blat:
din 4 ouă/făină/zahăr
150ml sirop de la compotul de piersici/suc de piersici

Mod preparare:

• • se topește ciocolata în frișcă la foc mic(atenție să nu ajungă compoziția la punctul de fierbere)
  • noua frișcă cu ciocolată se lasă la răcit, apoi se pune la frigider(preferabil să o pregătiți cu o zi înainte de a o folosi)
  • lăsați câteva bucăți de raffaelo și felii de piersica pentru ornare
  • se bate frișca cu ciocolata cu ajutorul mixerului, apoi se adauga raffaello sfărâmat ușor
  • se pune un inel de tort în jurul blatului, apoi se însiropează și se așează felii de piersică pe el
  • după ce a fost întinsă crema se lasă la rece până a doua zi(sau minim 3h)
  • se orneaza dupa bunul plac, aveți mai jos poze cu cele ornate de mine până acum:

* îi mulțumesc mătușii mele Elisabeta pentru rețeta inițială

Most of the oils will give you a final color that ranges from milk white to beige to light braun, maybe some shades of green. Here are other oils or ingredients that you can add to the recipe to influence the color.

Orange tones

• easy to obtain a light orange tone if you use carrot juice as liquid for your lye. remember to respect the recommendation I made in tips and tricks about the lye making process
• If you use palm root oil in proportion of 20% or more, you can get a nice rich orange

Red tones

• put 2 table spoons of paprika in 100ml sunflower oil for 2weeks. use the obtained colored oil after filtering from remaining powder. I’ve obtained light pink tones with this combination as additive in my soap recipe
• slice in dices one avocado. pour your lye solution over the avocado and let it rest for 24h. heat the lye solution to become liquid and use a sieve to remove de avocado dices. adjust the oils amount according to your remaining lye solution. you will obtain a dark red – burgundy color

Brown tones

• my husband and I love coffee and that is why this ingredient is not missing from my soap recipes. now, the stronger the coffee used in your lye solution the darker the color of the soap will be. don’t forget to freeze the coffee before making your lye solution. see tips and tricks
• a spotted brown can be obtained if coffee is used as exfoliant

The lye solution:

• it can be made out of water, tea, fruit juice, milk, coffee or any other liquid that you consider proper for the soap
• in order to avoid destroying all the properties of the liquid that you have chosen, due to the high temperatures from the reaction with the lye, I freeze the liquid after measuring
• sugar can be added in the lye solution to increase how “bubbly” the final soap will be

Essential oils:

• can accelerate the saponification process
• they can blend during the cure time

Additives:

• fruits and vegetables can decrease the soap’s “life”
• if you want to use natural flowers to decorate your soap, take into consideration that during the saponification process the beautiful colors of the dried flowers can be damaged
[See image gallery at andthenenjoy.com]
• I will soon write about my experience with natural coloration

Molds:

• don’t use small molds if the soap is thickening too fast; you will no longer be able to pour it or end up with bars that look like this
[See image gallery at andthenenjoy.com]
• if your molds have small details, let the soaps rest for 2 days, then freeze them. your soap will come out easily and you avoid breaking it

Gelling phase:

• all cold process soaps tend to enter the gelling phase. you can help your soap through this phase. an incomplete gelling phase will damage the look of your soap
[See image gallery at andthenenjoy.com]
• in case you want a milky color for your soap, avoid this phase and put the soap in a ventilated area to decrease its temperature
• if you want a more translucent soap then keep the soap warm in the first hour after pouring it into the mold. the gelled soaps tend to be harder from the beginning

Ingredients:
500g olive oil
168g water
62g lye

How to make the soap:

1. measure all the ingredients
2. make sure you have proper protection for your hands, arms, body and eyes and that you work in a ventilated area
3. when creating your lye solution, always pour the lye into the water and not vice-versa, and continue mixing the lye solution till the salt is blended with the water.
4. check that the oil and lye solution are both at around 40 degrees Celsius. if so, pour the lye over the oil while mixing with a blender.
5. when you reach the point where the mixture is getting the consistency of a pudding, you can pour the “pudding” into your molds
6. after 24h you can remove the soap from the mold and cut it
7. the olive soap needs more time to cure, so let it rest for at last 6 weeks before using it

Notes

• It is very important for me that I use a good quality unrefined cold pressed olive oil
• to boost the olive proprieties you can add 2 table spoons of mashed olives at the end
• in case a fragrance is wanted, for this quantity you need 10g of the essential oil

To hang a nut in a Xmas tree is easy, just follow the pictures and let your imagination do the choosing for the needle, nail, bow, or whether you want it painted or maybe wrapped and the list can go on.
[See image gallery at andthenenjoy.com]

Mod preparare:

• roşiile tăiate în două şi ardeii bucăţele se presară cu puţin ulei măsline, sare şi piper apoi se pun cca 15min la cuptor preîncălzit la 200 grade
• se pune apă la fiert cu 1/2 linguriţa de sare
• când fierbe apa se pun pastele care se lasă până sunt pătrunse dar nu moi
• ceapa curăţată şi tăiată mărunt se căleşte în 2 linguri de ulei de măsline la foc mediu; când e aproape gata se adaugă usturoiul mărunţit, măslinele tăiate în inele sau sferturi şi un polonic din apa de pe paste
• la urmă se pune busuiocul tăiat fâşii, pastele, mozzarela ruptă în bucăţele şi legumele de la cuptor
• se poate lăsa pentru ornare puţin busuioc şi bucăţi de mozzarela

I remember when my mom started to use different color products that were available on the market after the communism period and although they made the eggs brighter and shiny… I never really liked them because the egg white also got colored in the process.

I’m sure that all the chemicals contained in the pigment also get in our stomach, so for my family I decided to turn back to what mom and me learned from grandma and use dried onion leaves.

What you will need:

• eggs
• dried onion leaves
• pot

* in case you want to also apply a pattern on the egg, add the following to your list:

• your favorite pattern(leaves or flowers) – I chose the clover
• a pair of old/broken women stockings. By all means, use sexy new ones if you wish to!
• a strong sewing thread
• scissors

[See image gallery at andthenenjoy.com]
Step by step:
* steps in italic font are to be ignored if you only want to color your eggs without a pattern

1. take an egg and place one of the leaves/flowers on top
2. fix the leaf/flower to the egg by wrapping both in a piece of stocking
3. tighten the stocking by twisting it on the opposite side of the leaf/flower
4. tie the stocking with thread so it does not unwrap
5. repeat for all the eggs that you wish to paint
6. put the onion leaves in the pot. I used the dried layers from 3-5 onions
7. place the unboiled eggs over them and pour water to cover everything
8. let them boil at low fire for 20-30 minutes
9. take out one egg at a time, remove the stocking and use it to also remove the leaf or flower
10. apply a bit of oil or fat on the eggs to make them shine and to fix the color

All that’s left is to arrange the eggs however you wish.

Notes:
* you will get different colors according to what type of onions you use. Regular onions usually give a brown shade while the red onions give a burgundy or purple-ish tone
* don’t worry about finding a four leaf clover. Just make one using an extra petal. The stocking will hold it in place

Naturally, the problem of how to store and organize all her nail polish came up one day. She wanted something that could be mounted on the wall in our bedroom closet.

We did some searching and found the Ikea hack idea with Ribba frame holders but decided not to use them as the small bottles kept sliding and wanting to tumble or even fall.

What we did like though was the idea of multiple small shelves. We also wanted a way to make the small bottles more stable (she uses exclusively the OPI small bottles) so I though of drilling some wide holes into the shelf and inserting some felt pads in them.

What I used to make the shelves:

• drilling machine
• Forstner boring drill for wood
• cabinet keyhole suspension fittings (plastic or metal) – take 2 for each shelf
• felt pads
• as many square wooden dowels as you need (I only bought a long one since it was cheaper and I have an electrical saw)
• 2 pan head screws with anchors for each shelf that you want to make
• different grades of sand paper: coarse, fine, very fine (only if you cut the wood yourself)

[See image gallery at andthenenjoy.com]
Things to consider before buying:

1. you need to choose a boring drill that is a bit wider than the base of your nail polish bottles (otherwise they won’t fit)
2. after selecting the drill, use it to select an appropriate size for the wood
3. make sure that the plastic suspension fitting and the drill are the same size
4. the felt pads should either be the same size as the drill or smaller
5. take one of your nail polish bottles with you when choosing the wood dowels

[See image gallery at andthenenjoy.com]
Step by step:

1. cut the wood into the lengths that you wish – mine were all 50 cm in length
2. in order to have perfectly aligned holes, we need to do a bit of preparation:
   • on the top part of the wood draw one horizontal line. You will use this to align the edge of your drill to it. Draw it close to the outer edge but leave 3-5 mm distance from it. The reason why I drew the line at the outer edge and not try to measure so that the drill will land in the middle is because we need space between the wall and the bottles
   • now we must draw vertical lines so we know where to drill. The distance between these vertical lines is a sum of the following:
     • the diameter of your biggest nail polish bottle + 5 mm. That 5 mm is actually the distance between the bottles. If the bottles don’t have a funnel shape but are straight, then you can leave a bit more than 5 mm
     • with the new length established from the previous point, calculate how many fit on one shelf and what is the length of the remaining unused space. If you do not have any unused space, substract one nail polish spot
     • decide from which side you wish to start drawing the vertical lines
     • to calculate where to draw the first line, add the distance in between the bottles that you chose (5 mm in our case) to the unused space and then divide by 2
     • draw the next lines using the distance calculated at the first point (diameter of bottle plus space in between)
3. drilling the holes for the bottles:
   • always align your drill’s edge with both the top line and the vertical line
   • when you have the drill set in place, make the hole but not deeper than 7.5 mm
4. on the back side of each shelf/rack measure equal distances from the edge for 2 holes where you will place the suspension fittings
5. drill holes for the fittings deep enough to fit them perfectly
6. insert the fittings. Be careful to align them straight. Once they start going in, it’s quite hard to get them out (that is the point)
7. using the sand paper, remove any pencil marks, rough edges and then continue sanding until you get a smooth finish
8. after cleaning the wood, place the felt pads inside the holes for the bottles
9. using one of the shelves and a construction level, decide where you need to drill the holes. Then measure the position of the next holes at equal distances using the level to make sure you’re going straight
10. drill all the holes and insert the anchors and screws but do not tighten them till the end
11. alternate tightening the screws with testing the shelf on the wall until you feel that it is fixed well enough
12. take a picture and show it to us in the comments!

Note: you do not need to stay in the position that I was sitting in the picture above. That was just me trying to make my wife laugh.