May 23, 2011: At Home Spa Treatment Recipes

With the long Memorial Day holiday weekend coming up soon, you may want to indulge yourself with an “at home spa” day. This is a great way to refresh yourself, if you don’t have any travel plans, and get ready for the busy upcoming summer season. Here’s a few recipes sure to relax and rejuvenate you!

Body Scrub

¼ cup coffee grounds (go ahead and use the ones from this morning’s coffee)
¼ cup Epsom salts or Kosher salt
1 ripe avocado, mashed
¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
Almond oil

Mix all ingredients; add just enough oil to make a smooth paste. While in the shower, use this in place of soap. Just rinse off and towel dry.

Recipe (slightly modified by me!) courtesy of Redbook magazine.

Cornflower Eye Refresher

2 T. dried cornflowers
½ cup water

Make a tea with the cornflowers in boiling water. Cool. Dip two cotton balls into the cooled mixture and place over your closed eyelids for 15 minutes. On a really hot day, ice down the cornflower tea before using.

Tip: To find cornflowers, look at your local health food store. They’re easy to grow so you may want to include them in your garden this year.

Use either of the following rinses as a final rinse for your hair (don’t rinse it out), then sit out in the sun and let your hair dry naturally. Each of these formulas is mean to enhance your particular hair color.

Chamomile Hair Rinse (for fair hair)

3 ½ cups water
2 ounces chamomile flowers
2/3 cup cider vinegar
5 drops lemongrass oil

Make a tea by boiling the water and adding the chamomile flowers. Let it steep for half an hour, then strain and add the vinegar and oil.

Rosemary Hair Rinse (for dark hair)

Same recipe as above except substitute 2 ounces rosemary sprigs and 5 drops oil of bergamot.

The above 3 recipes are courtesy of The Country Store by Stephanie Donaldson and published by Lorenz Books.

These recipes should get your at home spa day started. You may also want to do a mani/pedi and rub some yummy scented lotion over your body after you step out of the shower. Enjoy!

March 9, 2011: Body Wash Recipe

Although I’ve dedicated the month of March to spring cleaning and natural cleaning products, I have to share a recipe I cooked up recently for a body wash (hey, that’s cleaning, too!).

I’d run out of the product I was using, which was made from olive oil. But rather than throw away the pump container, I kept it and refilled it with my own mixture. The result? This formula works great – it suds up nicely, smells good, and it’s gentle on the skin. Although I keep mine in the shower for a body wash, there’s no reason you couldn’t use this soap for your face or even your hair, in a pinch.

I used a base of castile soap, which is a staple you should always keep around the house for cleaning just about anything under the sun. I have a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Hemp Lavender; although traditional castile soap is made from olive oil this hemp oil version is just as gentle and it doesn’t have an overpowering scent.

Homemade Body Wash

1 cup Castile soap (any type)
3 T. Emollient oil (I used almond oil but I imagine that any type of emollient, vegetable-based oil, such as coconut, olive, etc. would work just fine)
15 drops Essential oil (I used peppermint for its invigorating scent)

Pour all ingredients into your pump or squeeze container. Shake before using.

Although I like the peppermint scent, next time I’m going to try my favorite – lemongrass – along with an unscented castile soap formula.

February 25, 2011: Facial Mask Recipes

Right about now is probably when your facial skin is looking its worst – pasty white from being indoors and dried out from being subjected daily to a heated environment. Ick! What’s a girl to do to get a nice, healthy glow back to her cheeks?

The answer is an at-home facial made from natural products you have around the house.

I’m going to give you several alternatives so you can make a recipe appropriate for any skin type with anything you have on hand.

For Aging Skin:

Protein Scrub Mask

1 egg yolk
1 T. oil (the recipe calls for castor oil but you could also use melted coconut oil or even olive oil)
2 T. salt
1 t. lemon juice

Blend all ingredients and spread on face; leave on your skin for 20 minutes before rinsing with warm water. Use a washing motion as you scrub it off but do so very gently as the salt in this recipe is very abrasive.

Honey Almond Scrub Mask
¼ cup honey
2 T. pulverized almonds (a coffee grinder works great for pulverizing)

Mix together and use as the Protein Scrub Mask.

For Acne-Prone Skin:

Almond Oat Scrub Mask

3 T. pulverized oatmeal (not the instant variety)
1 T. shaved castile bar soap
1 T. water
1 T. almond extract

Add shaved soap to the pulverized oatmeal; mix in water a little bit at a time until a paste is formed. Add the almond extract. Apply to face and use the same as the Protein Scrub Mask above.

Herb Protein Mask

1 egg yolk
1 ½ t. dried sage
1 ½ t. dried mint
1 ½ t. dried thyme

Whip the yolk until pale yellow and thick. Add the herbs. Apply to face and leave for 20 minutes; remove with a rinse of warm water.

For Oily Skin:

Lemon Oat Scrub

3 – 4 T. oatmeal (not the instant kind)
Juice of one lemon

Pulverize the oatmeal in a blender or coffee grinder. Strain lemon juice and add to oatmeal, a little at a time, until it forms a paste. Use the same as the Protein Scrub mask above.

For Dry Skin:

Avocado Mask

½ avocado, mashed.

Mayonnaise or Sour Cream Mask

Simply spread a scoop of mayo or sour cream over your face and remove with warm, then cool splashes of water.

Butter Almond Scrub

3 – 4 T. finely pulverized almonds
2 T. margarine

Melt the margarine. Add a little bit at a time to the pulverized almonds until the mixture forms a paste. Use the same as the Protein Scrub Mask above.

Simple, single ingredient masks for any skin type:

• Whipped egg yolk
• Whipped egg white
• Honey

For the full at-home spa treatment, follow these steps:

1. Cleanse your face
2. Steam (see February 12, 2011 post for steam facial recipes)
3. Apply freshener or toner (see February 18, 2011 post for freshener recipes)
4. Apply mask
5. Remove mask and rinse thoroughly
6. Apply freshener again (for oily or acne-prone skin)
7. Apply moisturizer

That’s it! At the end of your treatment, your skin should feel smooth and have a renewed glow.

February 18, 2011: Facial Toner Recipes

If you use a facial toner during your normal cleansing routine, these recipes for fresheners will do the job just as well and cost you only pennies.

The purpose of a toner/freshener is to draw out any stubborn toxins and close your pores. If you live in a major metropolitan area, I’m sure you are aware of how pollution gets into your skin and never seems to go away. An after-cleansing toner can help your face feel cleaner.

Here are three facial freshener recipes for three different types of skin.

For Normal or Combination Skin:

Witch hazel

That’s it. Just moisten a cotton ball and wipe it across your face. Some people do not like the scent of witch hazel and if that’s you, just add a couple drops of essential oil.

Orange Freshener

3 oz. orange extract
2 oz. witch hazel
1/8 t. alum (you should be able to find this in a drugstore) or cinnamon oil

Shake together in bottle.

For Oily Skin:

Gin & Tonic Freshener

Equal parts gin (or rubbing alcohol) and witch hazel

Lemon Freshener

2 oz. fresh lemon juice
3 oz. witch hazel
1 oz. rubbing alcohol
1 T. lemon extract

Strain the lemon juice and mix with the rest of the ingredients. Pour into a bottle and shake before using. Store in the refrigerator (cold toner feels great in the heat of summer).

For Acne-Prone Skin:

Apple Freshener

1 oz. apple cider vinegar
2 oz. witch hazel
2 oz. rubbing alcohol

Shake together in a bottle.

Carotene Freshener

3 oz. witch hazel
3 oz. rubbing alcohol
2 oz. fresh, strained carrot juice

Shake together in a bottle; store in the refrigerator. Shake before using.

For Aging or Dry Skin:

Chamomile Freshener

2 oz. chamomile tea
4 oz. witch hazel

Shake together in a bottle.

Fruit Skin Freshener

Peel from a grapefruit, lemon, or lime (do not include white pith)
3 oz. rubbing alcohol
12 oz. witch hazel
3 T. vegetable oil

Cut the peel into thin strips. Put the alcohol in a small glass jar and add 2 tablespoons of the peels. Cover and let stand for 3 days. Remove the peels and add the alcohol to the rest of the ingredients. Shake together in a bottle.

These recipes are courtesy of Back to Basics Natural Beauty Handbook by Alexandra York. Although there are more, I included only the ones with the easiest-to-find ingredients. If you’d like additional recipes for specific skin issues, just let me know in the comment section.

February 15, 2011: The Incredible, Edible Egg

Eggs – they do a body good.

Okay, maybe that’s the slogan for milk, but eggs are nutritious, too – not just for your insides but for your skin, too.

Let’s consider the parts of the egg and what they do. The white, or albumen part, is a watery substance. It breaks down and becomes watery when it encounters salt (that’s why you shouldn’t add salt to scrambled eggs until they are cooked). Egg whites add a light, fluffy texture when whipped and added to recipes. The older the egg, the thinner the albumen becomes – which makes it harder to perfectly fry it because it tends to lie flat and spread out thinly in the skillet.

The yolks are where the fat and a little less than half the overall protein is located – but it’s also where you’ll find the majority of vitamins and nutrients. Egg yolks are emulsifiers; if you want to bind together another protein, such as ground beef, the yolks are your tool (but skip the watery whites).

Egg yolks also contain lecithin, which is a stabilizer. That’s why mayonnaise, many salad dressings, and Hollandaise sauce all use raw eggs.

Did you know? The color of the yolks is determined by what the chicken eats. My chickens’ eggs are deep orange-yellow in color – the store bought variety looks very pale in comparison.

How can you tell if an egg is fresh or outdated? One way is to drop into a bowl of water. A fresh egg will sink to the bottom while an older egg will float in the water. This is due to the additional air inside the yolk which enters an older, more porous shell. Because a bigger air pocket makes a hard-boiled egg easier to peel, don’t use very fresh eggs for this cooking method.

Did you know? The color of the shell – usually brown or white – is dependent on the breed of the hen laying the egg. My hens produce brown eggs because they are Rhode Island Red and Plymouth Rock mixes. They're usually really good layers but they've slacked off this winter and I'm waiting for them to start the production cycle again right now.

How to tell if an egg is raw or cooked? Spin it on your counter top. A cooked egg will spin fast and a raw egg will wobble. By the way, if you don’t want your hardboiled eggs to have that unsightly greenish-gray tinge around the yolk, be sure you cool them down quickly after cooking by plunging into an ice bath.

And here’s the real beauty of an egg – it’s great as a facial treatment, and it’s cheap, too!

Egg White Mask

White of one egg
Honey

Whip the egg white until frothy. Add a tablespoon or so of honey and mix with a fork. Apply the mixture to your clean face. That’s it!

The egg white is largely water and protein and it pulls out toxins as it tightens. The honey also pulls toxins from your pores while moisturizing. After the mixture dries, rinse your skin with tepid water. It will feel soft and smooth.

You can also use a whipped egg yolk instead of the white.

Tip: If you have oily skin, skip the honey and apply the egg whites twice in a row.

February 12, 2011: Steam Your Face

One of the beauty treatments I used to do religiously when younger was a steam bath for my face. It opens the pores and the scent of herbs and/or flowers is very calming. Now that my skin is aging, this feels better than ever!

Now, in the middle of winter when the air is particularly dry, is an excellent time to take a few minutes and indulge yourself with a facial steam. If you can’t afford an expensive spa treatment, this is the next best thing and it literally costs only pennies. Just be sure to do this after the kids are in bed or when you have a half hour or so to yourself because you may be ready for bed afterward!

Recipe for Steam Facial

1 quart boiling water

Remove the pot of water from the heat and add one of the following herbs, depending on skin type:

Normal to Dry Skin – Add a handful of:
Chamomile (or 6 tea bags)
Fresh or dried rose petals
Dried rosemary leaves

Oily or Acne-Prone Skin – Add a handful of :
Dried Sage
Fresh or dried thyme
Fresh or dried mint leaves

Steep the herbs or flowers for about half an hour. Briefly bring the mixture back up to a boil then remove from heat. Lower your face over the pot, being careful not to burn your skin with the steam. Cover your head with a towel and relax for 10 minutes, breathing in the fragrant scent of the herbs while feeling your pores open.

After steaming, splash your face with cool water, dry gently, and finish off with a freshener/toner (plain old witch hazel works great). For the full weekly or monthly beauty treatment, you would follow the steaming with a facial mask, while your pores are open (recipes for homemade masks to follow).

It’s amazing how therapeutic this simple recipe feels! It’s the perfect way to freshen up winter-pasty facial skin.

Getting Ready for the Big Change

There's a few things I want to write about before I begin this ambitious project of posting recipes for the next 365 days (starting February 1st, since I didn't begin January 1st).

Many of the recipes I'm going to share are my own concoctions. Sometimes they're based on a recipe I got from a cookbook or the Internet or watching TV but very rarely do I stick to the directions. Once in a while I find a recipe I can't improve upon and prepare it exactly the same and in those instances I'll give credit where credit is due by citing the source (if I can remember it!).

I am a cookbook fanatic! I absolutely adore old cookbooks, not just for their old-fashioned recipes but for the illustrations. I have saved nearly every cookbook my mother used when she was alive and many of them are filled with photographed diorama scenes, illustrations that deftly portray the era in which it was published, and photos of women with bouffant hairdos in frilly dresses and men wearing suits and skinny ties. My mother was avid about clipping recipes out of women's magazines from the 1950s and 1960s and it's fun to see how much each was costed at (usually a few pennies per serving). The most beloved recipes, however, are those written on scraps of paper in her own hand. One of my favorite books belonged to my grandmother, titled A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband, which includes recipes made with a "fireless cooker". Grandma Roemer wrote notes in the margins and even pasted in a few recipes of her own. Back in those days, a fireless cooker was quite the innovation and an icebox really was an icebox full of chunks of ice that needed to be replenished as they melted. Cookbooks can function as time capsules - they showcase the foods, trends, fashions, and advice of particular periods in our history.

I've also saved all the books I've gotten since I was a teen. I've still got two volumes written by Vidal and Beverly Sassoon on beauty advice and exercise, as well as a slim little paperback published in the 1970s that has some terrific recipes for natural beauty products. My old books on Christmas, including homemade decorations, and how-to books on everything from plumbing to sewing curtains are also treasured parts of my collection.

So when it comes to recipes for food and more, I've got lots of sources.

I am excited to share my passions with you. I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I love sharing them.

Buon appétit!

365 Days of Recipes - Can I Do It?

OK, here we go with one more change to this blog... After watching Julie & Julia I got inspired to do something big - something that would make me write for myself. I also read about a woman who did a 365 days of crock pot cooking blog. But I wanted my idea to be something unique. I love to cook and bake, I love to do home improvement projects and decorate, and I love to open my "kitchen laboratory" and concoct natural cleaning supplies, beauty products, and the like.

Bingo! 

The focus of my blog is going to 365 days of recipes for all of the above - everything you need for a "sweet" life on a budget, using ingredients you can find easily and going organic/natural whenever possible.

Since I didn't get started on January 1st, I'll begin this new adventure on February 1st. Most of the initial posts will be focusing on Valentine's Day, natch.

In the meantime, if you just can't wait, I'll be happy to send you a copy of the eCookbook, Recipes for Romance. Just leave me a message here (be sure to include your email address in your personal info when you post) and I'll send it right away.

Now I've got to get busy writing blog posts. Hope you'll come back and check them out - a new post every day for the next year!