Sunday, January 24, 2010

Sunday goings-on...



Today we're under a blizzard warning  and so everybody's been indoors doing things.  The guys have mostly been on the couch watching football and I have been puttering around in the kitchen.  I had wanted to try to make some rosemary maple-glazed nuts and so I gave that a whirl.  They would have been so good, but the last step of baking them in the oven turned out to be much too long and the nuts have a burnt taste to them, even tho they are still pretty good eating.  Note to self:  the next batch gets only 10 minutes in the oven.  I thought about doing something with the half sack of peanuts and decided to make peanut brittle.  (I love peanut brittle)  I used a microwave recipe for it and made it according to the directions.  The time before when I made it, I cooked the sugars first and added the peanuts later in the cooking process so guess what?  It burned.  Bah!  Note to self:  Cook sugars first, then add peanuts.
 

Tom asked me to make some divinity.  I usually don't make that.  The boys always have in the past and they're good at making it.  I gave it a try. It was just OK.  Nothing fabulous, but Hubs and J. are eating it up.  I'm not a huge fan of divinity anyway.

On a good note.....J (youngest child) and I are starting Cooking School, that's what I'm calling my cooking lessons for a young man who needs a few basic cooking skills under his belt.  I think it's important that every man learns to cook a few good things to feed himself.  Our first lesson was last night and we threw together a dandy roast beef hash.  We chopped up left-over roast beef and the potatoes, added in some peppers, onions, garlic, and mushrooms and sauteed it in the cast iron skillet in some olive oil.  Deee-lish-ious!  Today we made Mandarin Chicken -- J's request for lunch -- and served it over hot rice.  YUM!  Definitely a do-again.  We did alter this recipe too.  Both of us decided it needed a whole sliced onion and a tiny bit of lemon zest,  and we decreased the sugar to 1/4 cup.  We also added in a tablespoon of Hoisen Sauce and at the end, threw in a handful of cashews.  

Another recipe I tried today is one for homemade deodorant.  I know.....weird.  But I'm one of those people who always stinks and I thought that maybe trying something different would help.  The authors of the recipes I found all swore that the homemade stuff worked very well, so I stirred up a batch this afternoon.  I tweaked two recipes, this one and this one, so that I could use the ingredients I had on hand.  Now to test it out over a few weeks and see what it does!

Here's my original recipe based on their recipes.
Busy Bee Deodorant
1 t. beeswax beads
3 T. virgin coconut oil
3 T. corn starch (or arrow root powder)
3 T. baking soda
2 capsules of vitamin E oil
essential oil for fragrance (opt)
In a pyrex measuring cup or bowl, melt beeswax for about 1 minute in the microwave.  Add coconut oil and melt.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients with a fork or small whisk until smooth.  Pour into half-cup mason jar. 
To use, take a little in the fingertips and rub into arm pits.
This recipe fills a half cup jelly jar perfectly, but I've read that it can spoil so I only put half of it in my jar and put half in the frig.  I added the beeswax to firm up the mixture and keep it in place.  If Burt's Bees can make a deodorant out of these ingredients, so can I.
The wind is still blowing and the snow is blocking the view.  It's getting dark now and all I can see is the yard light.  I'm looking forward to nicer days soon.

What are you doing this Sunday?

4 comments:

  1. Uh-Oh. If you're getting bad weather, it's heading this way LOL. It was in the low 50's here today -- very nice but all the snow melted and it's all gray and dirty and blah.

    Your culinary adventures sound really fun. My MIL makes the best microwave peanut brittle. I tried her recipe once -- I never could get it to work!

    ReplyDelete
  2. SOUNDS LIKE A CRAZY, BUSY DAY AT YOUR HOUSE. I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF MAKING DEODORANT..BUT I GUESS IT CAN BE DONE, SOMEBODY'S GOT TO DO IT RIGHT?! LET US KNOW IF IT WORKS. SOUNDS LIKE SOME THINGS TURNED OUT GREAT AND SOME NOT SO GREAT, THATS ABOUT LIKE ME. COME SAY HI :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm so glad you posted the link to the Mand. orange chicken. That sounds yummy to me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hope you are all safe and snug...The weather here has been crazy. We had blowing wind and dust the last several days.

    Let us know the results of the deodorant...I am allergic to most kinds after a while, I have to switch. Might be nice to have 'homemade'.

    ~M~

    ReplyDelete

I love reading your comments. Thanks for stopping in. Sorry, but due to spam, only registered users can comment.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...