Au Naturel is the BEST Soap for Troubled Skin

Do you have troubled skin?  Problem skin?  Skin that acts like a hormonally moody teenager – acting right one moment, irritating you the next?  Then have I got a soap for you!  At event after event, through Facebook messages and emails, customers often ask me,

I have psoriasis and eczema.  Do you have any soap that will cure that?

My answer is always, “No.  None of my soaps will cure skin diseases.”

However, I have a lot of customers who have tried Au Naturel (formerly known as Soap of Milk & Honey – and Oatmeal) and have come back with nothing but praise for it with reports that it has helped their skin tremendously.

Au Naturel Soap
Au Naturel Soap

So, what is it that makes people desire this soap?  It’s true that it won’t cure anything.  The goat’s milk is vitamin-rich, containing vitamins A & E, both excellent for the skin.  The oatmeal helps soothe skin.  The honey acts as a humectant in addition to the naturally occurring glycerin, drawing moisture from the air to the skin.  There is no added fragrance in this soap, and it has a lovely natural toasted oatmeal scent that comes out as the soap saponifies.  If I had to sum up what, exactly, makes this soap so skin-friendly, I’d say its nakedness makes it shine.

Because very little I experience in my life as a professional soapmaker and vendor surprises me, having people tell me last year that they needed soap that’s even more naked than Au Naturel about knocked me off my feet.  I learned that some people are very sensitive to oats and can’t use products containing them.  Yet, they wanted an incredible goat’s milk-based soap without fragrance or oatmeal.  For those people, I whipped up this little gem in January.

Nude Beach soap
Nude Beach

To call this a Castille soap would be a misnomer, though its only oil is olive oil, so it has the gentleness of Castille soap.  It contains goat’s milk, with all its rich moisturizing properties and vitamins.  It also has honey to lend its moisturization.  This little jewel is Nude Beach, an ultra-gentle soap that will make your skin feel spectacular.  Like Au Naturel, this one, also, is unscented.

So, which is it?  Do you want to go Au Naturel or take a detour to the Nude Beach?  Either way, both of these soaps will be kind to your skin, whether it’s young or old, particular or easy-going.

Embracing the Summer Harvest

It’s not that cold here, thank goodness.  In fact, it’s still warm enough to enjoy fresh tomatoes and fresh basil, sun-warmed out of the garden.  After purchasing 30 pounds of tomatoes last weekend and putting most of them up hot-packed, I still had a dutch oven full of peeled, quartered tomatoes.  What was going to be more hot-packed tomatoes ended up turning into the most fabulous tomato soup I’ve ever had.  After tormenting my Facebook friends with pictures of our dinner Saturday night, I thought it’d be only kind to share my recipes with them and with you.

First up, my homemade Tomato Basil Bisque.

Ingredients

2 T. Butter or Margarine

1 medium onion, chopped (about ½ cup)

3 small carrots, grated (about 1 cup)

2 T. all-purpose flour

1 cup half-and-half

1 jar (26 oz.) chunky tomato pasta sauce

1 can (14.5 ozs.) diced tomatoes, undrained

¼ cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

Additional basil for garnish (optional)

Directions

  1. In 3 qt. saucepan, heat butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and carrots, cooking 3-4 minutes or until soft.  Add flour; cook and stir until moistened.  Gradually add half-and-half, cooking and stirring about 2 minutes until smooth.
  2. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover; cook for 15 minutes just until coming to a boil, stirring frequently.
  3. If desired, top with additional fresh basil leaves

Serves 4.

Can use 2% milk.  When I made this, I made my own tomato sauce from cooked down tomatoes, adding 1 tsp. salt to that.  I also used fresh tomatoes instead of canned.  I added ½ tsp. salt and 1 T. of Italian seasoning to the soup.  It was a tad too salty, though, so I recommend adding only 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the homemade sauce.  I found a pouch of this Italian seasoning blend in the pantry that I’m going to use next time.

Homemade tomato basil bisque
Homemade tomato basil bisque

I made that bisque to accompany these Chicken and Cheese Stuffed Shells.  These feature my homemade pesto, made from basil I harvested from our garden.  I still have at least 6 thriving basil plants and 6 plastic pint containers of pesto in the freezer.  It’s going to taste like summer all winter!

Chicken & Cheese-Stuffed Shells with Pesto

Ingredients

24 ounces chicken, cooked and diced

1 cup Italian-blend cheese, divided

16 ounces pesto

½ box jumbo pasta shells

Directions

Cook shells according to package directions; drain.

While the pasta is cooking, combine 1/3 cup cheese, all the chicken, and ¼ cup pesto in a bowl.

Fill cooked shells with chicken mixture and place in a 9”x9” or 11”x7” pan.  Top with remaining cheese.

Bake for 5 minutes at 350o, or just until cheese is melted.  After removing pan from oven, cover shells with pesto.  Let sit for 5 minutes to warm the pesto.

Serves 4.

2015-10-24 19.33.32
Chicken & Cheese-Stuffed Shells with Pesto

When we’re not making soap, we really love to experiment in the kitchen, trying out delicious, easy, inexpensive dishes that are well-suited to our busy life.  I’m hoping to make up some of that bisque (minus the milk) to can for the winter.