Sunday, December 30, 2012

Skin perfecting all natural face mask

Skin perfecting all natural face mask
Makes: 4+ masks

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons honey
Juice of half a lemon
2 teaspoons baking soda
5 aspirin tablets- dissolved into a paste
1 tablespoon coconut oil
Dash of cinnamon
1 tablespoon bentonite clay powder

Honey, cinnamon and coconut oil are known for their anti-microbial properties, aspirin and baking soda will draw out impurities, and clay powder has been used for centuries of mud masks for its moisturizing and detoxifying properties. Use lemon juice or apple-cider vinegar as a toner, and you have the perfect face mask. I also add a few aspirin which help to reduce swelling of current break-outs and dries them out quickly.

Instructions:
Place mixture in microwave for 15sec to melt coconut oil. Stir all ingredients well. Should feel warm to touch, not hot. Rub on face and let sit for 30 minutes or so. Because of the lemon juice and baking soda you may feel a slight tingly feeling, but it is enjoyable.

Use a wet warm wash cloth to remove mask, it will be sticky from the honey.

This mask brought any impending pimples to the surface, made my skin smooth and clean feeling, and I love knowing exactly what's in it.

Store remaining face mask in fridge, ad heat when needed. I could use it everyday. It makes your face so soft!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Scrapbook Paper on Canvas

I had seen a few of these floating around on Pinterest, and I have been trying to get back into painting lately, so I thought some free and easy wall art would be perfect for my broke barren walled new home.

I bought three 8x10 white canvases
I already have oil paints, which I prefer to paint with.
You'll also need some scrapbooking pages, you can buy individually at craft stores or a pad of various ones of the same color palette.

Over the years, I'm sure most of us have accumulated a stash of various types of decorative papers, such as the scrap-booking papers I seem to have thousands of.... Pick 5-6 sheets of complementary designs and colors for each canvas. I decided to go with a gold hinting in my background paints of green, orange and purple so I selected complimentary colors for each of those.

For the gold/orange canvas I used lots of purples, and teals
For the purple canvas I used lots of yellows and greens
and for green canvas I used Blues and Yellows

The first thing I did, obviously, is mix up my paint colors and paint each of my canvases. Then I let them dry, completely - actually several days....

Next I cut the center of my flowers and determined there location, but by only placing them atop the canvas, not affixing them yet.

I made a series of "leaves" for each canvas, but each canvas having its own distint shaped leaves. For the Gold my leaves are very traditional angular shape, for the Green canvas I used a bulbous round leaf, and for the Purple canvas I went with a more heart shaped leaf.

You'll want to do each canvas individually so you don't get any mixed up. Start with small leaves, and then gradually increase your leaf sizes out, laying them on the canvas, radiating from the center piece. When you have made them in a design that you like, you can stop, and be finished cutting.

Then comes the glue gun... Start gluing down the pieces one at a time, pressing down as much as you can, so that it lays flat on the canvas.


Once that has dried you can paint over the entire canvas with mod podge if you desire, I have matte mod podge, so thats what I did.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Thanksgiving Roasted Turkey

Thanksgiving Roasted Turkey 




Ingredients;

1 turkey - I had a 20lb turkey for this recipe
1 gallon apple cider
1 handfull whole peppercorns
3-4 bay leaves
1 cup salt
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon each dried thyme and rosemary
1 lemon

1 quart turkey stock (or chicken or veggie stock)
1/4 cup white wine
1 stick butter
celery ribs
carrots
mushroom stems
onion
garlic
parsley stems
lemon zest
salt and pepper

Instructions:

The first thing I did was brine my turkey. Tuesday evening I took the mostly thawed turkey and placed in a large stock pot ( you can buy brining bags if you don't have a large enough pot).
In a large saucepan I added 1 gallon apple cider with 1 cup salt and 1 cup of sugar.
Then I placed a handful of black peppercorns, a tablespoon dried rosemary and thyme, and brought the mixture up to a simmer to dissolve the salt and sugar.
Then I added 1 gallon of Ice water to the stock pot, along with 1 sliced lemon and the cider mixture.

Sorry I have no pictures of this, I did it at my parents house. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

Then take your turkey out, and rinse under cold water, inside and out of the turkey. Place on baking sheet and dry with paper towels, inside and out. Let dry overnight.

Thursday morning taken your dried turkey, liberally salt and pepper the skin.

Place cut celery, onion, and lemons inside cavity, along with leftover parsley stems.

Then take 1 stick of room temperature butter and mash 3 roasted garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon each chopped sage and parsley, and the juice and zest of 1 lemon and mash together. Pull the skin from the turkey breast and smear the compound butter mixture in between breast and skin, going as far down the thigh as you can. Then take remaining butter and spread on the outside of the bird, all over the beasts, thighs and drumsticks.

Place in roasting pan with rack. Pour 32 ounces of stock (turkey, chicken or vegetable, whatever you can find) in the bottom of the roaster, along with 2 chopped carrots, onions and celery stalks. Add 1/4 cup white wine to pan. I was also making stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer, so I added my mushroom stems to the bottom of the roasting pan to deepen the flavor of the pan drippings for my gravy.

Place tin foil over the top, tenting the turkey in a 325 oven. You'll cook the turkey 15 minutes per pound, but the last 45 minutes remove the foil to brown the skin. Check with thermometer in thigh to reach 165 degrees, the remove from oven, re-tent with foil and allow to cool for at least 20 minutes.

The ONLY Mashed Potato Recipe to make!

The best mashed potato recipe ever!













(Copied from: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/11/delicious_creamy_mashed_potatoes/)


Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

5 pounds Russet Or Yukon Gold Potatoes
1 stick of butter Butter
1 package (8 Oz.) Cream Cheese, Softened
1/2 cup (to 3/4 Cups) Half-and-Half
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper


Instructions:

Bring a large pot of water to a simmer and add the potatoes, boil for 30 to 35 minutes.



When they’re cooked through, the fork should easily slide into the potatoes with no resistance, and the potatoes should almost fall apart.


Drain the potatoes in a large colander. Mash the potatoes over low heat, allowing all the steam to escape, before adding in all the other ingredients.


Turn off the stove and add 1 stick of butter, an 8-ounce package of cream cheese and about ½ cup of half-and-half. Mash, mash, mash! Next, add about Salt and black pepper.

Stir well and place in a medium-sized baking dish. Throw a few pats of butter over the top of the potatoes and place them in a 350-degree oven and heat until butter is melted and potatoes are warmed through



Thursday, December 13, 2012

Zucchini Cakes

Zucchini Cakes
Serves: 2
Time: 10 minutes















Ingredients:
1 large zucchini, grated
1 large egg
1 c. panko bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp. each garlic powder, season salt
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions:
Remove excess liquid from freshly grated zucchini by placing them between paper towels and squeezing.

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients. Mix thoroughly.

Heat a large pan on medium, and spray with Pam.

Shape spoonfuls of the zucchini batter into 2-in. (diameter) patties, and drop onto the sizzling pan.

Cook each side for about a minute and a half, or until the outside is golden brown.

Serve hot, alone or with ranch dressing, or sour cream.