You put that Junque on your Face?

I have the worst winter skin – alligator skin – crepe skin – whatever you want to call it, I have it.  It feels thin and dry and OH MY GOD itchy.  It has been suggested that I don’t scrub enough in the shower. The problem is that the more I scrub, the more my skin hurts and feels tender.  Most lotions make my skin feel heavy and suffocated, so moisturizing is a pain. And I’ve spent waaaaay too many $$$ trying out lotions and face scrubs and not liking anything.

So after a long time of trial and error, I’ve come up with a system that works for me. And the best part is, it’s cheap. My first love is Grandma’s Lye Soap. I find it at my local hardware store sells it, but I see it can be bought online (link to Amazon thru site.  Despite what you might think about lye, this soap doesn’t burn my skin. The only ingredients are: Lye, lard, water, and very little else.  My husband likes it because it doesn’t smell like anything, especially anything girly.  I like it because it doesn’t make my skin feel tight or like there’s any residue on it.

Step two in my attempt to ease the Winter Skin Blues, is my favorite product of all time: Baking soda. Is there anything this stuff cannot do??? (You might think me silly and immature to use multiple question marks, but when it comes to this miracle product, it’s totally relevant, and despite that I am sticking my tongue out at you right now).  Now, my first few forays into attempting to use baking soda resulted in skin that was scrubbed too raw, so I caution you to use in a gently swirling motion. And rinse twice. Anyone who has used baking soda to clean their tub knows that when it’s dry you always find a line or two of dusty leftovers. Don’t do that to your skin. And another note of caution: I really only use baking soda a couple of times a week, not every day.

And lastly is step three in my brand new winter regime - Glycerin. You can find it in at the drug store. I think this sized bottle cost me less than $2.00, and that was about 3 years ago.  I got it because I had heard that it was great for getting oil based stains out of clothing. Yeah, tell that to my favorite mock turtleneck that had a run-in with a dish of linguine and clam sauce. The turtleneck lost. However, I love it for my feet and face.  I slather in on my feet right out of the shower, and put on socks. I slather it on my face, let it sit there for a minute. It’s very thick and viscous, and it doesn’t really sink in. Then I rinse it off with cool water, and pat my face dry.  My face feels great all day.

As with everything, your mileage may vary.  I found that pricy products hurt my skin as well as my wallet.  Of these three things, Grandma’s Lye Soap is the most expensive at around $6.00 a bar. but I found it at Amazon for a little over $3.00 a bar...I'm buying it there from now on!

Junque Food: Cooking Hash Browns in your Waffle Iron

Cooking Hash Browns in your Waffle Iron

I love hash browns, but I prefer them crispy. If I’m honest, I prefer them crunchy. Heck, burn them if you have to. OK, maybe not totally burned.  But I’ve never been able to make them crunchy without burning them at home. One day, while surfing Pinterest, I came across a pin for making hash browns in a waffle iron to make them crispy. EUREKA! A light bulb literally popped on above my head.  I went on my merry way, and totally did NOT pin that hashbrown recipe to my food board on Pinterest. Because I’m special that way. *nods*

Cut to last Sunday, I was looking for something to different to make for breakfast, and the light bulb popped on again. I ran to my computer, looked at my foodie pin board, and was devastated to find that I hadn’t saved that link. Oh well, off to Google I go!

  

I found this recipe:  Food Daddy's Loaded Hash Brown Waffles

Loaded? I am totally in!

So, me being me, I had to modify this guy’s recipe to get it to work for me. First, I didn’t have meat (he calls for diced ham, but bacon would be wonderful – neither of which I had on-hand, so we went meatless). His recipe appears to be for one waffle, I was cooking for 3 people, so measurements went out the window.  What I made was so yummy and filling, it was a meal unto itself. Here’s what I came up with:

Ingredients

• 4-5 potatoes grated, rinsed and drained
• ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 minced onion
• 1 minced bell pepper, any color you like
• 3-4 eggs beaten (depends on the amount of potatoes, you want them well coated)
• ½ to ¾ cups flour
• Garlic powder
• Parsley flakes
• Optional: diced ham, bacon, or sausage would all be heavenly in this

Mix all ingredients well. Heat waffle iron on high to as hot as it’s going to get.

Spray waffle iron with non-stick spray. Spray it again. And then do it a third time (I’m serious about this).

Spoon mixture onto waffle iron starting in the middle and smoothing outwards towards the edges. Don’t go exactly to the edge, so you leave a little for overflow. Close lid.

Now, leave it alone! Do not touch it for at least 7 minutes, unless it smells like it’s burning. Then, you know, do what you gotta do.

I checked mine after 8 minutes, most cooked for 10-12 minutes. Like Food Daddy suggested, I left the lid up for a minute, then gently lifted the crunch hash brown goodness out and onto a plate.  My mother and husband were practically beating me about the head and ears to get their mitts on breakfast. Or Brunch. Or whatever you want to call it when we finally ate.  The house smelled FABULOUS.

I ate mine with ketchup and hot sauce. My mom put butter on hers. Hubby ate his plain. A friend said she’d have slathered it with salsa, if she’d been invited (LOL).

Regardless, it was soooo NOMmy. Definitely a keeper.  I hope you like it.

Junque Food: V-day present to DaMan - Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

 I first tried this recipe last year or the year before. It was a rousing success. I mean how can you go wrong with Brownies, cheesecake, and raspberries?

I haven’t made them awhile, so I thought I’d whip up a batch for my husband for Valentine’s Day. He’s such a great guy, he’ll let me have a piece. He’d better anyway…if he knows what's good for him...

I originally got this recipe from: http://bakingbites.com/2009/02/raspberry-cheesecake-brownies/

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2-oz dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt

 8-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup raspberry preserves/jam

Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease. In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir with a fork until very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Whisking steadily, pour chocolate mixture into sugar mixture. Stir until smooth. Sift flour, cocoa powder and salt into the bowl and stir until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and prepare cheesecake mixture.

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Drop in dollops onto prepared brownie batter. Drop dollops of raspberry preserves into the cheesecake batter. Gently swirl batters with a butter knife, giving the brownies a swirly look.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.

Cool in the pan completely before slicing and serving, either at room temperature or chilled.

Brownies can be refrigerated, covered, for several days.

**************************************
Now, when I've made this in the past, I've used a good quality raspberry jam. However, I don't have any. I do have some home made jam from a relative, but it's over-jelled, and takes a chisel and a hammer to get it out of the jar. It was a minor dilemma, but I could always go to the store and purchase some jam, right?  Then I remembered....

EUREKA! I have a large baggie in my freezer of raspberries picked from our own bushes last summer. A moment was taken to Google, "Quick raspberry jam recipes," and I found this recipe which I tried, despite my trepidation of making jam in a microwave (it worked guys!) and ended up with almost 2 pint of jam. Score!

I will have to do this again with some blueberries I also have in the freezer, and do it as a blog post...it was simple, and waaaaay less messy than when canning jars and jars.

I should say, this was quick jam. it's not canned, and needs to be refrigerated or frozen. I'm letting the jars come to room temp, then putting in the fridge. I doubt they will last long enough for me to freeze.


Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

Musings from the Junque Pile - new beginnings?

Happy New Year! - ???  *chuckle*

Yes, it's been awhile since I've posted.  Winter is a time of slowing down here at the micro-mini ranch. While we haven't gotten bunches of snow, it's been cold, and I've been creaking and groaning more than normal.

<insert witty comment about getting old>

Nope. Don't have one.

I woke up early this morning, something I haven't done in quite a while now. Last year, during warmer weather, I got into the happy habit of getting up before the rest of the house, taking my laptop outside, and composing blog posts with a cup of coffee and watching the sun rise. It was peaceful, and productive, and set the tone of the day - in a happy and productive way.

The good news is that it's just a wee bit more than a month until the first day of spring. Does my heart, and arthritic hands good to realize that. *nods*

Yesterday, I pulled together all my seeds and took stock of what I have. This the the first step in figuring what I want to plant, followed by where I'm gonna put it. LOL. Space is always at a premium. But it's just another sign of spring coming.

So, even though I haven't been writing in my blog, I have been thinking and planning about what I want to write this year.  There will be plenty of gardening and growing posts, but I also wanted to step up my Junque policy of re-using instead of just recycling.

I'm working on beautifying tin cans for  organization on my craft table.
I've been bargain hunting for racks and shelving units
I've also been taking apart old jewelry in hopes of making edgier, more striking pieces

And we've got food! I've been hoarding recipes on Pinterest to try and share with y'all in the future. Oh yes, I do!  But look for a recipe that will be presented to DaMan for Valnetine's day this week...

Finally, I've got more home made Beauty tips that I've been experimenting on. I'll have a a itchy dry skin treatment coming up really soon, because I've got the Winter Itches bad this year  *scritch-scritch*

So, please don't think I've forgotten you. I'm here, just moving slowly.  But my mind is still going, even if the rest of me is frozen. Spring thaw is coming soon!  :)

Musings from the Junque Pile - Loofah update

Yeaaaahhhhhh....another posting that didn't get posted when I wrote it ages ago.  Ah well...I did update it with how the loofah is doing now...

How’s it going?  Loofah...how you?

Some of my faithful readers will remember that I had a loofah plant that was started too late in the season and it didn’t start producing baby loofah blossoms until early fall. So daHubster bless his heart, lugged in the 50 gallon container it was planted in, trellis and all.

It sits in front of the one south facing windows in the house. It needs a lot of water. It puts out a blossom or two a week. I’ve had 2 or 3 fruits set since. However, once the fruit grows to about 2-3 inches it withers and dies. Not sure why.  It could not be getting enough water. I’ve stepped up my water to every other day. The weather hasn’t been too sunny lately, so it might not be getting enough sun. I honestly didn’t think it would pollinate itself, but that doesn’t seem to be problem, since it has set a few in the time it has been inside.

I’m about ready to concede failure of The Great Loofah Experiment. But I won’t, ‘cause I’m stubborn like that.

Musings from the Junque Pile, or...

Comforter Redux, Part Deux.

I actually wrote this several weeks ago and thought I posted it, but apparently didn't. Oh well, better late than never...

You might think I’m being redundant (redundant) in the title, but I’m not (I’m not).  See, last spring I wrote a blog about my comforter, waxing poetic about how I loved the colors of the fabric, the reversible-ness of it, etc, etc.  Unfortunately it was very cheaply made (as only a $50 comforter from overstock.com can be), and the quilt batting inside was disintegrating, making for a very chilly and uncomfortable comforter.

But I love my blankey. I really wanted to save it. I got the wild-hair-up-my-butt-brainstorm to re-stuff it. The problem is is that I am not a quilter. I am not even much of a sewer, truth be told.  I’d dabbled in my 20's with making pillows for my grandmother's couch, and once sewed a pair of M.C. Hammer pants (don’t ask). I used to be able to run a sorta straight seam on a sewing machine.  But I’ve since developed an unreasonable fear of my sewing machines. It is probably from carting them all over the country with me as I moved hither and yon, always thinking about using them, but never doing it. They taunted me when we were in the same room alone. No really, they did. I even took videos of them taunting me, but it got lost it in the last move.

(You’re still stuck on those Hammer Pants, aren’t you?)

Anyway, I thought I could maybe just slit a hole in the side of my comforter, shove some poly-fill in there, sew it up and be done. And that’s pretty much what I did.  Then shoved some more poly-fill, and then some more, and more…

(I will just stop here for a moment and answer that *other* question burning in your head.  I didn’t use quilt batting for one reason – I’ve never quilted anything before, I’d never made a blanket before, but I *had* made pillows before.  And that’s why I used poly-fill. It makes sense if you think about it. Stupid sense, but whatever.)

You would not believe how much poly-fill a comforter with very little quilt-stitching to begin with can eat up. 6 bags later there was a very pretty mountain of poly-fill in the MIDDLE of my comforter. There was a veritable moat of under-stuffed fabric around this mountain of poly-fill. And as much as I would shake it,  pat it, and move it around to the edges of the fabric, all the poly-fill would gravitate to the middle again, sitting there looking like a recently fed troll in the middle of my bed.  It made it, for instance, impossible to watch TV in bed at night. Not to mention how cold it would get at the outer edges of the comforter, with no poly-fill there to keep me warm.

However, summer was coming, and I could ignore the problem for a few months by stuffing my comforter into a garbage bag and throwing it into the back of my closet. Unfortunately, all summers come to an end, and autumn was upon us.  I was recovering from hand surgery, not working, and had very little money. But I had time to mull the problem, and 2 very sullen sewing machines sitting around my house, sneering at me.  It was time to teach them a lesson.

I needed to figure out how to quilt an extremely puffy king sized comforter without breaking a needle or jamming the machine.  My wonderful hubster, being engineering-ly inclined, suggested the term “baffles.” Basically, sewing the comforter into tubes and stuffing the individual tubes after sewing.

Brilliant! 

I set about un-stuffing the beast filling four 13 gallon-sized garbage bags, in case you were wondering, or probably enough to fill one set of Hammer pants (not that I would know this).  After washing and ironing the fabric of the comforter (oh yeah: another reason I don’t sew is that I don’t iron, and you really need to iron things when you are sewing…you really, really do. Trust me on this), I set about dissecting the fabric so that the “baffles” were even along the length of the comforter.  I folded it in half, ironed a crease, folded it in half again, and ironed another crease.  This gave me 4 even quarters after sewing 3 lines.  “I can do this, I can do this, I can do this…” this chant was going through my head often during this project.

(Let me just interject that if you coming back to sewing after taking a decade or two off, you might want to sew on some scrap fabric, just for the heck of it.  You need to check the tension of you stitches, make sure the bottom thread isn’t bunching up in the machine or at the bottom of your fabric, etc.  Yeah, take it from me. You really REALLY want to do that.)

So, I eventually got the 3 seams sewn. I started stuffing the first baffle with poly-fill.  Wow, it’s still too large of an area. The Poly-fill sinks to the bottom of the comforter and lays there like a flopping fish, growing ever more bloated and unwieldy.  I almost cried.  But I bravely pushed on.  My sewing machine is apparently a wee bit out of shape, and the sewing I did made it realize that maybe it didn’t have the chops to consider sneering at me anymore. Take that, sewing machine!

I divided the existing quarters in half, ironed more creases, and sewed those. I have to say that it wasn’t a bad sewing job, running a king-sized comforter through the machine while maintaining a semi-straight line. Even un-stuffed, all that material is heavy!

But it worked! Making the baffles smaller did the trick. With less fabric to move around in, the poly-fill has less place to go, and therefore went where I wanted it to.  The only problem was…

I ran out of poly-fill, and needed to pick up another bag of it to finish the job.  Can you believe it? I’m calling myself the poly-fill queen from now on.

I didn’t take any pictures of me sewing the comforter for the blog, but I will put up an end-product pic.  Just don’t look at the rest of my bedroom…it’s bad. Someday I will repaint the walls, sew up some curtains….QUIT SNICKERING at me. I swear, you all are as bad as my sewing machine…

Musings at the Junque Pile - Do I know how to multi-task or what?

This morning I got up early to "get some things done." Sha. Right.

From: www.horrorthon.blogspot.com

I have no problem getting up early on the weekends. I have several furry alarm clocks who decide that breakfast comes earlier on Saturdays and Sundays than it does during the week when I need to get up for work.Monday thru Friday, I am routinely up by 6:00am.  Weekends, the yowling horde generally starts in around 4:30am.

This is good, right?

Anyway, after throwing a pillow or two at an offending cat, I managed to slug-a-bed until 5-ish this morning. Score me for an extra half-hour! Whoo hoo! The jokes on them, though, because I still don't feed them until after 6:00am.  One needs meds, and I don't deviate from the schedule (much).  I'm just ambulatory enough to squirt them with a water bottle until it's mealtime.

So, up I get, coffee I make. Yoda, I am not.

This morning's schedule is to dye hair (yes, I admit to it, who am I kidding?), do a major facial with steam, baking soda scrub, with a witch hazel chaser, and a pedicure.  I also need to do my Christmas cards.

From: www.theglamorganicgoddess.blogspot.com

The amazing thing is, once the dye is on, I can plaster my face, soak my feet AND write out cards while all that beauty stuff does their individual things.

I hope I don't drip on the cards, though.  That would be tacky.  *nods*