Tropical Popsicles

Want to make the BEST tropical popsicle? I came up with a recipe using homemade coconut milk + pineapple. Super easy.

You need 3/4 cup shredded coconut
1.5 cups boiling water

Put the coconut into your blender. Don't turn it on yet. Heat your water and once it reaches a boil measure it out and then put it in with the coconut into the blender. Blend on High in increments of twenty seconds for at least three minutes total. Burp the blender lid every once in a while to let built up steam escape.

Let the coconut milk cool for about five minutes in the blender.

Open an 8oz can of pineapple(with pineapple juice, not water) and dump it directly into the blender with the coconut milk. Blend on High until most of the chunks are pulverized.

Now most people strain coconut milk through a very fine mesh strainer to make 'milk' they can drink or cook with but in this case you want to keep the tiny bits of coconut in this mixture. It gives the popsicle a nice texture in our opinion.

Pour your coconut milk and pineapple mixture into your popsicle molds and let it freeze. Voila!

I think next time I make this I'll use a little bit of Rum. yum!

All natural flea deterrent and killer for pets and home

I've been  determined to get our sporadic flea issue under control this year. With two cats who like to sit out on the screened porch at all hours of the day and night you better believe we've had our share of flea nightmares. This year has been better than most but really, I'm very tired of the chemicals. So are my cats. 

One cat is now over twenty years old and the other is so allergic to fleas that within a day of being bitten he's heaving his guts up all over the place. Not pretty. He's very sensitive to Advantage and all the other back-of-the-neck gels, too. I want to kill the fleas, not my cat!

So after doing a bit of research I've found what looks to be a very easy fix. Cheap, too. I like cheap. Who doesn't? 

Two things you'll need: diatomaceous earth and vinegar.  You can find the proper diatomaceous earth in the gardening or pet section of most general stores. Get the food grade variety, not the stuff out of the pool and filter section. That stuff is poisonous for what you're going to be using it for. If you get the diatomaceous earth(DE for short) out of the pesticide/gardening section make sure that you read the bag very carefully. You need 100% DE, not a product which has any other ingredients. I've seen a couple of those products and their website said that the 'other' ingredients are proprietary in nature and will not be disclosed. RED FLAG! Don't get that stuff. Only get 100% DE. Here's a good place to get it. 

First, decide if you want to deal with the pets first or your home. 

Pets

Fill your kitchen sink with warm water. Add one cup of either plain white distilled vinegar or apple cider vinegar. For kittens and puppies up to 6 months cut the vinegar amount in half. Swish and mix the water. Test it and make sure it's not too hot or cold. Taste the water. It should have a very slight puckering taste to it. You should be able to smell it but not really taste it, at least not to the extent that you feel like you're eating a pickle. 

Next, grab your pet and put them in the water. Thoroughly saturate them and using a cup, keep them in the water for at least five minutes while you pour the water all over their body. Take special care around the face. Don't let it get in the eyes or nose but you should definitely get some in their whiskers because that's where fleas love to run to when they feel they're in danger. The ears, too. Their coat should begin to feel very slick and silky by the end of five minutes. Vinegar has a conditioning effect on fur and skin.

Take them out of the water and smooth down their body with your hands, lightly pushing out as much of the vinegar as you can. Towel dry their face and ears and paws then let them go on their way. Let them dry in a warm environment if possible.

They will smell like vinegar quite strongly for a few hours but this will pass. They can lick themselves and will be fine. Also, more than one animal can be dipped in the same bath water. 

Home

First, fhoroughly vacuum all carpets and rugs. 

Now here's a safety concern I have to point out because I think it's pretty important to everyone's lung health-- don't breath in the diatomaceous earth. Open every window in the room you're attacking and then leave the room for at least 30 mins while the dust settles. DE can be a lung irritant. I do my whole house one room at a time in a methodical way and it doesn't take long at all. Open the windows, squirt a bit of DE and see which way the wind blows, literally. Then you can plan how best to squirt the stuff on and exit the room in relation to the window and the work you've done. Don't 'paint' yourself into a dusty corner. Cover your mouth and nose if you have to. 

Using a squirt bottle(I use a large hair dye squirt bottle I got from Sally's Beauty Supply) puff the diatomaceous earth over your carpets. You don't have to be heavy handed with it for it to work. Even a single molecule of this powder can kill a flea or roach.

Sprinkle more diatomaceous earth around your floorboards and in any nooks and crannies you have seen fleas. You can even sprinkle some in your pet's bedding or in boxes they like to lay in. Again, you don't have to be heavy handed with it. Even a small puff of powder is good in a space about 3'x3'.

Bear in mind that any kind of moisture will kill the effectiveness of DE. If it gets wet then it has to be replaced.

Next comes the vinegar. In a spray bottle fill it with 1:3 vinegar/water. Spray all your upholstery and any cloth in any areas which you think may be appealing to fleas, including comforters and blankets on your bed. Don't spray the carpet with the vinegar. The vinegar is only to be used on furniture.

Let the diatomaceous earth stay in your carpet for at LEAST a full week before vacuuming again. Two weeks is better. But, if you gotta vacuum then you gotta vacuum, right? After vacuuming, put down more diatomaceous earth. Fleas have an egg cycle which you must cover at least three times before you can be assured you're safely flea-free.

Just to be clear, the vinegar is a deterrent and the diatomaceous earth actually kills. Warm blooded creatures are not harmed, only creatures with exoskeletons are. Your goal with using vinegar on the pets and upholstery and bedding is to make the little biting bastards run from those areas and force them onto the carpet which has diatomaceous earth. From the frying pan into the fire, so to speak.

Diatomaceous earth is pretty much the only other way besides heat to kill bedbugs, too, by the way. I've read some amazing stories about people's infestations and how they managed to reclaim their home using this natural product. 

We have personally had great results with DE and now I recommend it to all my friends with pets. Have you tried it or even heard of it?

Getting away from commercial toothpastes

To get away from fluoride and other nasty chemicals in today's toothpastes, make your own.

1 tablespoon of bentonite clay
a small pinch of sea salt
a pinch of baking soda
+ 6 tablespoons of water.

Mix it up, cover it up, and in a few hours you'll have a natural tooth-mud that'll scrub your teeth up really well. I add three drops of clove essential oil to mine. Make sure you mix WELL!!!! You don't want pure clove oil in your mouth, it'll be too strong and burn. Don't like clove? Use spearmint or peppermint essential oil. Or how about orange or lemon oil? A drop of tea tree oil is a perfect additive to any of these oils to make sure you're fighting germs and keeping your mouth in tip top shape.

It takes 8-10 hours for the clay to soak up all the water properly. That recipe I gave will make enough toothpaste for one person for a week, brushing 2-3 times a day. I know one tablespoon seems like a ridiculously small amount of product but trust me- clay expands! And you're using SIX tablespoons of water so it'll fluff up quite a bit. This recipe is deceptively thick looking. Don't be fooled. And don't thin it out any more than six tablespoons of water or you will not get the scrubbing action your teeth need. It's very smooth feeling, but the clay has to be of a certain concentration for it to do you any good.

I keep mine in very small glass candy dish with glass lid. Tupperware makes some nifty little glass containers nowadays which have easy-off rubber lids. Most are less than $3.

You can use a small spoon or stick to scrape up the amount you want up onto your toothbrush. Me, I just use my index finger. It's my own toothpaste so I'm not concerned with germs. 

One word of caution on making a batch for more than one person. I highly recommend not making more than what can be used in a week at any given time, no matter how many people are dipping into that container. The essential oils tend to get dull and aren't as effective.

When the last bit is used up at the end of the night then just whip up some more. It's quick and very VERY easy!

If you think the clay near the bottom isn't as potent when you get to it you can always add a drop of essential oil.

Have fun with it. This recipe is the basic bare-bones recipe and you can tweak the essential oils to your heart's content.

Be healthy! Hugs to all!

Mosalu Shampoo Bars

Dreadlocked hair rejoice, Mosalu is here! This new Etsier has been recently added to my Favorite list of sellers. Brenda, the imaginative soapster in charge of all the great scents and lush bubbles, has capture my interest due to the unusual combination of essential oils in her recipes. The top and bottom notes in the scents are a heady combination. You feel like you've visited a perfumer's private laboratory/studio when you receive one of these bars.

Because I have Caucasian neglect dreadlocks, I don't need all the heavy butters and oils like others might. To keep my tangles tight and my locks soft(but not too soft!) it's necessary to use the best soaps-- no cheapie detergents will do. You have to treat your scalp right.

For those of you who may not have ever used a bar soap on their head here's a pointer or two: get soap you like. Use liberally. Rinse. Enjoy your healthy hair. It's really that simple. 

Here are more explicit directions for those still wary of bar shampoo: Part your hair with your fingers after you wet it, grip the bar with your hand and then gently rub the opposite edge of the soap in your scalp. Repeat all over. Re-wet your head a bit, swipe the bar all over your hair two or three times, add a bit more water, scrub with your fingertips and then rinse. Healthy scalp and hair!!

One bar of soap will last quite a long while. My hair is down just past my shoulders and I think one bar of Mosalu will last me two or three months and that's shampooing three times a week.

One other note on the 'notes' in Mosalu's soaps-- she doesn't use synthetic scents in her special dreadlock soaps, only essential oils! So if you're looking for truly natural soap for your truly natural hair, look no further.

Here are her current shampoo bars for dreadlocked hair:  


 


"Charcoal"
Ingredients: Saponified Oils of Olive, Coconut, Palm. Grapefruit Seed Extract, Vitamin E, rosemary extract, mica, activated charcoal powder, sweet orange essential oil, black pepper essential oil and coriander essential oil.

 
'Citrus Scent' (I think this one looks kind of like peacock feathers, what do you think?)

Ingredients: Saponified Oils of Olive, Coconut, Palm. Beer, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Vitamin E, rosemary extract, kaolin clay, activated charcoal powder, mica, and healthy essential oils of orange, lemon, grapefruit and geranium.

 'Licorice'

Ingredients: Saponified Oils of Olive, Coconut, Palm. Beer, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Vitamin E, rosemary extract, kaolin clay, activated charcoal powder, healthy essential oils of tea tree, peppermint, ylang ylang, rosemary, lemon, lavender and anise.

This one sort of reminds me of that old style swirly taffy candy you can find around Halloween.

Brenda says she's working hard on more recipes so I most definitely look forward to seeing them. My scalp and hair have never felt so happy. Essential oils are good for dreads and she is very liberal with her use of them.

Check out her shop! 

Practical beauties from Etsy

ExaltHimx7 is an Etsier offering some lovely upcycled and vintage items for those looking to spice up their wardrobe(deck out those dreadlocks, baby!) or add a little sparkle to their jewelry selection. Here are three of my personal faves from her shop. 

 

Dread beads in gorgeous swirls of color and various sizes.

 Steampunk gorgeousness!! I love the tiny gears and bits and pieces in this pendant. 

 

Are your dreads in need of some woolie love and beautification? How about a sweet headband to accent your lovely locks? (Also a great ear warmer....)

Salsa and Margarita!

Muy sexy, no? This treasury is making me awful thirsty....

 One of these items is in the TerraScents shop. Can you find it?

Getting Ready For Fall

Yup, it's heading toward that time of year again: Hunting Season!

I have been elbow deep in terra cotta clay the past two weeks, desperately trying to fill a few boxes of Hunter's Helpers before I get slammed with orders. I don't want to be caught off guard when the kids are back in school because it was really not fun last year. So I'm taking the initiative and getting a great deal of work done during the summer. So far so good. I've got one box full!

Now ask me how I've managed to keep my cat away from the skein of sisal twine while getting the orders together. hehehe...  Bribery! Yes, it's true. Straight out bribery. He gets one long length to run around the house like an idiot with and I get to work in relative peace for a little while. 

Here's the little brat himself. Totally incorrigible. An unrepentant comedian.

 

This Treasury was a real treat to trip across a while back. It contained one of my terra cotta diffusers(in the red box). It was called Freshly Southwestern. Cute, eh? What a wide variety of objects! You've got everything from jewelry to cookware and photography, all the way down to stone carving, soap, and photography.

Featured in Treasury!

I discovered today that a Celtic inspired design of mine made its way into a Treasury! 

In Red highlighting, there is my Celtic brown and tan terra cotta diffuser. Surrounded by plaid and terriers.... that diffuser seems right at home, don't you think? 

New Nature Photography

Top to bottom, here are some new items available in TerraScents: October Sunset, Broken Spine, and Floral Mandala. The third photograph is offered in either color or black-and-white.

New Additions To The Shop

It's been quite a number of months since my last update here. I've been holding off and crossing my fingers, praying desperately for certain things to change in the economy. Alas, it's only gotten worse. This is one of those Good News/Bad News sort of updates.

Some craziness going on in Africa and I'm guessing Italy as well has led to a complete lack of olive butter here in the USA. (Let me clarify that-- REPUTABLE olive butter. Not the cheap watered down stuff that I refuse to use.) What does that mean for TerraScents fans? I can't make Boo-Boo Cream OR my Anti-Frizz Hair Balm!! Nada. Zero. Zilch. No more can be produced. 

The last jar of Boo-Boo Cream is in my own refrigerator and is already half empty. I shipped out the last jar of Anti-Frizz Hair Balm to a loyal customer a while back and all these months of crossing my fingers and holding my breath have resulted in failure. I've searched high and low for another reputable butter dealer and none have surfaced yet.

It's not just a matter of my dealer not being able to get it anymore--they also went out of business! I'm so frustrated I could scream. I can't find anyone with comparable quality that has reasonable prices.

The only natural oil based product I can make right now is my Coconut Cookie Scrub. The oils and other ingredients contained in it are able to be obtained locally without compromising the quality in any way.

My Neemzuki and Amla Clay face & body products are also pulled from the cyber-shelves due to such drastic inflation on the price of natural grains and clays. Or the grains I use in my formulations just simply aren't able to be obtained easily anymore! There's some real supply issues going on lately in the USA with natural bath and body ingredients. This has led to the more economical "pre-made" formulations you see out there now in which a person simply has to add a scent to and then sell. But if you're looking for something withOUT all those cheap fillers and you want the real deal..... that's going to be more expensive now. And I just plain don't have the cash to do it. And I don't think I could keep a good customer base with the products, unfortunately. There are too many cheap imitations out now and so quality goes by the wayside. If I'm going to put my name on something then I want to be able to say that 100% of the finished product was inspired by and created by my own hands.

OK, so now that I'm done with the Bad News let's get to the Good stuff already and see the New Additions the title of this post implies are in the shop. 

There are three ballet themed photos currently in TerraScents: Balance, Crossed Pointes, and One Pointe, all shown below.

These photos were all shot in the summer of 2007 before I had to quit dancing due to illness. I'm quite fond of black and white photography and also the 'near black and white' style of selectively adding and subtracting color for a certain feel. 

In the same category of black and white but backing away from athletic sports, there is a certain feline who is making his debut this weekend: my tuxedo cat who is appropriately named Killer Kitty. He loves to hunt three things: naps, my raggedy smelly pointe shoes, and deer. Thankfully, he is now domesticated and the local deer are no longer in danger. The first two on that list, however, are always in danger. He tries to cram his face into my pointes as far as he can and then fall asleep. He's a royal terror when it comes to satin ribbon, too. 

With Killer's photo I wanted to offer something a bit different to my customers: customization!

 

 

Here's the original look of his eyes in the pure black and white version of the photo. And then here he is again with Gold, Blue, or Green eyes! 

I am currently hard at work on getting test samples printed on dozens of other artistic photos taken over the past few years. When I am satisfied with them then they'll be listed. Just check directly in the shop at www.terrascents.etsy.com or you can glance back here and look to your right----> to see a random selection of the goodies available. 

TerraScents terra cotta diffusers and Hunters Helpers are still in stock and ready to ship! Hunting Season is creeping up again and I think I'd better get my hands dirty with some clay sometime real soon to increase my stock of the Hunter's Helpers.... I remember being quite overwhelmed with orders last year right before Christmas and staying up a few nights until well after midnight.

I hope everyone is having a lovely summer so far. Stay hydrated and stay safe!

Seed Bombs!

RecycledIdeas is a green-thumb friendly place to hang out. I've favorited more than a few of her items over the past year and even tried them out. Fantastic gifts!! All my friends and family have raved over them.

I am in love with the thought of infusing such a small but powerful thing as seeds in something as simple as paper. Call me a minimalist, but I adore functional art which makes a statement without wasting too many syllables. 

Browsing around today I stumbled upon a wonderful new addition to RecycledIdeas' collection of handmade seed papers: guerrilla seed bombs! (What a great way for her to use those left over scraggly pieces after she's done cutting out shapes. Waste not- want not, right? Very smart.)

For Valentine's Day she's offering a collection of pinks and reds: 

Makes me wish Spring was here already.

Saving A Lot Of Money On Laundry Soap- a recipe

If you are trying to find ways to save money (blog author raises hand to add herself to this crowd) then I have one way you may want to investigate. Talking to a few folks and doing some research has led me to an awesome solution for saving money on laundry detergent and I'd like to share it with you. Print this article out and pass it around to all your friends! Everyone likes saving money, right?

The section on the breakdown of how much $$$ you'd save is below the two recipes. The savings are substantial so this is worth your time to really investigate the math on what you're paying now versus what you could be.

To start, let's make sure some terminology is understood. When I speak of "one batch" I mean a full quart-sized ZipLock baggie. This is the amount which is easiest to whip up at one time and is equal to a five-gallon bucket of wet soap. So one quart-sized baggie of dry = a five gallon bucket of wet. You have a choice of using it either wet or dry but the process is different for the wet version. Both recipes are below.

A total of 4 cups dry volume of ingredients equals 64 tablespoons of product. If you regularly use 2 tablespoons of product because you always do large loads of laundry at a time then you're looking at 32 loads of laundry per batch of soap made.

Here's the recipe that I have been happily using for a few weeks. It's quite concentrated and works very well.

1.5 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda(NOT baking soda!)($2.19 for 3lbs 7oz)
1.5 cups Mule Team Borax ($2.98 for 4lbs 12oz)
1 bar of Fels Naptha Bar Soap($.99 per bar)

I prefer the dry soap, myself. It really saves space in my tiny apartment. If you'd rather make the wet soap then you can purchase a five gallon bucket+lid set at any hardware store for around $2.50.

Dry recipe:

Use a cheese grater to shred the whole bar of Fels Naptha soap, as shown below.


Next, use a food processor to finely chop the soap as small as possible. In my own food processor I found that I had to take a sharp steak knife to dig around under the blades from time to time. Do it in a few small batches if you have to. It's pretty quick. It will end up looking a bit like cous cous.


Mix the finely processed soap flakes with the Borax and the Washing Soda in a bowl and stir with a spoon. Here is what the finished product looks like:

Voila. Simple. It's done. Then you simply scoop the dry soap mix into a container and make sure you keep a tablespoon handy for use. One tablespoon for a small load 2 for a medium large load and 3 for a super large load. Even on my kids' nastiest stuff I've only had to use 2 tablespoons and everything comes out very clean.

This soap doesn't create a lot of suds but that has no bearing on how effective it is. Commercial laundry soaps are full of synthetic surfactants which make it "prettier" for the customer. Quit paying an arm and a leg for pretty and make something that works just as well with your own two hands!

Wet Version:

1. You're going to need a larger pot for this. Dump the shredded bar soap(you don't have to run this through the food processor) into the pot and turn on medium heat. Mix in 12 cups of plain tap water.
2. Stir frequently as soap melts down and keep stirring until soap is completely dissolved.
3. Add the Borax and Washing Soda to this soap soup.
4. Dump 8 cups of water into your 5 gallon bucket.
5. Add your soap soup from the pot to your 5 gallon bucket.
6. Mix well.
7. Add 2 gallons + 12 cups(water) to your 5 gallon bucket. Mix well.
8. Allow mixture to sit 24 hours in bucket. Then mix one last time. It's not going to be a clear liquid. You will see some random slimy soap flakes floating throughout. That's normal.
   

Some people use a drill with a paint mixing attachment to mix the solution in the bucket. If your wrists and hands hurt then this would be an excellent option. If not, then a nice long paint stirring stick works just as well.

You can fill old laundry soap containers(the pourable kind- not the button mashing kind) and use as needed.

1 cup of liquid soap per large load and 2 cups if you've got rolling-in-the-mud/small child type laundry to contend with.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Where do you find these three ingredients? I was able to purchase the Fels Naptha bar soap and Washing Soda at Publix while the Borax was cheaper at Walmart. Borax and Washing Soda are fairly easy to find in the detergent isle of most grocery stores while Fels Naptha soap can be a bit trickier to find depending on which locations will carry them. In my city there is only ONE store that carries the Fels Naptha bar soap. Go figure. Even when we have 2 Publix stores, 2 Super Walmarts, and several other smaller chains in the city. All three of these recipe ingredients can be found online, however. Just make sure you check out the laundry isle in all of your city's supermarkets before going this route. Nine times out of ten purchasing these items online is way more expensive from what I've seen because of the shipping costs.

Helpful details/Stuff I learned the hard way:

Do not EVER put the clothes in the washer and then dump this laundry soap on top. You'll be sorry. It gets clogged up in the folds of cloth and then you're scraping it out. Instead, turn on your washer and put the laundry soap in the bottom of the machine then put the clothes on top. Sounds terribly stupid to point out this minor detail if you already do this but... hey. I thought I was doing a good thing at the time when I put a little extra soap on top. Wound up making me feel pretty damn dumb in the end as I spent several minutes scraping the soap off with a spoon and then rinsing my jeans out by hand. If you put the soap in the bottom of the washer then you will have no issues like this.

The math and how much you'd save

There are three different weights and densities with these three ingredients. Using the simplest method to see exactly how much of an investment a person would be making I measured how much product was in each box and then worked out how many batches each box would make.

• One box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda is 3lbs 7oz (55oz total) and costs $2.19 at Publix.
• One box of 20 Muleteam Borax is 4lbs 12oz (76oz total) and costs $2.98 at Walmart
• One bar of Fels Naptha Soap 5.5oz and costs $.99 at Publix
  

Note: I shopped around at Walmart and Publix and there was a whole $1.01 difference between the stores when it came to the Borax. It PAYS to compare! Every little bit helps.

You need one full bar of Fels Naptha Soap for each batch but each box of Washing Soda and Borax holds many more times the quantity for one batch. Each box of Washing Soda holds 6 cups and each box of Borax holds 10.5 cups. (And yes, I actually sat down at my kitchen table with a measuring cup to verify this.)

That means that a $2.19 box of Washing Soda will make 4 batches of laundry soap while the $2.98 box of Borax will make 7 batches!!! Can you see the savings adding up now?

1 1/3 cup grated soap + 1.5 cup Washing Soda + 1.5 cups Borax settled down to equaling just over 4 cups of product after the soap was run through the food processor for the dry method. Each competed batch of dry laundry soap is 1lb 12 ounces.

So how much does it cost per batch to make?

$2.19 box of Washing Soda divided by 4 equals $.55 per batch
$2.98 box of Borax divided by 7 equals $.43 per batch
+ One full Fels Naptha Bar of soap at $.99 per batch

The grand total is $1.97 for one batch equaling 1 quart bag dry or a 5 gallon bucket wet.

Using this average example of Tide soap ($13.99 for 24 loads) you're looking at paying $.58 per load. Whereas with homemade laundry soap it's $1.97 for 65 loads(using one tablespoon) or 33 loads if you double up and use 2 tablespoons per load. That's $.05 per load of laundry soap if you use two tablespoons and under $.03 if you use one.

Happy Soap Making!

Plantain Hoecake Recipe

I am a Southern woman born and bred. There are few things I love more than salty pork chops and tomato gravy rice. However, one must deviate from those tried and true recipes sometimes for... something a bit different.

Figures that I'd latch onto yet another Southern tradition to fall in love with. My two children as well.

The recipe I'm about to share with you is not only Southern it has it's roots in the Caribbean island slaves' kitchens. And with the price of plantains(ugly/green bananas) right now ($.38 per!!) I'd be an idiot not to enjoy these with my family while we can.

Plantain Hoecakes/Johnny-cakes

Serves 4

You need:

• Two plantains, the uglier the better. If you buy them while they're still pretty and unbruised then let them sit out on your kitchen counter for a few days until they're good and ugly. They'll be a bit soft to the touch usually, when they're ripe.
• 1 cup of cornmeal.
• Vegetable oil.
  
• 1 large round skillet for the stove top + 1 glass pan for the oven.

1. Cut the tips off the plantains. Then, take the pointy tip of a knife and make several long but shallow cuts down the length of the plantain, all the way around it. Peel the strips of skin off. This is the only easy way to do so.
2. Slice plantains into quarter inch rounds and place them in the glass pan after it has been coated with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
3. Bake in oven on 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and poke with a fork. The slices should be softer and have a brownish swirly pattern to them.
5. After the plantain slices have cooled for about five minutes dump them into a bowl and using a fork, mash them up very fine. It takes some work but by cooking them in the oven your job is made much easier.
   
6. Once your plantains are thoroughly mashed begin adding the cornmeal to it about an eighth of a cup at a time. Make sure you are mixing well. The more you add the thicker in consistency the mash becomes. The goal is to create a mash which you can form with your fingers into a patty. One cup of cornmeal generally does the trick for two plantains. Don't add too much more than that otherwise it'll make the cake crumble apart in the pan.
7. Warm up your skillet just below medium heat. Add a quarter inch of vegetable oil to the pan.
8. When oil is hot then you can start forming your cakes. One heaping tablespoon equals one cake. Scoop up some mash on your spoon and then roll it into a ball. Mash it flat and put it into pan oil. Make each cake between a quarter inch and a half an inch thick.
9. The easiest way I've found to turn them over is with a spoon and a fork. The fork grabs and the spoon cradles it so it doesn't fall apart. Fill your pan up with little cakes and then begin turning them over. Generally it's about four minutes before the first side is done. Cook until both sides are golden brown.
10. Gently transfer your golden brown hoecakes onto a plate which has been lined with paper towels to sop up the oil. Lightly salt the hoecakes before the oil dries.
11. Let cool for five minutes and then... enjoy!

I think plantain hoecakes are a wonderful marriage of salty and sweet flavors. My two kids adore them and instead of considering them a side dish to the entree of the evening they really think they're dessert. Sometimes they like to put a drizzle of honey on them. It satisfies their sweet tooth and still gives them some healthy fiber. Plantains have a much lower sugar content than your average yellow bananas and yet when they are cooked they have a taste very similar to them.

Shea Butter & Eczema

Summeresque wrote, "I left feedback but I just wanted to personally thank you for such an amazing product. I have never seen anything work so well(Boo-Boo Cream) on my sons eczema. I am so glad I decided to search etsy for something better than big corporations were putting out. I have tried so many things and nothing truly helped the itch or helped him heal. This cream does both! Amazing! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!"

****************

Admittedly, I do get a lot of rave reviews for my Boo-Boo Cream. And I certainly don't mind talking about how the ingredients work- but I'm going to do you one better. I'm going to talk a bit about how to stop eczema rashes in their tracks. This is a preventative measure.

Summeresque, I know exactly what you mean by 'nothing really helped the itch or helped it to heal' all too well. That stuff made by pharmaceutical companies is full of steroids or synthetic "moisturizers" and quite honestly, the skin knows what's fake and what's natural. Our body craves natural ingredients. The steroid creams are the worst, in my experience. You might as well be coating the skin with Vaseline with a little colony of ants mixed in. Once you stop using the cream your skin freaks out and then you've got a problem that's become worse than it was before. And it doesn't ever really HEAL the skin to begin with, and that's the biggest problem with eczema. If you've still got those cracks and fissures you're never going to be able to stop the itch.

Ever tried Lachydren(can't remember exactly how to spell it. It's Lack-Hye-Dren) on your boy? Don't. Stuff's $45 a bottle, smells like butt, you can only get it from a dermatologist(usually), and it makes the skin feel like it's been slathered with so many vitamins it's about to start growing things. Fake pharmaceutical moisturizers. That was the last product I tried before I screamed ENOUGH.

Here's a helpful tip to keep your boy's skin super supple and to help stop eczema flares. He may balk at it, being a boy, but if he becomes accustomed to just doing it every day it will save him from having to use the Boo-Boo Cream so much. Over time it gradually reduces flares and then... the skin is a peace. It's amazing, really. And so simple I wanted to bang my head against my desk when I discovered it.

Shea butter. That's it. I'm not kidding. PURE shea butter. I have a little Pyrex bowl with a rubber lid of the stuff in my bathroom. After I shower I smear a bit of the shea butter into my hands, rub until it's warmed and turns into an oil, then pat it all over the body parts that flare the worst(my legs). Shea warms to the touch so it's especially nice in the winter. Less than a 1/4 of a teaspoon is enough to do one adult sized leg. Very cost effective. A small smear is all it takes.

Here's my recipe:

1 cup pure shea butter.

In a glass bowl, heat the shea butter until it's melted. Make sure your bowl is big enough to contain any possible bubbles. Leave out in the open for about an hour to naturally cool. After an hour or two it will be safe to add a 5-10 drops of scent if you want to and stir with a butter knife. Pour liquid shea into an air tight container and let cool for two days in the refrigerator.

The result is something which looks like alien cauliflower. Don't let that scare you away from it. Shea butter has a naturally lumpy appearance. It's a pure complex fat and therefore it ain't too pretty. Cocoa butter is pretty. Shea isn't. Cocoa butter is a 10 on the butter/oil hardness scale and shea is around a 6 or 7 depending on the location of the trees where it's harvested. I do use a lot of shea butter in Boo-Boo Cream but I'm quite sure you don't want him to run around reeking of neem and tea tree oil all the time.

Well, keep in touch and let me know how it goes! And thanks again for the rave feedback on the Cream. Mother Nature loves us.


All the best,

Angel

Demure

Meet Demure. She is a super sexy shade of neutral green with a subdued silver/gray sheen. Paired up with Black Steele as a wet eye liner she rocks!!

Thanks, Doree! The first eye shadow for my PinkQuartzMinerals six month subscription is fantastic!!

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

lolcats would like to go trick-or-treating at your house... Be scared. Be very scared.

PQM's Eye Shadow Of The Month

PinkQuartzMinerals is my absolute favorite makeup seller. Anywhere. Period. I love writing about her. I love talking about her. My hair stylist hits me up for information on her new colors every time I get a trim. Because, naturally, I'm wearing different colors on my eyes every time I go. Everything Doree makes is one-of-a-kind. She specializes in custom foundations, blushes, bronzers, lipsticks, and of course eye shadows.

Although she constantly tells me that she needs to stay away from the micas, lest she mix like a madwoman and hours go by... she still does it. Over two hundred shades and counting now.

I purchased some large jars of my three most recently named "Faves" and received the package yesterday. I bought:

Wrap: a more subdued version of gold, meant to be an 'everyday' type shimmer and shine. A neutral sort of peachy gold with pale green sparkles.
(<----Pandysmonium: A funkadelic brown/green holographic effect shadow. I always get a lot of double takes with this shade. It is truly stunning. But very wearable.
Garland: a slightly more bold peachy gold shimmer and sparkle. Not 1,000 watt gold, more neutral and blends in with pale skin well.

Besides these three jars I got a new eyeliner brush and a flat/rounded eye shadow brush- YAY! I needed new brushes. Doree also sent me samples of her NEW unreleased shades and upon close inspection I saw that some envelopes had numbers on them like, #101. #102.. etc. Ok, so she needs help naming them. I'll bite.

I smeared some of the shadows on the back of my hand and looked at them in bright light individually, promptly deciding right then and there that I hate her. I mean, how is it that a person can whip micas and minerals together and create something so completely indescribable?!!!! Just when you think you have a color pinned down you shift your eye a bit to the side and BAM! you see another hue that jumps out at you. Or another layer of sparkle in a different color. It's not that she just dumps micas together and it looks like a jumbled mess- it's that she mixes so strategically that you can't tell where one color begins and another ends. They flow together seamlessly until a mirage effect is created. Thus, the problems of naming her creations.

I think I'll leave her with that headache for now. My brain is still buzzing trying to decide which one of my new lovelies I'm going to wear today for a party I'm attending.

Because I am consistently amazed at her mica mixing prowess I have have decided to give her Eye Shadow of the Month a try. I'm purchasing her six-month subscription.


The three month subscription is $23, six months is $45, and a full year is $78. And that's already including shipping. The way I figure it, I already get samples galore from her because I bat my eye lashes in front of my camera. But I want full sized jars, darn it!! Mine. All MINE! No samples. (I use up the samples, get pissed when I run out, and then beg for more. I'm so pathetic.) Big beautiful jars of colors made just for me. Greed concerning makeup is one personality flaw I plan to work on in the New Year. But not just yet. *grin*

Here's my eye with PinkQuartzMineral's Peachblow eye shadow and Jet Black eyeliner, used wet. Classic and sexy, yes? I plan to take pics of myself with the eye shadow I receive every month so keep checking back for updates!

(The first pic above is Hazelnut + Charcoal eye liner.)

Sweet Holiday Deals

My Coconut Cookie Scrub has always been a favorite. I've even had customers track me down from one store incarnation to the next, begging, PLEADING with me to make them a few jars of it. (One woman wanted me to fill a gallon milk jug of the stuff and mail it to her. No joke.) No more! I've finally had my fill. It will be stocked permanently in the shop. No begging necessary.

To celebrate the occasion I have decided to offer a nice holiday gift pack. Two 7oz jars of Coconut Cookie Scrub for only $15 -- smooth skin for that great price, you gasp? Heck yeah, two whole jars of it. Pamper yourself. Pamper a friend, even.

I'm contemplating putting together a Pina Colada and Mojito themed ladies' night next week with some friends. Foot scrub? Check. Toenail polish... still shopping for that perfect shade.

For The Hunters

Deer Hunter Helpers are fully stocked in the store!


A single Hunter Helper is available as is a Three Pack or a Six Pack. They make fantastic stocking stuffer gifts for the hunters in your life, or if you simply like a rustic decor ornament to liven up the area with assorted scents.

What exactly are Hunters Helpers? They are pure terra cotta disks which are hung by sisal twine(included) from trees and bushes around the hunter's stand. These disks are infused with doe urine(not included) in order to attract the bucks in the area.