

If you want to put herbs in it, make sure they are dried herbs.

If you want your soap a pretty color, just go to the store and get a bar of soap and cut it up and put it in as you are stirring the soap up at the end of the process. I have tried to use food coloring to color the soap but it didn’t work for me. Kool-aid might work.

If you don’t have any lard, then I think you could buy just the shortening to make your soap. I would use the cheap shortening that is made with animal fat, as opposed to the vegetable shortening. The animal shortening would be harder in texture, more like lard. I buy lard at our store. I think you can still buy it everywhere.

You know what, Christmas Mothers? Children don’t know that you are poor unless you tell them. Some years, we had so very little money to spend at Christmas, and some years, we had more. But you know, if you just have a little gift for the children to open up under the tree, that is enough.

We mothers used to mainly make our Christmas with our hands. I would make the cut out cookies galore. They are so simple to make with just the most basic ingredients, and then I would frost them with simple butter frosting. Just melt some margarine in a pan and add a bit of milk, and then start adding powdered sugar until it is thick. Add a bit of vanilla if you have it. I would frost the cookies and then sprinkle colored sugar over the top.

I made my colored sugar with food coloring. Just put some sugar in a cup and add the food coloring and mix it up. Beet juice could be used to color sugar, just a little bit … it willl turn out an old fashioned red. Making the colored sugar with the plain white crystal sugar makes the cookies look so much more old fashioned and pretty. If you have some kool-aid, you could mix it with a drop of water and color your sugar with that. Just put about a half cup of sugar in a bowl and put the coloring in, just a drop, and then it will dry pretty fast. I save mine, too, until I decorate again.

I have the old Amish mother and father cookie cutters. Mary has made so many cookies with these and decorated with maybe 3 different kinds of sugar on each cookie. Just smooth it on with your fingers. We haven’t made any cookies yet. I have been making other things.

You can just take an afternoon and make cookies with the children. They would love that. Tell them that this is their Christmas and that they can make their own cookies. We used to always save our coffee cans and decorate them with Christmas paper, and then we would put cookies in them. Maybe the children could decorate their own containers and put their own cookies in them. It’s a simple project. I used to cut a brown paper sack, lay it out flat, and then wad it up so it would look old, then cover my can with this. Then I would tie a brown string around it. Maybe the children could color on the paper that covers their cans. And then maybe you could make special cookies for them to open on Christmas morning, too.

You know, the old time Mothers never bought much for the family for Christmas. It was mainly handmade things. And their Christmases were so beautiful.

I think a mother who can set a festive Christmas table is worth her weight in gold. To just put a candle on the table and light it, and just make it pretty. My grandma Jaunita used to use her red and white linens at Christmas. She didn’t have fancy tablecloths with a Christmas design, but she would just use a tablecloth that had red and white flowers on it. Oh, she would set a beautiful table. So many of us have dishes that we never use. Let’s get them it out and use them this Christmas. I have a lovely set, white with red roses on them. I must get them out tomorrow. Papa has a box under the tree for me. I know it is a set of Christmas dishes. The children and their Daddy always know what to buy Mama … “dishes.” Danny, last year, got me dessert plates at the dollar store for a buck each … the Currier and Ives, each with a different winter scene on them.

Also, I left my big table out with the two leaves in it from Thanksgiving. This way, I have fixed a place at the end for us to eat our meals, and the other end I use for baking. I have my white poinsettas in the middle. I don’t have the counter space, so I just make a space to mix my sausage and to do other kitchen chores at the end of the table. I made a second batch of sausage this afternoon. I have to knead it on the table. I will give some of this away for Christmas.

I try to have my cassette recorder out and the Christmas songs playing, and the candles lit on the table as I cook and make things for Christmas. I think that Mother brings in the Christmas spirit to the family. We need so much to make a shelter for family, and the Christmas season is the time to do it.

One year, I had a lot of cranberries in my freezer and strawberries, too. I made the cranberries as usual, as the directions said. Then I added the strawberries and mixed them up, adding sugar until I thought it was good and tasty. The cranberries thickened the strawberries and it made a wonderful jam. I called it Christmas Jam. I put in in jars and gave it away for Christmas. As long as you have the cranberries to thicken the jam, you could use red raspberries or apples to make your jam, and even apricots. Oh, yum, that sounds so good!

Dear Kitchen Saints,

Soon… very soon… I hope I can get Jim to take me to the Salvation Army. I want to get some prairie skirts to make a few more aprons. They are fun to make. Just pick out a flowered skirt, soft and cotton. Then you take your sewing scissors and cut the back of the skirt out, so that all you have is the front part of the skirt. Then just buy some cotton washable ribbon and sew them to each side of the waistband and you have a nice long apron. Sometimes, if you cut it just right a long the side seams, then you don’t even have to hem the sides.

I love the really long aprons to cover my skirts. I may even find some more long cotton skirts for spring. In the warm days I think cotton skirts are so much cooler even than shorts.

Of course, I run barefoot all year outside as I hang the clothes on the line and putter in my garden. I promised myself that when I became 40 that I would begin to wear shoes. As it ain’t even decent a woman my age, a grown mother of six children, barefoot. But I turned 40 and I still don’t wear shoes, and then 50 and now 53. I don’t imagine I will ever wear shoes. Well, except when I go to town, ya know? When I first started writing, and to my surprise I got published, I would say to the Lord, “But Lord, I don’t even wear shoes.”

I told Christian Joy, my 27 year old, how I felt. She said, “Oh, Mom, don’t worry about it. Anyone who reads your writing would already know that you don’t wear shoes.” So I guess I’m not fooling anyone, even though I hide behind this email machine.

Well I need to get busy. Just wanted to tell you about the aprons so that maybe you can get some made before spring.

I think for supper I will fix Papa shepherds pie. I just put layer of cooked and drained hamburger at the bottom of a pan. Then put some green beans on the top. Then pour gravy or diluted mushroom soup on the top of that. Then I make mashed potatoes and put them on the top and bake them until they are brown. Papa will be needing some gravy by today. He has some errands to run after work so I will have plenty of time to do my gardening plans on paper this afternoon.

Well, I had better start rattling pots and pans, as Mary Lehman always says when she is starting to fix a meal. Have a good day.

Love,
Connie