Meet Kathy Barnett, a.k.a. Kathy B!  

Here is a photo of Kathy with their friends’ boys, Liam and Jack, at an alligator farm in South Carolina two Christmases ago.

Many of us love the stories about your “big city life.” Please tell us about where you live.
First of all, My name is Kathy Barnett, hence Kathy B. I live in Fort Lee, NJ, which is connected to New York City (Manhattan) by the George Washington Bridge. It’s not really a “big city” – it’s only 2.5 sq. miles with about 32,000 residents. There are many high-rise apartment buildings and garden apartment complexes, as well as duplexes and single-family homes. Fort Lee is rich in history. It is considered the birthplace of the motion picture industry in America (you can visit www.fortleefilm.org to read more about that). Fort Lee also holds a place in history for its role in the American Revolutionary War (you can visit www.fortleenj.org to read more about that and the town in general). What’s nice about our area (southeastern Bergen County in northern New Jersey) is that we can be in the country, in the mountains, at the beach, or in the city all within a 15-90 minute drive. Bergen County is culturally diverse; surrounding towns have Hispanic, African American, Indian, Italian and Asian populations. Fort Lee itself used to be mostly Jewish and Italian; now it has a large Asian population as well, mostly Korean and Japanese. Its proximity to New York City makes it an ideal location for many people. This area has an incredible amount to offer.

Please share a bit about your family.
I am the second oldest of six children. All our family members are still in NJ, though my one brother (Richie) is claiming they are moving Arizona “as soon as they can.” Richie (43) lives in Jackson, NJ, with his wife Michele and daughter Lindsay (9). I (42), as you know, live in Fort Lee, NJ, with my husband Rick (47), parakeets Max and Myrtle, canary Pearly, and ornery cockatiel Springsteen (Springy for short). Marie (41) lives in Pompton Plains, NJ, with her husband Jeff, son Schuyler (18), daughter Brielle (15) and daughter Aubrey (10). Joey (37) lives in Highland Lakes, NJ; he served in the Navy after high school. Suzie (36) lives in Wanaque, NJ, with her husband Jerry and infamous daughter Mallory (4). Judy (25) lives with my parents in Pompton Lakes, NJ. 

A photo of Rick with our nieces Brielle and Aubrey, taken last summer.

 

Mallory, photographed last Christmas	Lindsay, on Rick's motorcycle.  This picture is actually two years old.

I was born in London, England, where my father served in the U.S. Air Force. We lived there until I was about 6 months old (Richie was 2) before we moved to NJ. We lived in Orange, NJ, until I was 7, then it was Pompton Lakes. I spent 4 months in Hawthorne, NJ, with some roommates, then 2 years with my brother in a two-family house in PL again, then in a garden apartment for 2 years by myself in PL before moving in with Rick in Fort Lee. We were together a total of 9 years before we got married. We will celebrate our 6^th anniversary this October. I graduated from William Paterson College (now WP University), which is a state school in Wayne, NJ, with a B.S. in Music Education (voice major, piano minor). My father is a printer, as was my grandfather. I worked at a graphic house doing typesetting to work my way through college, and now Rick and I own a desktop publishing/printing company, Type.com, that caters to the trade. We’ve been in business for 7 years. We have a sales office in nearby Garfield, but I work out of our apartment (love that two-second commute!).

How did you get started with soaping?
In a nutshell, my girlfriend from college (Dominique) told me one day she wanted to make soap. She does not have access to a computer at home, so I spent a few hours looking up information for her. I printed out a huge stack of info, but she did nothing with it. About 6 months later, I decided I needed a hobby that was not computer related, so I picked up the pile and read. I bought a few books and read some more, found a few lists on the internet, and tried my hand at it. I decided on a cocoa butter recipe I found on the web and scented it with mango. It came out pretty good. I experimented a little with rebatching, then discovered Crockpot Hot Process, which I now do exclusively. I don’t recall having ever made a bad batch, and I attribute that to a few things other than my utter brilliance (only kidding!): 1) CPHP is much more forgiving (I think a lot of errors are caused by temps and temperature-related problems that do not occur with CPHP), 2) I and two of my sisters have tested positive for the AR gene (anal retentive), and 3) we have no children, so distractions are at a minimum when I make soap.

A photo of Kathy's soaps from a craft show.

What is the favorite item you make?
Well, I love all the soaps (especially the soaps with yogurt and heavy cream), but I love the emu cream. Customers and friends call it “miracle cream” and “emyouth.”   :)    It makes me so happy to give and/or sell something to people that helps a problem they’ve suffered with for so long.

Do you have a certain “pampering” soap ingredient that you would hate to be without?
Yup. Emu oil, yogurt and heavy cream, depending on the recipe.

I believe you also do sell your products, right, Kathy? If so, please tell us about your soaping business (where, what you sell, etc.) and bestsellers.
I started Four Sisters Soap Company about 2 years into the soapmaking for the reasons that a lot of people do: I couldn’t afford to keep giving it all away and couldn’t use all I made, so I started selling it to support the hobby. More and more people started asking for it. I named the company for the fact that there are four of us (even though only two others are involved), each having different skin problems – reaction to fragrance, blotchy skin, itchy skin, dry skin – that, after research, I determined were the result of commercial products and the junk they put in them. We do one or two craft shows a year. and Suzie and Judy both help out at the shows and also sell the soaps for me to their own customers. I had some soaps in a shop in Piermont, NY, over the winter holidays that did well.

Do you remember how you found the Soapnuts list?
I believe it was just an internet search; I joined Soapnuts, as well as a few other lists. I will admit that I dropped Soapnuts for a while in the beginning because there was a lot of OT and that wasn’t what I was looking for at that time. The other lists were very catty and snobby, so I quickly dropped them and joined Soapnuts exclusively, coming to love (and need!) the OT and the sense of community, as well as the support system, both personal and professional. Becky, Camille and the others do a wonderful job, and I am very thankful for them!

What other hobbies or interests do you have besides soaping?
Those who have read my posts know that I am food-obsessed! I LOVE to cook, especially for others. I get such a sense of accomplishment and rush out of creating something that makes someone say, “Oh my gosh! That is amazing!” when they put it in their mouths. Rick went to culinary school, so that’s something we share. We love to travel – Rick and I have been to Cancun, Puerta Vallarta and Punta Cana on vacations; I’ve been to Jamaica with my girlfriend; I’ve been to the Thousand Islands area of Canada more than a dozen times with my family and friends; and Rick and I went to England and France on our honeymoon. Domestically, I’ve been to San Francisco, as well as PA, MD, DC, VA, NC, SC, FL, GA, VT, CT, MA and TX. Rick’s parents live in Texas, so other than San Francisco and Texas, our domestic travel has been limited to the East Coast, but we’re up for anything! We’re planning a trip to Montreal, Quebec City, Maine and Boston for July 4^th week. I love watching TV and am not afraid to admit it – mostly I love sitcoms (was a big Seinfeld fan and am sorry to see the Friends go now too; Rick and I both like The Sopranos), law/crime dramas, and the Food Network (Tyler Florence and David Rosengarten are my favorite TV chefs). I also enjoy reading, but find I go in spurts on that, reading several books in a row, then not reading any for a few months. I’m not much interested in sports in general, but do like baseball and the NY Yankees. My other interest is my niece Mallory. She is the light of my life, other than Rick. How can you not love a 4-year-old who asks (when you forgot to scent her emu cream), “Did you bring the nag champa smell to put in my cream-ons, Aunt Kathy?” I love all our nieces and our nephew, but Mallory is something so special, it makes me cry sometimes. I just love spending time with her. There are also some ongoing projects I’m working on – a cookbook, a CPHP instruction guide, a quilt made from favorite old t-shirts, and a digital photo album made from my grandmother’s photo album for my family.

Tell us something about yourself that we might be surprised to know.
I took a motorcycle course and got my license in September of 2002, not so much because I wanted to get my own motorcycle (Rick is an avid motorcyclist), but just to see if I could do it.

How about your favorite movie? Any particular reason?
I love “Legends of the Fall.” I love the sweeping epic-ness of it, plus Brad Pitt! But I’m also a big fan of comedies and romantic comedies – “Pretty Woman,” “Miss Congeniality,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “My Cousin Vinny,” “Sister Act (I and II).” I also loved “A River Runs Through It” (Brad Pitt again!).

Would you like to share a favorite recipe with us? Soap or food, doesn't matter! Sure. There are a lot of recipes I’ve posted already, but here is one of my own. If you have a Whole Foods near you, pick up a small bottle of their Orange Soy marinade in the seafood department. If not, I’m still experimenting on making my own, but the main ingredients are orange juice, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and a tad bit of oil. If you can’t get pepitas, you can use sesame seeds. You can also use shrimp or scallops instead of the calamari.

Warm Calamari Salad

Marinade (see above)
1 lb. cleaned calamari, sliced into rings
Baby spinach

Marinate the calamari in the sauce for about 30 minutes. Pour the sauce only into a large pan and bring to a simmer. Add the calamari and cook for a few minutes, just until opaque. Arrange a handful of baby spinach on salad plates, divide the calamari up and put on top of the spinach. Add 5 or 6 orange chunks to each plate, as well as some jicama. Spoon 1 or 2 tablespoons of the sauce over the salad. Sprinkle with the pepitas.

Photos
Here are two photos off our balcony. One is to the NW and one is to the SW. We are on the west side of the building; on the east side, tenants have a Manhattan skyline view. Our old apartment on the 10^th floor was a corner, so we had a west and southeast view with some Manhattan, but couldn’t see beyond the first line of trees. Truth be hold, we prefer the western view. In the SW photo, you can see where they are building two 8-story mid-rises behind our building (and another one close to our building, but you can’t see it in the photos – yuck!). Also, in the SW photo, you may be able to pick out the Hackensack River (above the square beige building), which winds all they way down toward Newark. The small white dome to toward the upper left is the Meadowlands Complex (aka Giants Stadium). 

Southwest view from the balcony.

In the NW view, you can see the rec field two blocks away where our town fireworks are shot from (we have awesome Fourth of July parties). The lens on my digital camera (it’s old) makes it seem like these things are far away, but they’re not. 

Northwest view from the balcony.

The next three photos were taken from the parking lot of our Whole Foods in Edgewater, which is right on the Hudson River. The back of the store is on the street, and the front and parking area are on the river. It has tables outside where you can sit. Our digital camera is old with not a very good lens so everything seems so small and far away, when actually it's quite close.

 

The photo called Riverside is looking directly across the river. The tall building you see is the famous Riverside Church on Riverside Drive in Manhattan. Our college choir actually sang here once and we got to go up in the bell tower. There was a barge of some sort in the river at the time of this shot.

 

This photo is taken looking north. The side of the George Washington Bridge you see is the New York side, leading to Upper Manhattan and the Bronx (where From Nature With Love is). Also there is Fort Tryon in the Bronx, which is another historic fort - the NY counterpart to Fort Lee - from the Revolutionary War.

 

 

The photo is taken while looking south. You may be able pick out the Empire State Building, though tiny. It is the tallest building there, pointy and about 5 buildings to the right of the sailboat. Far to the right is where you would have seen the World Trade Center buildings in the skyline.

 

Additional Comments
I would like to thank Jessica and Khadijah for asking me to participate in this. It is both an honor and a pleasure! I love the newsletter and appreciate their hard work.

~ Kathy Bennett & Jessica Miller