The beauty industry makes millions of dollars on our obsession for youthful skin. Before the beauty industry women turned to mother nature for their “lotions”. Do you want the curative powers of alpha-hydroxy? Strawberries have the alpha-hydroxy that we desire. Cut a strawberry in half and rub on your skin. It may feel a little sticky, but when you rinse the strawberry juice off your skin will feel wonderful. Make this a habit and watch your skin take on its youthful natural glow once again. Pastry Cream Recipe by CHRISTINIBEANIE at all recipes.com Ingredients 2 cups milk 1/4 cup white sugar 2 egg yolks 1 egg 1/4 cup cornstarch 1/3 cup white sugar 2 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Directions In a heavy saucepan, stir together the milk and 1/4 cup of sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks... Read the Rest →
Tart fruits can bite when you first eat them, but after eating the fruit for a bit the sweetness begins to come through. This can be said for our next Strawberry Shortcake character: Raspberry Tart and her pet monkey named Rhubarb. When Raspberry Tart was introduced as a new character she was a tad bit mean. But, eventually, her sweetness came through. Life is truly delicious this time of year as we enjoy the summer season, berry season. One of the things we love best about summer is all the fresh berries. We cannot eat enough of them. Initially we wanted to make this tart with the lovely black raspberries found at the local farmers market, but we were impatient, having eaten the black raspberries on the walk home. Unadorned, these raspberries were as nature intended…tart enough to make us wince a little and sweet enough to make us want... Read the Rest →
What happens when you receive a package from your dear friend who resides in Tokyo? In my home the entire family gathers to see what has been sent. Marie sends me many fun packages. My husband and boys enjoy the chocolates and candy. And, I receive many wonderful girly things like lip balm, hand gel, soaps, etc. I feel like a kid at Christmas for all the packaging is brightly colored and brilliantly decorated. None of the labeling is in English. All the print is Japanese. Sometimes I have no clue what is in the packaging until I open it to peek at the contents. On one occasion I had left the contents of one of Marie’s care packages on my kitchen table. I was at work one day and my husband called me at work and this is the conversation we had: My Hubby: “Babe, I think some of... Read the Rest →
What happens when you receive a package from your dear friend who resides in Tokyo? In my home the entire family gathers to see what has been sent. Marie sends me many fun packages. My husband and boys enjoy the chocolates and candy. And, I receive many wonderful girly things like lip balm, hand gel, soaps, etc. I feel like a kid at Christmas for all the packaging is brightly colored and brilliantly decorated. None of the labeling is in English. All the print is Japanese. Sometimes I have no clue what is in the packaging until I open it to peek at the contents. On one occasion I had left the contents of one of Marie’s care packages on my kitchen table. I was at work one day and my husband called me at work and this is the conversation we had: My Hubby: “Babe, I think some of... Read the Rest →
The military tends to move its service members and their families to places that the family members, particularly the spouse, may have never dreamed of living. My husband, being a United States Marine, didn’t have the ability to choose some of the glamorous locales available to the other services. At one time I found myself sobbing about how much I hated living in the middle of the Mohave Desert when another Marine Corps spouse gave me some very sound advice, “You have to grow where you are planted, honey.” That gooey, corny advice, complete with southern drawl did not sit well with this on-the-verge-of –a-complete- meltdown North Easterner. But, once I stopped feeling sorry for myself I realized she was right. I started to look around me. I discovered that the desert wasn’t a flat, one dimensional, seemingly sterile land. It was a living, breathing environment that hid its precious... Read the Rest →
Winner for the Gingerbread Food Picks is Jenn at “Baking Jenn”. We are really enjoying Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook, Baking from My Home to Yours. The recipes are easy, delicious and most are perfect for sharing with your guests this holiday season. For this week’s tart we picked the Parisian apple tartlet for two reasons: It is easy to make and it is absolutely delicious. We are all very familiar with the saying: Less is more. The Parisian apple tartlet provides a fine example of this saying. Two main ingredients: puff pastry and apples. Two supporting roles: brown sugar and butter. Who could ask for a better “cast”? The Parisian apple tartlet is a perfect dessert for a large crowd. They prepare quickly, bake quickly and can be served warm, topped with creamy vanilla ice cream. If you’d like to add a little sophistication to the tartlet simply add a small... Read the Rest →
Winner for the Gingerbread Food Picks is Jenn at “Baking Jenn”. We are really enjoying Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook, Baking from My Home to Yours. The recipes are easy, delicious and most are perfect for sharing with your guests this holiday season. For this week’s tart we picked the Parisian apple tartlet for two reasons: It is easy to make and it is absolutely delicious. We are all very familiar with the saying: Less is more. The Parisian apple tartlet provides a fine example of this saying. Two main ingredients: puff pastry and apples. Two supporting roles: brown sugar and butter. Who could ask for a better “cast”? The Parisian apple tartlet is a perfect dessert for a large crowd. They prepare quickly, bake quickly and can be served warm, topped with creamy vanilla ice cream. If you’d like to add a little sophistication to the tartlet simply add a small... Read the Rest →
With the passing of Thanksgiving (barely) we enter the time of the year known as “The Season”. One could argue that it is “The Season” of overindulgence and it began, for many, in the wee hours of the morning, the day after Thanksgiving, better known as Black Friday, which oozed into Small Business Saturday and then Cyber Monday. Whew! If you were shopping on these days you certainly need a break. Even if you didn’t go shopping you might be exhausted by the onslaught of circulars, flyers and catalogs clogging your mailbox and cluttering your doorstep. The only plus side to all these publications is that your children will have a plethora of material for future collage projects at school. Shopping, wrapping, parties, more shopping, cooking, baking and decorating can take its toll no matter how joyous. If, after hearing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer sung ad nauseam at your... Read the Rest →
The winner of the hand crafted cutting board is “Rachel”, congrats Rachel from “My Naturally Frugal Family“. For the holidays we like to dress up our tables. Coconut Custard pie is easily converted into tart form and makes a lovely addition to your dessert table. We love tarts, particularly on holiday tables, because they look a little more polished, as if the pie dressed up for the occasion. There are many people who think there is a great deal of work that goes into a coconut cream pie. Truthfully, it is one of the easiest pies to make and it seems to receive more than the average compliments. All pies are delicious, but the exotic nature of coconuts seems to add more flavor. You’ll note in the photos that our coconut cream is very yellow. As you’ll read in the recipe there are 5 large egg yolks in the custard.... Read the Rest →
The winner of the hand crafted cutting board is “Rachel”, congrats Rachel from “My Naturally Frugal Family“. For the holidays we like to dress up our tables. Coconut Custard pie is easily converted into tart form and makes a lovely addition to your dessert table. We love tarts, particularly on holiday tables, because they look a little more polished, as if the pie dressed up for the occasion. There are many people who think there is a great deal of work that goes into a coconut cream pie. Truthfully, it is one of the easiest pies to make and it seems to receive more than the average compliments. All pies are delicious, but the exotic nature of coconuts seems to add more flavor. You’ll note in the photos that our coconut cream is very yellow. As you’ll read in the recipe there are 5 large egg yolks in the custard.... Read the Rest →
In an earlier post entitled “It’s all about the Pumpkin” I wrote about cooking down your own pumpkin. For me, the day my father would peel and cut the pumpkin for my mother to cook down was one of great pleasure for I knew what the end result would be. I mentioned that my mother rarely, if ever, baked. She didn’t care for baking so having a freshly baked pumpkin pie was a treasure and greatly anticipated each year. I’m not really sure why my mother chose pumpkin pie as the one thing she would bake year after year. My mother passed on three years ago and so I won’t have the chance to ask her, but I do know it wasn’t a recipe handed down from mother to daughter as my grandmother was from Sicily and pumpkin pie was not in her baking repertoire. I am going with the... Read the Rest →
In an earlier post entitled “It’s all about the Pumpkin” I wrote about cooking down your own pumpkin. For me, the day my father would peel and cut the pumpkin for my mother to cook down was one of great pleasure for I knew what the end result would be. I mentioned that my mother rarely, if ever, baked. She didn’t care for baking so having a freshly baked pumpkin pie was a treasure and greatly anticipated each year. I’m not really sure why my mother chose pumpkin pie as the one thing she would bake year after year. My mother passed on three years ago and so I won’t have the chance to ask her, but I do know it wasn’t a recipe handed down from mother to daughter as my grandmother was from Sicily and pumpkin pie was not in her baking repertoire. I am going with the... Read the Rest →
