Low Tea, and book swap

I didn't get around to doing a video tutorial, no surprise their, but I have something even better! Low Tea treats!!! Low tea is held around 1-3 the typical time for the wealthy who don't go to work, wear as High tea is held around 6 with dinner for the working class who get off of work at that time.

 

We had  a simple chi tea, and a cinnamon orange rooibos blend. I used cream instead of half and half (which is homogenized and absolutely terrible for the body).

We had blueberry lemon scones, orange cranberry salad, turkey open faced sandwiches, and a delicious quiche made by my cousin.

Since all our beautiful flowers are gone I used some fake flowers that actually look quite nice  and I put them in a mason type jar with a flip lid.

The lovely quiche. 

Us ladies have a bit of an affinity to hot sauce.

We also discussed the books we had read the month before, and traded for some new books to peruse.
This is the book that I am borrowing. I haven't started reading it ye, but I am looking forward to this collection of short stories.

Now for the Recipes!

The Sandwiches were so easy. Great harvest has Stuffing bread right now so I sliced that and put cream cheese on it, some homemade cranberry sauce that I pureed in the blender, and some turkey slices. You can change this by using mayo and by putting pickled red onions on too. If you don't have access to the bread then a whole wheat will work great. So Yummy and easy either way! 

The cranberry sauce is supper easy, 1 cup of water and 1/3 cup of honey in a small pot. Bring to a boil and add 4 cups of cranberries. Bring back to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Now you can add orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, nuts, blueberries, or something else, or nothing else. For the two recipes that I used it for in this blog I din't add anything else.

The Orange and cranberry salad was just 4 oranges sliced, and about 1/2 cup of cranberry sauce with the cranberries still mostly in tacked. (As in Not Pureed and not that canned jelly kind). Mix the two together, and their you go. Now that I think about it though, It would have bean nice to put a cinnamon stick in with the cranberries while they cooked.

For the scones I used a recipe from a blog Be book bound. I did alter it, so this is my little twist, and I also didn't have the sugar to I didn't do the topping I made my own up instead.

• 2 1/4 cups of flour
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• about 1/4 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 2 tbsp of honey
• 1/4 cup of cubed and cold butter
• 1/4 cup of non hydrogenation shorting, chilled.
• 1/2 cup of yogurt mixed with 1/4 cup of water (easier to keep on hand than buttermilk)
• 1 egg
• Zest from 1 Lemon plus a bit of juice, about 1/8 of a cup
• about a cup of frozen blueberries (if you use frozen too, don't dethaw them or they will make your scones all weird, the same goes for muffins)

Preheat your oven to 400. sift all the dry ingredients. Add the butter and shortening and cut it in by hand or with a food processor. Just like making pie. Mix the wet ingredients and combine with the dry. Fold in the berries. Put on a buttered baking sheet and form into a squareIsh shape. You'll want it to be about 1/2 in tall. With a nice knife, cut into squares but leave them in place. Bake for about 25 to 30 min. When you pull them out let them cool for 5 min, then re-cut, will be so easy, you might not even need to. After they have cooled completely drizzle some glaze on 'em.

For the glaze:

Mix juice from 1/2 a lemon with 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar till smooth. Now add in 1/8 cup of cream cheese to the mix. (you can add more if you like) It is easiest to mix with a fork. You may need to add some water, about 1/4 cup so that it is the consistency of thin to medium paste, depending on what you like. I like mine thicker because it stays on the scones nicer. 

My bag: natural and handy products

It seems so silly to me to post about what I keep in my bag/purse. I mean, why would I want to show people all the boring stuff that everyone keeps in their purse. But I decided that I would share my essentials that I keep in my bag at all times because some of them are, in my opinion, quite helpful. 

All of my bags are either vintage (above) or big earth friendly totes that I keep my embroidery and what not in. I love my wallet. It doubles as a clutch. It opens up like a wallet, but it also snaps open on each side that I can fit everything but my nook and notebook in, including my phone, this makes it so that I can take everything with me that I need out and be all fancy dancy. 

I like to use my bag (I usually use a fair trade bag that fits over my shoulder more comfortably) because it is easier to carry that way. I have a larger notebook and a smaller notebook that I interchange  I usually have my nook (I'm so addicted, haha) and a ponytail, you just never know when you need to but your hair up. I always have a bit of first aid because, well, I injure myself quite often. i have band-aids, Clean well alcohol-free hand sanitizer, Hemp-Eaze that I use like neosporin. It works so AMAZING!!! 

I like to keep lavender oil and a blend of clove and peppermint oil in a roll on in my bag. The roll on I put about 20 drops of clove and peppermint oil in and fill it the rest of the way with almond oil. I use this for basically any aches and pains and headaches. 

I usually have either a 100% pure lip gloss or some sort of chap stick like Terra Tints or Burts Bees. I also keep a shaker with my veggy supplement in my bag to sprinkle on food. You can dry greens from your garden and crush them up and use that as a supplement in the winter so that you can get plenty of greens. I like to use hankies simply because I like them better and the one above goes really well with my purse. It comes in handy for all sorts of things, such as spray off a table at a park and use one side to wipe it off and the other as a place mat, it is better on your wallet and the planet than using wet wipes. 

Other things that I like to keep in my bag are a small tape measurer, a water bottle, some sort of snack like dried fruit, and a nifty little fold up brush that comes in so much handy. If I'm going to be out for a long time I might bring along a makeup compact.. maybe. It is so easy to find natural products for your purse. If you go to a natural grocery store then chances are just standing in the sales line you'll find most everything you need.

My cat decided to get in on the action and I couldn't resist putting her in here. :D

Delicious beets and eggplant.

Howdy doody! I am so awake, it's crazy. I actually slept until about 9:30 because oddly my chickens stayed quiet. And then after I did dishes and laundry I decided to make coffee with my new french press. It's actually really easy. I figured it would be, and I like it a lot better than those complicated machines. (I know what your thinking, but for someone who drinks coffee like 3 times a year, they are complicated to try and figure out.) I have some supper yummy cream from grass fed cows (I know, cows not goats. But hay! I can't control when the goats are pregnant!) so I decided to pour some it. I usually like my coffee black, but I needed to use up the cream, plus with the cream in it pares a bit better with this awesome chocolate. Unfortunately its only 55% cocoa (I like baking chocolate. So Yummy!) but the Ancho and Chipotle chilies and dried cherries make up for it. Plus they wrap them in love poems, awwwwww. 

 Yesterday at about 6 I started dinner. I was just going to fry up the eggplant that I had, my husband likes to eat them like french fries dipped in mustard and ketchup, he likes them basically any way, but that's the easiest. I fry them in a batter like fried chicken in a bit of olive oil in a pan.  But, about halfway through I decided to use up the zucchini and bell pepper that I had. I was being to lazy to clean up the dishes, so I didn't have enough room to batter the eggplant, so they were going to be kind of plane. I ended up making this fancy dancy thing that tasted so good! i normally don't like zucchini at all, and I only sort of like eggplant, but MAN! This was GOOOD STUFF! The side veggies are sauteed with a bit of butter and olive oil, and molasses. They tasted like roasted beets but tool way less time to cook.

Eggplant baked in a Bechamel sauce served with zucchini, bell pepper, and beets.
Serves 4. Active time is about an hour, inactive time about 3 hours depending.

• 2 large eggplant sliced to a width of 1/2 inch and with the bitters drained. (slice them and put a couple layers of paper towel between them to remove the bitter juices. This will take from about 1 hr to 3 hrs)
• olive oil, for frying. (do this at a lower heat. If you want to fry them faster use grape seed oil)
• 4 tbsp of butter
• 1/4 cup of flour. Either white wheat, spelt or rice flour or cornstarch. (I have never tried anything else to thicken a sauce, but I know that these work great.)
• 2 1/2 cups of milk
• 4 to 8 cloves of garlic minced

Preheat an oven to 350. Fry the eggplant in oil of choice for 2-3 minutes on each side. Layer them in an 8 inch baking dish with the garlic and some salt and pepper. In a saucepan melt the butter and combine the flour with it. Let it get a bit brown then slowly whisk in the milk. Let it thicken and bubble a bit then pour over the eggplant. You can either season the sauce with salt and pepper or put some Parmesan or Asiago cheese in it. About 1/4 cup of cheese if you choose to do this, I went with the salt and pepper instead. If you want you can also put some cheese on top. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the top is bubbly and a bit golden.

Beets and Zucchini: even if you dont like zuccini you will love this.

• Six medium zucchini
• 4 beets
• 2 bell peppers
• 4 tsp of molasses or maple syrup
• 2 tsp of fructose or sugar (it actually seemed to need this even with the sweetness of the beets)
• 1 tbsp of butter
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup of cilantro chopped. you can always use parsley if you don't have cilantro. 
• Feel free to add any Swiss Chard or other type of green sliced into ribbons.
• salt and pepper

Slice the zucchini and beets thinly, about 1/8th of an inch or thinner if you can manage it. A mandolin works great for this. slice the bell pepper fairly thinly. Put everything in a saute pan reserving the cilantro and other greens. When the butter melt mix it all together, you want everything to be a bit purple. Put the lid on and cook until the beets are easily pokeable. Add the cilantro and if you chose to have greens put those in now also, saute until the greens are easily chewed. Serve with the eggplant dish. 

October

 I'm going to have a couple tutorials sometime this week, one on making sauerkraut, and another on either making quill pens or a fabric dying diy, and possibly both with video. Frankly I'm astonished that I'm actually thinking about doing something so involved with my blog. My slacker self aside, their have actually bean some fun stuff happening around my little homestead!

I made Sauerkraut with my mom. We also made another batch yesterday with red beets instead of the golden ones. So pretty! 

Why did our chickens cross the road, to vises with the neighbor chicken of course!  The chickens in my neighborhood are all very friendly with each other. My neighbor down the street's chickens also like to go over to my neighbor's house to visit with his chicken.

I have bean working on some collagy things that are pretty fun. 

This is now officially my favorite soap. It smells so good and  makes my skin so soft. It is scented with essential oils so it doesn't bother my nose or head. :) Also it's only about $4, and for me that's about $1.50 a moth for a bar of soap, an I use it quite liberally. 

The cat and chickens keep having all these face offs, ware they both end up running away in fear.  I am rolling my eyes at Isabella, she is such a city cat! I suppose I should be glad she isn't eating my chickens. lol

I painted some awesome shorts. Their are all sorts of diy's for this kind of fabric painting this is my favorite, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aZ2ri_EDaI

We celebrated my grandma's birthday with muffins from farmers market (and cupcakes)  and tea for breakfast. Then we went to an alternative health fare at Barns and Noble's. Later we had pie from farmers market and goat milk ice cream. 

I have bean enjoying this awesome weather, sitting in my rocking chair. Oh, and those are a pair of my new glasses. 

We went to goblin valley in Utah. It was my first time camping in a tent and I loved it! 

Sputnik decided to climb into the bike trailer. 

This is my first ever white lasagna! I put greens and things from the garden into it. 

Jacob was the Brawny man for holloween. 

I was some space princess person, I'm still not quite sure exactly. 

My chickens are becoming ugly. This was from yesterday. This morning when I went to feed them, they had so many more patches. Sad, so sad. But, they need to molt so that they can be warm for winter. 

And I found out that my husband is obsessed with arcade games. He even likes watching people play them on You Tube. Sometimes he amazes me with he things he likes.

Happy Fall Back everyone! I hope you enjoyed that extra hour of sleep that I didn't get because my chickens demanded to be fed. At least I finally got something posted for once. Don't forget that tutorials are coming up within the next week!!!!! Yay!

And Here are some supper cool you tube channels that I follow. Most of them are nerdy, but I really like expanding my mind when I watch videos.

This one is about how trees get water up so high. by 1veritasium 

by minutephysics

You live in the past, by vsauce. This is my favorite, they have all sorts of neat things.

Death of Yolo by bball1989

Elements- Dubstep Violin- Lindsey Stirling by lindseystomp

Young Blood and making your own Makeup

My mom just came to my house and brought over some goodies from the beauty supply store! Since she is a cosmetologist and of coarse has her licence she gets to be supper special and get beauty products at supper awesome wholesale prices. Not only are the prices great, but they oftentimes get products before other places. So, back to the story. My mom came buy with some supper awesome sparkly hair ties, AND, here is the best part, Facial Powder!!!!! We have both bean out of foundation because 100% pure has bean out for quite a wile so we have bean using MyChelle instead. The ingredients aren't bad and we can get it at our grocery store. But it is a cream, and I don't like it as much. I have bean needing to use some of my old loose powder over it so that I get a bit better coverage and a better finish. This is where the finishing powder from Young Blood mineral cosmetics comes in. I used it just now all by itself and it worked almost just as good as regular foundation, for my needs anyway, and I can get it cheaper. (If you have a SalonCentric and know someone with some sort of beauty license you can get it for a bit less than half the price.) It doesn't cover up my "blemishes" quite as well, but I need to use cover up with any foundation anywise. I figure, that if I just use a moisturizer underneath or if I really need some long lasting coverage use a light amount of my MyChell foundation and then applying the Young Blood Finishing powder.

 I know your probably thinking whats so great about this product. Well I'll tell you. First of all it is only like $15 with my mom buying it, and secondly, it has AMAZING ingredients. By amazing I mean the bestist most awesomestly Amazing ingredients EVER! I'm not sure about the ingredients in some of their products. Some of them sound a bit shady. However the setting powder has a whole bunch of great extracts and other such skin awesomeizing stuff in it. It smells so good! Also it is a lot less than many foundations. The 100% pure foundation is about the same price, but until that returns, I'm gonna stick to this. The ingredients are something that I can make for really cheap, but I don't have any of the extracts or anything, and I need some more oxides. (They do have it at sephora, so if your lucky enough to have one I suggest you stop buy and check it out.) You can get the actual foundation for on $30 on Amazon which is pretty cool.

If you do want to make your own foundation here are some basic recipes that I like experimenting with.

Tinted setting powder or foundation:
Various types of iron oxides, browns, yellows, and reds. I get these for painting (making your own paint is so much fun!) so I just took what I had to mix and match.
You can add some Ultramarine pigment and mica also but isn't necessarily needed.
Rice flour

Only get a small amount (you will most likely need to order the pigment online) of various colors so that you can get the right color for you, but make sure you have enough probably at least 20 grams if not a bit more just in case. About 50% of the mixture should be from the rice flour. Give it a whirl in a food processor or use a mortal and pestle. Keep mixing until you get the perfect shade. This way you can leave out any bad ingredients and you get to change your foundation as your skin color changes with the seasons.

You can use your extra pigments to make blush, lip gloss and eye shadow.

Make your own Lip Gloss:

• 1tbsp of Alo Vera gell
• 1/2 tbsp of coconut oil
• 1/8 tbsp of vitamin E oil
• A drop or two of essential oil it you want flavor. (You might want to mix your oil with a vegetable oil first if it is a hot oil like mint or cinnamon)
• Earth pigments, basically what you use for your foundation but you get to play around with more colors. You can also melt down some of your lipstick in with the coconut oil if you want that exact color, or use some eye shadow or blush you have on hand. I also like beat powder or juice as a coloring. 

Mix well, and apply. Keep in an old lip balm container. If you want sun protection you can add some zinc and/or titanium oxide. It may make your lips look a bit odd though but adding pigment should help.

To make Eye Shadow:
Basically it is just a bit of rice flour with earth pigment (includes oxides) and mica. mix in a small food processor or with a mortar and pestle.

To make blush:
This is just like making foundation, only you want to use only red pigments mostly. if you want it to be a bronser  make your foundation but make it a shade or two darker and put some mica in it for sparkle.

For a natural mascara, just empty out an old mascara bottle really well and fill it with alovera and if you want a bit of vitamin E oil. Coconut oil would work too. Just sweep it on. If you want it to be colored add some eye shadow and rice flour, enough that it will form a peek when you lift you mixing tool out of the mixture, then put in a mascara container. The colored mascara wont go into a mascara container as easily. What I find that work's best is to keep it in a separate container. Put your mascara wand into the colored mascara and then push the wand into the original container and take it out so that you don't have a big glob of mascara.

If you want a kit for mineral foundation their is one at Amazon HERE. The base has titanium and zinc oxide (the least harmful way to have sunscreen) which I wouldn't use and just use rice flour instead. But then again my 100%pure foundation has them in it but I don't like how it makes my face stay lighter as the rest of me tans. That is actually my only complaint I have ever had with any of their products. However it really isn't that noticeable I just need to use foundation that is a bit lighter.

Have fun and don't be afraid to let out your creative genius!

Herbivoracious, vegetarian cookbook

I must tell you about my new favorite cookbook! It is called Herbivoracious, and it is by Michael Natkin. The recipes are so yummy! If you are thinking, I'm not a vegetarian, I wont want that. Well, if you like incredibly delicious food then you are wrong, you do want it! I don't mean to sound pushy about this, but it is such a fresh take on vegetarian food, that it is now a go to cookbook in my kitchen along with Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller, and my Good Eats cookbook. So ya, this is epic. Their is Native American, Mexican, Indian, and so many more flavors incorporated into these recipes. I highly suggest you go here and check out his online recipes, then go here and consider buying the book. Go Here for some pictures of recipes in the book.
I suppose that's enough crazy cookbook lady for one day. Time to go make lunch! 

The safe and toxin free home: Beauty care

Everybody likes to look be clean, look and feel their best, and smell good. Well, what if the products that you think are making you clean are really harming your skin and making your liver and various organs dirty by overloading them with toxic chemicals? What if the products that make you look "good" and give you confidence making our feel good, are really making your organs look not so good making you feel tired, cranky, unbalanced, dizzy and just plain old bad. What if the products that make you "smell good" are actually giving you those chronic headaches, making you sneeze and are causing asthma.  If your beauty prodocts contain Triclosan, SlES, SLS, Petrolatum, PEG compounds, Fragrance, Parabens, Formaldehyde, Dibutyl phthalate, DEA, MEA, TEA, Cyclomethicone, Siloxanes, Coal Tar Dyes, BHA, BHT and many, many,many others. (further reading on chemicals go here to thegreenbeautyguide.com) These chemicals can cause Asthma, skin burns, cancer, brain disorders, dizziness, alzheimers, toxicant to the immune system, and the list goes on, and on. 

Here is an interesting video.

It is so easy to make many of or your own beauty products. Some are a bit more time consuming than others. I love making my own facial masks and face and body scrubs. Toners are also super easy to make. I prefer buying the other stuff, but that's just me. If you have a lot of time on your hands lotion is easy to make and you get to customize your own personal scent. My favorite beauty recipe books are Return Beauty and EcoBeauty. Return to beauty even has food recipes to make you beautiful from the inside out. They both have a wide array of products to make that are so easy. 

Here are my beauty recipes. They work for all skin and hair types. 

Dulse Hair rinse. 

This Hair rinse makes my hair so clean. It get rid of all the build up on my scalp, and makes it shiny, soft, and easy to comb. 

In a mason jar fill up about a couple of inches with Apple cider vinegar (don't substitute any other vinegar) and put in a couple tbsp of Dulse (ground up sewed) Put on the lid and shake. While in the shower fill the jar up with about 1/2 cup of water. After you shampoo your hair lightly put the hair rinse in and let it set while you finish your shower routine.Then rinse well. Don't worry if you don't get all the dulse out. It blends in fine with the hair, and comes out when you brush it (after it is dry). It may take another shower to get it all out, but it is so worth it! Your hair will be so happy. 

Oatmeal cookie face wash. 

Equal parts dried goats milk and oatmeal flower (add some oats that you ground in your food processor for more exfoliation). Put a Tbsp of the mixture in your palm, and add a bit of water so that it is a smooth, runny paste. Rub gently with your fingertips in circular motions on your pre-moistened face. Works good, smells good and cheep. 

Yogurt and honey face mask:

Yogurt takes away dead skin cells, and the honey is antibacterial. They combine to create one amazing zit fighting, skin softening mask! Combine equal parts honey and plain yogurt. Apply to face and let it set for 10 to 20 minutes. Then wash of with a warm washcloth. While you wait add some vanilla and chopped nuts or fruit to the leftovers, and enjoy. 

Facial scrub:

1/4 cup of honey with jojoba beads and cherry extract and powder is my favorite. But for something a bit more easy to obtain, use 1/4 cup of sugar plus 1tbsp of almond oil. The honey with jojoba beads work better for me because my skin tends to be a bit oily. 

Green tea toner:

Green tea in a spray bottle, sprayed on your face. Tightens up the skin. (plus, no drying alcohol!)

Body scrub:

1/2 cup of salt. 1/4 cup of olive, almond, avocado, or sesame oil. 5 to 10 drops of essential oil of choice. For a cooling and cold fighting scrub do eucalyptus and peppermint. For a spicy sweet scrub try cinnamon and vanilla. If you want something that goes with your lotion, add the essential oil that is in the name of the products to your scrub. Such as Lavender=lavender, A forest lotion=pine and or cedar.  Easy and fun.

For my makeup I use 100% pure. Made up of fruits, veggies, and grains. I use'd to use mineral makeup, but many of them have chemicals similar to arsenic in them, and the loos powders are not good for your lungs. 100% pure also has lotions, shampoos, soaps, etc. They are cruelty free and use organic ingredients. I like the idea of being able to eat it, and for it to actually be good for me. (not that I actually eat it. ha!) Their mascara dosn't work very well for me, so I use the shear miracles brand. It is more expensive than other brands, but for me it is worth it. Her makeup is a mineral brand that isn't harmful. Another mineral makeup that isn't harmful is afterglow. 

I also use shear miracles for my shampoo. Their is nothing bad in it at all. It takes some getting used to, because it doesn't strip your hair of all the natural oils. It actually levees some so that your hair is healthy. Oil is good for my hair? YES! IT IS! Who would have thunk it? 

For shaving cream and body wash I use African Black soap from my local health foods store. It also works for shampoo for all hair and skin types. Conditioner works great for shaving cream also, but the African Black soap is cheaper. 

For lotion, I use sesame oil, or MSM lotion. (you can get MSM lotion at therawfoodworld.com) MSM also has shampoos, soaps, sunscreen etc. 

For sunscreen I use a big hat, and coconut oil (which has a 5 spf). Sunscreens are very harmful and odly enough can cause cancer. I recommend that if you absolutely must ware sunscreen, to use MSM or Badger brands. They both have zinc oxide which isn't great, but is a much better alternative to the other brands. (If you know of any other brands that are good I would love to know!) On a dietary note, if you eat raw vegan,  then you shouldn't get sunburned. My mom did this diet a couple years back and she, who burns like leaf didn't get sunburned at all. If you ware Linen clothing then that works great. I like to ware a loos fitting thin, linen long sleeved shirt if I need to be outside for a long time. 

Wellness should start at home. So why not consider what you put on yourself every morning. You know you love trying new shades of lipstick, and new lotions, so why not give it a try? If you don't think you can afford it, try Sally hansen makeup. It is definitely not the best, but a bit better than most with cheaper prices. (I couldn't find the ingredients listed online, but their are no parabens, which is a plus) Then again, buying makeup that is more expensive is cheaper than hospital bills. Just a bit of food for thought. Have fun exploring new beauty products! 

Beauty Foods!!!

Gorgeously Green Cheat sheet to bring with you when you go shopping. 

This website has a list of other websites that have helpful resources and information. gardenofbeauty.net

The dirty dozen (ingredients to avoid)