The Foot Experiement

Peace!

I have been doing an experiment for a while now. I, like most women, like to primp. I like to have certain services done for me rather than do them myself. I can do my own acrylics but I prefer to pay others to do them for me. I could never get my right hand perfect. My feet were another thing I opt out for. It used to be hard for me to bend over to do my feet. But I lost a few pounds and I can do that now without getting light headed.

But the real build is my foot skin. I have been suspicious that pedicures lead to more pedicures. I have wanted to have pretty hands and feet all my life. My hands are short, rough and wrinkled. I have old man's hands. Always did. And still do. But I make them look attractive by keeping my nails long and manicured. The length makes my fingers look longer. And by keeping them polished folks call my hands "pretty" so I go with it. My feet are the lower versions of my hands: Rough wrinkled skin with Barney Rubble toes. Polished, all greased up and shoved into a pair of heels, I get complements. I have even put foundation on my feet to hide the occasional corn. And I mean occasional!

But I have often wondered if I stopped all the foot maintenance would my feet look like I was half alligator? The answer is no. But it took 3 years to complete my research. Since I didn't have a man when I began this experiment and I don't wear open toe shoes in the winter, I would not get my feet done in the winter. There are a bunch of things I don't do when the weather turns cold.... I noticed that my feet would get super crusty then said crust would go away and my feet would just look like feet. Hmmmm....? Inevitably, the summer would return and I would get back into the pedicure chair. But 3 years ago I decided to not return to the chair when the weather got warm. And just do my own polishing and see what would happen to my feet.

The results are finally in..... Pedicure manipulation of my feet causes my feet to need more manipulation. But if left alone, yes, I would get the rusty crusties but it would go away and I would have the feet that were normal for me. My feet don't require pedicures. Wow!

There are a few things I learned along the way. A good damp emollient combined with consistent sock use will soften my feet and keep the skin on the soles and sides of my feet healthy. I have noticed my tendency to grow cuticle unashamedly. Especially on the pinky toes. That has to be removed and it's easy to remove them if I soak my feet 1st; Like in the bathtub. And since I prefer showers, but will take at least 1 bath/month, when in the tub it's important to take care of the cuticle condition. That combined with weekly polish changes, phat shoes and ankle and toe jewelry will give me the pretty feet I crave with no down time.


This...

vs....

This...

Peace

The "Peace Home Stead"

Peace,

I just got my seed catalogs in the mail this week. Is it just me or do other people lay in bed dreaming about growing food?

Looking forward to my micro-container-farm and getting my home stead on! I should have my chickens by next summer, too. I'm going to be the flyest, righteous urban Earth on the planet!!!!


PEACE!!!!

TG - 2011: The Rundown

Peace.

I never mentioned what we were having for TG dinner. My mother taught me that for TG, a small family requires 2 of everything. Otherwise it's just Sunday dinner. There will be 6 people sitting down at my dining room table. We are having...
real and faux turkey and salmon,
cornbread dressing and macaroni and cheese,
Kale salad and roasted green beans,
Sock it to me cake and vegan bean pie (The pies burned, gonna have to figure this one out), rolls,
drunken cranberries,
and gravy.

All I have left to prepare is the rolls, the gravy, green beans and turkeys. I'm on my game.

I just hope there is a lot of good TV on this evening, while I'm sequestered in the kitchen.

Y'all enjoy your day!

And for those of y'all that don't celebrate the paid holiday.... Do you!




Peace

Drunken Cranberry Sauce

Peace.

Today is a double post because I cooked 2 things last night for TG. Tonight I will cook a few more dishes. So that on Thursday, I will only have the turkeys, rolls and green beans to prepare. One of the things I prepare early is the cranberry sauce.

Most folks don't realize that the cranberry sauce we all grew up eating, the one in the can, has swine in the form of gelatin. Since I don't eat land animal products, I needed to find an alternative. Turns out this recipe is more flavorful that what I was used too. The funny thing is folks don't want to try it because they want the can! Their loss.

I have been making this cranberry sauce for so long, I have added and removed things from previous recipes. So I now take full credit for it.

A full bag of cranberries
1 Cup of OJ
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Can of whatever sweet fruit you like with the juice
1/2 Cup Jack Daniels or whatever type of dark liquor you like. Must be dark liquor!

Some folks like nuts... I don't

Start with the OJ and cranberries. Boil on medium heat at the back of the stove. Cranberries pop when they cook and will stain the stove and possibly burn you if you get a pop. Once things get boiling and popping, add the sugar and reduce the heat to low. don't cover this to avoid the popping. Covering will cause a sticky boil over mess. Add in the fruit with the juice. Allow this to reduce as much as possible; BUT you MUST stir this every few minutes because the fruit will settle to the bottom and possible burn. When you stir it, be prepared to see it super boil then calm down. Once you have a thick consistency of sauce turn of the burner and.... Add the alcohol! You want to cook some but not all of the alcohol off. The alcohol adds flavor and preserves the sauce. Once cool enough to handle, place in container and allow to set in the refrigerator. I made this on Monday and it was pretty damn good in the pot. By Thursday this will be heavenly.



Peace

TG 2011 - Sock It To Me Cake

Peace,

Clearly I am wigging out over TG more than the God. I know we are a year and some change into cohabitation, but I kinda expect just a little more.... Last night I was cooking and he was upstairs "out of my hair." Any other time I cook, he's downstairs keeping me company. But I have noticed when I am getting something together, he is unusually ghost. And I'm not just referring to something that has to do with just me, but both of us. I wouldn't expect him to fret over 'just me' stuff. Any who..... Didn't mean to start this blog off with a rant, but those moments do need to happen. Shall we?

Last night, I made a 'Sock It To Me Cake"! If you had ties in a Black community in the 70's you remember this cake. It's rich moist and delicious. Essentially it's a pound cake with a ribbon of brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts running through it. Most recipes call for a boxed yellow cake, but you know I can't do that right? So I used my tried and true Allrecipe.com recipe for the cake. It is extremely rich. It's got sour cream, a cup of butter, a crazy amount of sugar and what not in it. The God looked at it this morning (and tell me why he was up at 5am?)and was making plans. As long as those plans don't include cutting into it before Thursday evening, I'm good.

Here is the recipe.... http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sock-it-to-me-cake-v/

ENJOY!


Peace

The most delicious Rolls Ever!

Peace….

Now unto my ever expanding seems like TG plans. I have begun the actual cooking. I mentioned previously that I was interviewing food. i.e pre-preparing new food to make sure everything goes smooth on Thursday. Whenever I have cooked TG in the past, I have had to run to the grocery store for something. Not saying there is any shame in that, but I want to get it right eventually.

So last weekend I made this recipe for quick yeast rolls…. Sans the sourdough/Jorge. I will figure Jorge out another time. Let me tell you….. THEY WERE WONDERFUL. I halved the recipe for just me and the God and we couldn’t eat them all. And guess what? The were inedible within 2 days! Yay!!!!! That might seem crazy to be that excited about it, but it lets me know that it is a healthy recipe. So I will make 16 rolls for the 6 people that I will have in attendance and I am certain it will be enough.

One thing though…. They aren’t quick. I made the recipe just as was printed and it took an afternoon for the dough to rise the 1st time. The second time was quick and showed me that I can make a LOT of rolls out of the recipe as given. The flavor was wonderful too. I do plan on adding more salt though. But I like salty rolls.

I plan to start these the night before and let them rise all night. Then I will take some of the dough and make cinnamon rolls for breakfast and make the rest for dinner. Leftover rolls will get toasted and crumbed for future use. I’m all about not wasting anything.



Peace

Meet Jorge...

Peace Y'all,

I show this particular blog NOOOOOO love. Yeesh. I'm a try to do better, but the mission of this blog is to show how I strive to live in harmony with the environment and I'm mostly good. But I shall strive to add on more.


OK...

I am currently experimenting with sourdough. I made a starter. I named it. (The sourdough community calls the starters 'pets' and say we should name them because of that. Yeah, I don't get it either.)I fed it... I mean Jorge (pronounced the Spanish way). I have about 3 cups of Jorge that has been brewing away on my counter for 2 weeks. Though.... It's not completely 2 weeks because I have used some and added more, if you get my meaning.

Why do I want to use sourdough? Because it's the crunchy natural way of approaching bread making. Technically I shouldn’t have need for yeast powder because Jorge captures yeast from the air. And making your own bread is healthier than buying that soft, preservative laden stuff in the store. My store-bought bread has been sitting on the counter in the bag for 3 weeks now and is not at all moldy. AT ALL. That does not make me feel good. Think about how it must just sit inside of you. I hear T.H.E.M. speaking in my head. I just want to feed my own people the best food possible. AND… Thanksgiving will be here 1 week from today and as is my custom, I’m interviewing food for that event. I should have 6 people sitting down at my table. I would like to make Jorge rolls.

There are many recipes on the internet. But most of them are the same. The curious thing about them is that they require yeast…. Why? Isn’t that Jorge’s job? If I gotta add yeast then the starter is just there for flavor. I can add something to make it sour. I don’t need to spend all my time fooling around with Jorge. The recipes call for baking soda as well. I’m not sure that is super natural, either. Baking soda and baking powder are chemical leaveners. Again, should not Jorge be doing this? I don’t believe that Arm & Hammer was around in antiquity. I would have seen it on the pyramids. The baking soda is added to neutralize the acids in the recipe plus to add tenderness and some leavening. I don’t get it.

Well my confusion aside, since I am NOT a food scientist, I tried a recipe 2 nights ago for rolls. It was the easiest I could find. It was from Emeril on the Food Network’s website. They make 8 rolls.

1 c Jorge
½ c oil
¼ t salt
¼ t baking soda
1 ½ APF

Mixed, kneaded, shaped and baked at 425* for 10 minutes

Yes they were easy. Yes they were soft. What they were not, was delicious. They tasted like the inside of white bread without the crust. They didn’t rise on the counter or in the oven. The God ate ½ of one to be nice. He wasn’t impressed. Then he surprised me the next day by being willing to eat more of them. (Remember there were 7 ½ left) I was surprised that they were still soft. I made a vegan sausage gravy, and he sopped it up. So it wasn’t a complete failure.

I suppose the lesson learned from that recipe is that I can make a convincing white bread substitute. Those rolls could be sliced in ½ and made sandwiches out of them. I would like to try them with peanut butter and see how the do. I might make some after TG and make sandwiches. We shall see.

For me to continue experimenting with Jorge, means I won’t have enough of him to make rolls next Thursday. Sooooooo…. I’ll probably end up making regular rolls on Thursday. But I will figure it out by next turkey day.



Peace

Now Normally I don't do this....

Peace good people.

I know I use this site show forth and prove my frugal crunchiness. But I have to admit sometimes it's better to use a name brand than fool around with a knock off.

Case in point.... One of the jobs in my home that I ABHOR is cleaning the bathroom. But I recognize that it needs to be done. So I do it as quickly as possible. That includes one of those spray cleaner with scrubbing bubbles. I even use them to clean the floor! It makes the job go quick.

Last night I used a dollar store cleaner. I scrubbed for 30 minutes and saw no evidence of the shower coming clean. So while looking for some baking soda, I found some name brand cleaner that was still full. My old man used the can to prop open the bathroom window. I sprayed and wiped it down with just the shower spray and guess what? It came clean. I'm done with dollar store cleaners unless I'm using it to mop the floor. And maybe not even then all the time. I'm not buying anymore dollar store spray cleaner anymore. I use the scrubbing bubbles only to clean the bathroom so I can afford to anti up the ducketts. And I still use ammonia for everything else.



Peace

Ricotta Cheese

Peace.

This was prompted by Aldi grocery store. I use a lot of ricotta cheese when I cook. Yeah I keep dancing back and forth from vegetarian to vegan. But right now.... Vegetarian. Anywho... My local neighborhood Aldi does not carry ricotta cheese. So when I want it, I have to go to another store. This may not sound like a lot but it is VERY annoying. So.... I googled how to make ricotta cheese. And guess what. It is easy as ishting!

For 1/2 -1 cup of cheese you need...
2 quarts of whole milk
1/2 teaspoon of salt
4 Tablespoons of distilled white vinegar

That's it!

Cook the salt and milk until it simmers. Add the vinegar and watch the curds separate from the whey. But only watch it for like a minute. Then drain it. All the recipes call for draining with a cheesecloth. And I see the value in that, But I didn't have one and used my handy dandy strainer. It worked fine.

Let it chill for 30 minute before using in lasagna. If your using it for desserts eat immediately.

Its good that it doesn't make that much because it doesn't have the preservatives and fillers that store bought has. It won't keep long in the refrigerator.

Remember.... Whatever is in the stores, you can make it at home. And if you can't, then I don't want it.


Peace

The Facial

Peace.

I have been bathing my eczema proned skin in oil every day this winter. /and I must say it looks great. This morning I was making a sandwich for lunch and I thought, "Why not?" Why not do a mayo facial?

I have been aware that folks have been using mayo as a facial for a few years now. If you think about it, it actually makes sense. eggs, oil, lemon juice are all really good for the skin. Since it was on my face for a minute (It was the 1st thing on the sandwich bread until I showered)it had a chance to get in there and work it's magic.

My skin still looked good and I didn't have to purchase anything special. Since there will always be mayo in the fridge.

Google it and give it a shot. I would put it in my hair if my hair wasn't locked. I have used it in my natural hair and found it effective. I love a multi tasker!



Peace

Ketchup. Can You?

Peace

A few months back, I was watching “You Are What You Eat” a reality show on BBC America. And this little she devil talks a lot of cash money isht to people on her show who need to lose weight. I’m thinking they pick those people carefully, otherwise her head would get flown. But her recommendations and observations are always right on point.

One of the observations she made to this teenager was that she ate too much ketchup. Me and the teeny-bopper were like, “What’s wrong with ketchup?” but I did the knowledge. And about a third of that bottle/packet is sugar. That’s just way too much.

If you have been following the sporadic postings of this blog, you know I’m on a mission to be closer to nature while being less invasive. I won’t feed my family that foolishness. And what is in the other 2/3rds? Probably preservatives. I cannot tell you the last time I bought a bottle of ketchup. You buy a big regular sized bottle and you have enough to last you for years. I have lived in my house for 9 years and I think I bought ketchup once. Granted I don’t eat a lot of food that requires it but 9 years? Really?

The God eats a lot of ketchup. And he has been threatening to buy some. I had to get my thoughts together. I say I live a certain way, then I have to make my word bond. I saw a lot of recipes on the ‘net and didn’t particularly care for any of them. I wanted my ketchup to be as all natural as one can be in February. So here is how it came together…

6 peeled tomatoes gutted and diced.
1 medium onion
2 T EVOO
Brown sugar to taste
Balsamic vinegar to taste
Salt
Pepper (because my baby likes bite)
Paprika
3 cloves of garlic

1. Sauté the onions in the oil (this will summon any hungry man in the vicinity)

2. When the onions are caramelized, add the tomatoes and cook down until juicy. It will get redder as it cooks. Fresh tomatoes look a bit orange. Add water if you need it don’t let it burn

3. Add in your garlic. Gotta let that cook

4. add in add in all the other spices until it tastes like what you want. This is where a good palate comes in handy.

5. Let it cool completely. I did this overnight. Don’t want to ruin my blender with hot stuff. Did that once before. Not a good look.

6. Once everything is all cooled, blend until smooth.

DONE!

Unless it’s not a deep enough red for you. Then cook it some more.

Put in a jar and use it up as quickly as you can. Remember it doesn’t have the preservatives that store bought ketchup has so it will spoil. But you can freeze it, add a teaspoon of vodka to the finished and cooled product or properly can it. I suggest you make small batches. But I know that can be an itchb when you run out at the wrong time. But some things are worth the sacrifice. I am satisfied with the ketchup.

Bon appetite!



Peace

Little Things

Peace,

I recycle. I’m very serious about it. I recycle everything I can at home. It’s gotten so, if I composted kitchen scraps, I would have no trash. If I’m out I’m very conscious of the trash I make. I carry plastic bottles to purchase beverages in or I will I will buy plastic containers that I can reuse. It is very important to me to strive to live in a peaceful balance with the planet. If that makes me a hippy so be it.

But Work…… My boss and coworkers do not feel as I do. I have been trying to get the boss and this office to go greener for years. And it’s has resulted in me beating my head against the wall for naught. My boss used to do some nastiness. I had 2 trash cans in my office, one for paper and one for non-recyclables. He would purposefully drop nasty debris in my paper trash… and laugh. Serenity DOES NOT fish through the trash. So I had given up.

This year I decided that since my position generates a lot of paper debris, I will take it upon myself to recycle said debris. I found that the building does offer some recycling services. I called and for no charge they brought in a recycling box. I put the box in a discreet location near my desk and for this entire month I have been filling it with papers. The boss has not fooled with it.


Peace