Chocolate Biscotti

I made chocolate biscotti for the first time last week. It was fabulously easy with this recipe my SIL posted a while back. Hope you get to try it! It's ridiculously scrumptious with coffee or tea...

This was a part of Hubby's gifts during his birthday week :) We're enjoying the excuse to sit down with a cuppa more often so we can have some biscotti. Yum.

Today I'm out on the balcony potting plants in the gorgeous warm weather. It's about time Spring decided to stick around and Baby Boy and I are loving being outside! We spend lots of time out there during the warm months. With the typical apartment lack of a yard, it's the perfect relaxing spot for me and play space for Baby Boy.

I'll be taking some time to work on my hair (still haven't dyed it yet...procrastinator) and hopefully get a foot soak in this evening. Hope you choose to pamper yourself a little today... You deserve some guilt free relaxation. Happy Spa Night, Beauties!

What's For Dinner?

Appetizer: Homemade egg rolls
Main event: Honey mustard roasted chicken (my dad's secret basting sauce) and potatoes au gratin (using my SIL's delicious recipe).

Mmm.. eggrolls.

sweet and tangy chicken

Creamy cheesy potatoes

Finger lickin good :) LOL

Our cutie seemed to enjoy it too...

Spicy Philly Cheese Chicken & Egg Rolls

Made Spicy Philly Cheese Chicken last night. Here are the little beauties now:

Big thanks to my SIL Wendy for the recipe! Mmmm... Read all about her experience with this recipe on her blog Recipes to Warm the Heart. Plus, it's chock full of tasty meals that usually take 30-40 minutes to make. This is a rare one that takes longer. But still great!

We didn't have ham, so that was left out. Didn't have breadcrumbs either, so I dipped the stuffed chicken into dry tempura mix, beaten egg, and then tempura mix again. That's what I love about cooking. Most times, you don't have to stick to the recipe to make it work. You use what you have and make it fabulous, and I'm all about that :)

Anyway, it was a hit and we'll definitely be having this again.

Oh, if you're looking for a delicious egg roll recipe, you can click here to check out mine on Recipes to Warm the Heart. Hope your Monday's going beautifully! 

Homemade Holiday Spice Mocha

Our Christmas countdown is quickly turning into the Twelve Days of Coffee. And I'm not complaining :)

Today, I woke to find my sweet Hubby had left half a pot of coffee for me. YES! I love my coffee and appreciated the thought, but I couldn't help being a little bummed because I had been walking to the kitchen with visions of different spice combos to sprinkle into my coffee grounds that morning.
Then inspiration hit and I am now completely content as I sip on my Holiday Spice Mocha while Baby Boy watches his morning cartoons.

Here's the non-recipe:

Homemade Holiday Spice Mocha
Coffee
Powdered hot chocolate
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Whipped cream


-Pour a mug of freshly brewed coffee.
-Add powdered hot chocolate to taste and sugar if needed. I added a BUNCH of hot chocolate because it smelled so good!
-Sprinkle nutmeg and cinnamon to taste. Stir well.
-Top with a dollop of whipped topping and sprinkle a little nutmeg and cinnamon on that as well.

Enjoy your rich cup of homemade mocha :)

Check out my Homemade Vanilla Pumpkin Spice Coffee recipe.

Homemade Holiday Flavored Coffee

Rachel, one of my amazing, frugal mama friends has been making me drool every morning with her Facebook status, talking about different holidayish drinks she's starting her day with. Hot cider....pumpkin spice coffee... egg nog... Pure torture!

This morning, I was determined to try a homemade version using what we have in our cabinets. Why not just buy some gourmet coffee at the store? Um, have you read my blog? I like to find homemade.... hacks, if you will, to my dilemmas. I'm the girl who tried to create homemade allspice substitute just because!

So right now, Hubby and I are loving my latest experiment: Vanilla Pumpkin Spice Coffee. Mmmm! It's delicious and so easy. In case you, frugal diva that you are, wanted to try it for yourself, here's the recipe:

Homemade Vanilla Pumpkin Spice Coffee
-Coffee grounds, enough for a full pot
-1 tsp pumpkin spice
-1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Fill your coffee pot with water. 
Add filter filled with coffee grounds.
Add pumpkin spice and stir into coffee grounds
Drizzle vanilla extract into grounds. You can stir. I didn't and the flavor was still great.
Turn on coffee pot and brew. 
Serve with sugar and/or creamer to taste. Enjoy your cozy cuppa :)

I'm so excited that this worked! Think of all the spices you usually keep in the kitchen. The possibilities are endless, and oh so deliciously budget friendly.

I think Cinnamon Nutmeg Coffee is somewhere in our near future. If you try any fabulous new combos with your own kitchen spices, be sure to share your recipes!

Holiday Sweets

Check out Mrs Claus' Cookbook for a great collection of holiday recipes. I've been trying to find easy (and cheap) sweets recipes for the holidays and will be making a few of the candies from this cookbook. Awesome! Now if only I can find my candy thermometer. It never stays in the last place I put it.

Tutorial Tuesday: Molasses Cookies

So a little bit ago, I tried my hand at homemade sparkling sugar and a homemade allspice substitute (found in this post). The following is the tutorial for the yummy cookies I needed those ingredients for!

I used this recipe for my first try at Molasses Cookies.

Prep: 15 min.; Cook: 11 min. per batch; Other: 1 hr.

Yield: Makes 3 dozen

Ingredients

• 3/4  cup  shortening
• 1  cup  granulated sugar
• 1  large egg
• 1/4  cup  molasses
• 2  cups  all-purpose flour
• 1  teaspoon  baking powder
• 1  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1  teaspoon  ground ginger
• 1  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground nutmeg
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground cloves
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground allspice
• 1  cup  sparkling sugar

Preparation

1. Beat shortening at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy. Gradually add 1 cup granulated sugar, beating well. Add egg and molasses; beat well.

2. Combine flour and next 8 ingredients, stirring well. Add one-fourth of flour mixture at a time to shortening mixture, beating at low speed after each addition until blended. Cover and chill 1 hour.

3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, and roll in sparkling sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

4. Bake at 375° for 9 to 11 minutes. (Tops will crack.) Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Mix up the batter according to instructions.

Let a very dedicated helper taste it to make sure it's perfect.

Get greedy and plop ice cream scoop sized cookies on the pan and sadly watch them blend together in the oven.

First batch. Left them in too long (because they didn't look done to me) and made them too big.

Second batch. Almost perfect timing, but the cookies were still too big. Argh.

Final batch. Ok, so the recipe was right, drop tiny nearly one inch cookies on the pan and they'll spread out to perfectly respectable cookie size.

As for the previous batches, I used a pizza cutter on one pan.

And broke the other pan of cookies apart by hand. I liked the way the broken ones looked.

But the important thing to remember, is that no matter their shape......

Your little helper (who has by now removed his batter splashed shirt) will love them.

Enjoy your beautiful Tuesday!

Spa Night: Easy Homemade Sugar Scrub

My easy recipe for a sugar scrub.

1 cup salt or 1 cup granulated sugar

2 Tbs olive oil or liquid coconut oil

2 tsp honey

3-5 drops of essential oil  of your choice (optional for added benefit)

-Mix all ingredients well to evenly distribute the honey and oil.

Think of the lucky dates he will wow with his fabulous spa gifts ;)

Aahhhh.... I love the smell of brown sugar. 

          -Transfer to tightly lidded container of your choice.
That's it! Look at you, you fabulous homemade beauty! Can you believe you used to pay for this??

Hey, with a name like Smucker's it has to be good, right?
Come back tomorrow for a post on how to get those annoying labels off your recycled jam jar. The easy way!

-For a thinner scrub, add more liquid ingredients a bit at a time until it reaches the desired consistency.

Great on rough spots (knees, elbows and feet) and safe for facial exfoliation too!

NOTE: As with any scrub, be very gentle on sensitive areas around the eyes and nose.

FUN FACTS: 

-I added the honey to work as a natural preservative and skin softener and it works amazingly well. This scrub will keep for months and travels well if you want to ship a batch as a gift. 

-Salt is great as a scrub, but I prefer sugar because it's not as drying to my skin.

-Olive and coconut oils have been used for centuries as a natural conditioner for both skin and hair. Knowing how to use oils in your beauty treatments can give you a beautiful healthy glow! Click here to read about a way to use these oils instead of chemical laden face washes. That's right, oil to cleanse your face!

This is a basic scrub and you can build on it any way you wish.
As you get more comfortable making it, you can add food coloring to a scrub made with white sugar for a fun presentation. For a little more luxury, add dried herbs and a drop or two of fragrance and essential oils.

Be careful with fragrance and essential oils in a face scrub. A tiny bit is enough! Too much can cause break outs. Fragrance oils are delicious in body scrubs, though and the right scent can enhance the spa experience.

Who says you have to pay a lot for that luxurious body scrub at the store? Make your own for pennies and enjoy creating your very own homemade spa! Hey, you don't even have to drive there!

Have you taken time out for yourself this week? I guarantee, you won't regret it.
Happy pampering, Beauties!

PS
Many of you amazing people already know how to make sugar scrub. What are your favorite ingredients?

Tutorial Tuesday: Cucumber Sandwiches

I found this recipe at AngelFire.com and had to try it. I bought the basket of cucumbers the other day in the hope of making cucumber sammich, as Baby Boy says. Now that I have a package of neufchatel cheese in my fridge, it's the perfect time! Mmmmm...
As I gathered my ingredients, I wondered if there were any way to spice it up. A quick google search yielded the recipe below and I realized something mind blowing: I've been making the boring version my whole life! What I usually do is spread some cream cheese on the bread, slap on thinly sliced cucumbers and voila: Cucumber sandwich. Right? Oh no. This "Best Cucumber Sandwich" recipe is much more fabulous than that. I was already in love with my plain version, but this! This is a cuke sandwich symphony! I love to have hot tea around 3PM every day and this sandwich with tea is a perfect combo.

Here's the recipe as I found it along with my photos:

Best Cucumber Sandwiches

1 medium cucumber

1/2 cp. cider vinegar

1 cup water

8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened (lite is good)

1/4 cp. mayonnaise

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. onion salt

dash Worcestershire

1 loaf sliced, firm-textured bread

garnish-thinly sliced pimento-stuffed green olives or paprika

Score cucumber lengthwise with fork (for looks) and slice thin.

In medium bowl, combine vinegar and water, add cucumber slices; let stand at room temp. at

least 30 min.

Drain WELL.

Meanwhile, combine cream cheese, mayo, garlic powder,

 onion salt and Worcestershire.

Cut bread slices into rounds

(or any shape you want, with a cookie cutter) and spread with cream cheese mixture. Top each with a slice of cucumber.

Shortly before serving

top with olive slice or paprika, or both.

Makes about 48 round tea sandwiches.

You can also add a little dab of cream cheese/mayo and top with a baby shrimp.

Note:  To make these the night before, cover with SLIGHTLY damp paper towels, then

cover the whole plate with foil. Keep in fridge and they'll be just great. 

Yum! You can see I didn't have the heart to waste the crusts. Baby Boy and I liked them just fine.

He got to chomp on the pretty one for the first photos.

Even after making all those sandwiches, I had one layer of cucumber slices left. So, I wrapped this plate in foil, as is and placed it in the fridge for tomorrow.
I don't think I can go back to my plain old cucumber sandwiches after this!

Have you found a twist on an old favorite?

Linking to:

Taco Beef and Rice

Technically, it's Leftover Night and I'm not supposed to cook, but I (technically) took last night off from cooking. So, because Hubby was a good sport and made his own dinner after a long day of work, I'm whipping up a quick and easy meal of ground beef and rice. Well, hey, I figured he was basically thrown for a loop since he can expect to cook for himself on Thursdays and not Wednesdays, but he handled it manfully. I can make brown gravy, but wanted to do something a little different. I saw that Homemade Mamas posted this recipe for homemade taco seasoning and thought Yes! That's dinner! Hubby loves Mexican food so this is especially for my wonderful man! I'm so interested in homemade spice mixes after my recent foray with an allspice substitute.
What are you having for dinner?

Spa Night: Brightening Mask

Here I am with my mom, who was such an amazing good sport during her recent visit. She got a crash course in homemade relaxation! It was tons of fun and we got amazing results. I've used the mask pictured here before, but never posted the recipe, so here it is, a homemade brightening mask.

Brightening Mask

-1/4 cup plain yogurt (ooh, homemade yogurt comes in handy!)

-2 Tbs honey

-1/2 tsp turmeric

-flour

STEP 1: In a small bowl, combine yogurt, honey and turmeric until well combined.

STEP 2: Add a teaspoon of flour at a time, stirring after each, to form a thick spreadable paste. Think facial masks you buy in the store and go for that consistency, like thick mayonnaise.

STEP 3: Apply evenly over freshly washed face, massaging into skin. Let dry for 10-15 minutes as flour tightens the mask.

STEP 4: When dry, remove the mask by scrubbing with a warm, moist washcloth. This is an extra polishing step, removing dead skin cells. Rinse well and apply your favorite toner and a gentle moisturizer. 

Enjoy your brightened, smooth as silk skin!

FUN FACTS:

-The use of turmeric in facial masks has shown improvement in psoriasis and inflammatory skin conditions, evening out skin tone and promoting healing of open blemishes. Awesome, right? And there are a whole world of amazing things it does for your body when used regularly in cooking.

-Honey is one of my favorite at home antibacterials and skin softening agents!

-Yogurt is full of healthy bacteria and is another gentle softener.

-Use this mask once a week for gradual, brightening results. 

Don't forget to take time for yourself this week! Here's hoping you're able to grab a relaxing moment. Happy pampering!

Early Spa Night Post: Healing Liniment Recipe

I played around with the ingredients in the Healing Toner, increasing the measurements to create a healing liniment for my dad. 

The liniment worked really well in conjunction with my very first Healing Salve. I'd never made anything like that before and was so excited with how it turned out! Here's a peek at the salve made of:

Beeswax, olive oil, vitamin E, tea tree oil, lavender essential oil, calendula and chamomile. Woohoo! Yes, seriously, those are all the ingredients. No chemicals! It was ultra healing and chock full of natural goodness. It smelled lovely, very natural and herbish and worked amazingly well. I love it so much that I'm going to make it regularly to use as diaper rash cream for Baby Boy. Anyway, not to get off topic, but I hope to post a recipe for the salve soon!

Here's the Healing Liniment recipe if anyone wants to give it a try. 

Enjoy!

Healing Liniment

-Freshly brewed green tea

-Witch hazel

-Tea tree oil

-Water

Just remember, 3-2-1.

In a container of your choice, add 3 parts cooled green tea, 2 parts witch hazel and 1 part water.

Add 1/2 tsp tea tree oil and shake well to combine

Store in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. 

Remember to shake well before each use to redistribute the tea tree oil, which will float on top after sitting. 

Apply to freshly cleansed skin to heal, cool and soothe sore muscles or open wounds. 

Easy, right? Here are some FUN FACTS:

Tea tree oil- Natural antibacterial, and a gently powerful healing and cleansing oil.

Witch hazel- Successfully used as pain relieving topical treatment for bruises, insect bites, sunburn, minor burns, poison ivy, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, stiff muscles and blemishes. Wow! Don't you just love this stuff?  

NOTE: Guys, witch hazel is a fantastic natural aftershave. Ladies, on it's own it's an amazing toner you can use before makeup application or after makeup removal.

Puffy eyes? Soak cotton pads in witch hazel and rest them on your closed eye lids for 10-15 minutes for a quick refresher.

Green tea- Believed to have both healing and anti-aging properties.

Let this serve as an early reminder to make time to relax this week! Happy future pampering!

Tutorial Tuesday: Kefir Smoothie 6/14/2010

I've been drinking 8 oz of kefir every day as a part of introducing fermented foods to my diet. Read more on that in this post. Most days I drink it straight (think drinkable yogurt with more of a tang), but on mornings when I have a few extra minutes I'll make it into kefir fruit smoothie. What a tasty way to take your medicine!

Measure roughly 8 oz of kefir

In a blender, toss a serving of fruit (your preference) and pour in 1 oz of kefir.

Add a scoop of supplement powder (whey, protein, fiber, etc) and blend until doubled in volume.

In a tall glass, pour blended fruit mix into the rest of kefir & stir to mix well. Here it is before stirring.

I always share mine with Baby Boy, so here are our two smoothies, complete with straws. Little Man loves that he gets a straw. I think that may be half the reason he loves kefir smoothies, for the cool straw.

He will not come up for air until it's all gone. I don't blame him. They are so good!

I wanted to show the rivulets left on the cup I used to measure the kefir. From what I've read, that's an indication that the bacteria is healthy and active. Yay!

I did want to explain why you don't dump the entire serving of kefir into the blender and why you can't get your daily intake by stirring it into coffee to make it more palatable. Kefir is a living bacteria, so extreme temperatures will kill it (hot coffee) and blending it all will cause stress to the probiotic organisms and you won't get the full benefit of drinking carefully cultured, live kefir. You just want to pour enough to moisten your other ingredients and blend them  all together without having to add another liquid and dilute your kefir smoothie. I know all this live bacteria talk is gross to some, but it really does make sense. Yogurt is basically the same thing, a fermented food full of 'good' bacteria to balance & flush your system of the 'bad'. Except kefir is naturally rampant with strong quantities of healthy yeast and bacteria, as is kombucha tea, speaking of which: my tea is ready! Brewing station photos available in this post. I'll do a separate post on that sometime this week. Later then.