DailyTLC: Piece Be With You

Today is one of those days that has been packed with good analogies, experiences to mark as unique, and small insights. It has not been without pain (my hand is still stinging from a humungous fall crossing the street with my kids earlier today). Sometimes things happen that we don't really understand or see how they possibly could have taken place, but we take a step back and understand that our small lives are a piece of a giant picture.

My cousin has a blog post that fit perfectly into my afternoon. She's older, wiser, and most of all... pretty stinkin' funny. Today's post is a nice little reminder about the big picture.

DailyTLC: Piece Be With You: One of the dynamics of having only male children in the house is that they bring a lot of noise to everything they do.  If they’re playing...

Two ingredients? Really?

Pizza. One of my favorite things in the world. If you choose quality (whole food) ingredients, you can have somewhat of a healthier version...

As much as I love the master boule pizza dough, you can imagine the excitement when I saw a blog post about a 2-ingredient dough that you just knead for 5-8 minutes!

kidspot kitchen

Well, I will have to make my own self-rising flour with baking powder and salt. So...technically that's FOUR ingredients. Anyway, the greek yogurt part sounds interesting.


We use organic when we can. If not, we at least know what we're putting into our own food when we cook it ourselves.

Here is the recipe from the kidspot link:
Ingredients: 

• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 cup of Greek yogurt
• Extra flour for dusting the board

Method:
In a bowl, combine the flour and yoghurt and bring together to form a ball.
Turn out onto a floured board to knead and roll.
Knead for 5-8 minutes. Roll into a pizza shape and add toppings.
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
If you've tried this before, let me know how it turned out!

[I followed a link here and found the recipe here]

Pickled

When you have a blog about doing things, you wind up taking a LOT of photos while you do things. In my mind I have formulated so many posts, but hardly find the time to post them. Here are a couple of pickling images I found while I was cleaning up files today.

Canning is hard work, but fun to do with friends. Robin came over a couple of times to help with canning tomatoes and cucumbers. The tomatoes were not from our co-op garden, but rather from her neighbor that had extra Better Boys. The cucumbers, however, are most certainly from the garden. How they will taste when we open up the jars is yet to be discovered, since we had a variety that we suffer through the bitterness at the table. The two jars that we have sampled have been very tasty, but not "spicy" as the label indicated. Our jalapeños were so unpredictable this year!

So far we've thoroughly enjoyed the pickles. The only jar so far that didn't taste spectacular was a "questionable" batch of very bitter cukes that we took a risk on. They didn't get enough moisture in the garden, or got too much heat (or both!). Either way, no bueno. Now we know!

My Favorite Autumn Skin Savers!

This dry fall weather is already showing up on my skin. You know, the tell-tale signs of sandpaper fingers and dry (very, very dry) legs. So I'm beefing up my moisturizing! Here are a couple of things that have really helped me, as well as sticking to a night-time routine. Just a hint, if you click on the images or links it will take you to where you can buy it, or see more information on the product.

My favorite face oil has recently come from Everyday Minerals. I am loving this oil, which doesn't stay greasy on my face, and has the same healing effects as the Flexitol, but without the fragrance. I've used this in the morning by itself, spot treatment on top of my Daily Moisturizer, and as a night time moisturizer. Let's remember people, more oil balance in your skin means less wrinkles. As my skin dries out with age, I'm realizing that trying to stop the oily days of my 20s was detrimental to my skin.

Sometimes when I don't have time to wash my face (or I'm traveling), I use a Burt's Bees combo that I love. The Facial Cleansing Towelettes smell nice and fresh, my skin feels cool and a bit tingly for a bit, then I moisturize with the Night Cream. My face feels so nice the next morning!

 

Hype or no hype, the fact is that coconut oil is... an oil. It IS from nature, and this organic extra virgin version is free of chemicals and added nonsense. It's edible. It's topical. I use this instead of body lotion, as well as spot treatment for dry areas on my face. The tough part is when the room is cold and the coconut oil is a solid, so I have to scrape up bits to warm in my hand from wayyy at the bottom of the container. Time for a new container!

Ooh, did I mention that this is one of my subscribe and save items on amazon? It comes in a 2-pack and I instantly have one for the kitchen, and one for the bathroom!

Last, but certainly not least... The amazing-phenomenal-breath of fresh air-hand salve to save the day! I carry this in my purse and use it on my hands, elbows, legs, feet, neck, ears, yada yada yada. I LOVE THIS STUFF.