Soap, Sweet 'n' Sour, and Szechuan

I've been wanting to try making my own liquid soap for some time now. For several years we've used Method brand, and refilled our glass soap pumps. I found a lot of Method refills on closeout at Big Lots a couple of years ago and we just now finished going through all of those. It's always nice to save money, but my main goal in making my own liquid soap is environmental. The method refills used to come in a bottle that was recyclable; now it's a pouch that is not recyclable. Either way, I'd like to use less plastic when I can.

I looked around different sites on the internet and found the simplest recipe, which was: grate a bar of soap, add water, boil, and you've got liquid soap.

I added a gallon of filtered water.

And then I second guessed myself. The final result was so very thin that I grated a second bar of soap and boiled that solution for a while. I decided to put the pot on the deck for the evening, and see what the chilly night would do.

And this is what I got:

A very thick liquid soap. Thick, but also usable. Next time I will add some patience and only the first bar of soap, and it should be a great consistency.

That evening for supper I made a recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan's Authentic Chinese Cuisine called Pineapple Sweet and Sour.

I decided to use cast iron this time to stir fry, as my stir fry pan just doesn't do a very good job on my stove for some reason. First you dry stir fry the onion, ginger, and garlic.

After that it's just a matter of adding the rest of the ingredients and cooking for a bit longer.

Serve over some rice (brown is the preferred type in the GV household.) I am not a pineapple lover, but even I enjoy it in this dish.

We had some green beans from our local organic farm, so I thought why not Szechuan?

First I made up the sauce. Which was pretty darn hot.

And then I did something I so very rarely do. I fried. The last time I fried anything was probably.......well, years ago. Maybe some tofu (and now that I've discovered oven frying for tofu, that won't be happening again.) Or maybe when my now-deceased cocker spaniel had to have a special diet that included hamburger meat. At any rate, I fried those green beans for 45 seconds in canola oil. Because Guy Fieri told me to.

After combining the green beans with the sauce, you can top them with some chopped peanuts and fresh parsley. Also please have your water pitcher at the ready, because these suckers really packed some heat.