At Home Skin Remedy

Hey All!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas shared with family, friends and great food! We had a very splendid Christmas just the two of us and our sweet fur babies!

Most of you in the rest of the continental United States have snow, and winter weather. Not here in South Carolina! Sunny and 75 degrees today! Crazy for the end of December if you ask me, but that's the way we do things here in the South! I can't complain, it was great not having to pack a jacket to wear after work!

Speaking of winter weather, most (not all) of us get some sort of dry skin this time of year, which is never comfortable. Never fear! I have found a great at home remedy that you most likely have all the ingredients for!

I stumbled across this YouTube video not too long ago, while I was looking for a video of how to make my own sugar scrubs. Now, there are a TON on Pinterest, which is great, but some don't give you a tutorial of how to do them, or they only give you the ingredients and not the amount you need to put in them.

 

This sugar scrub you will need:
Juice of half a lemon
1 TBSP salt (such as Morton, a finer grain is best)
Organic sugar (organic works better than regular! Trust me on this)

Start out by squeezing out your lemon juice. I like to take a fork and make all the juice come out to get the maximum use out of the lemon. Sometimes squeezing may seem like you get it all, but I seemingly can never get enough out, so I go for the utensils! Once you have all the juice out, make sure there are no seeds in your juice, and add your TBSP of salt. Stir. Then start slowly pouring your sugar and stirring at the same time until you get the consistency of the scrub you want. I personally like less juice and more scrub. Some people like it the other way around!

Rub it into your face for about a minute. Your skin may turn slightly pink, never fear, this is normal. Rinse off your face with a warm washcloth to open up those pores and get all that bad gunk out!

Next step: Honey mask!
You'll need local (and I mean local! From your farmers market!) Raw Pure Honey!

Now, don't use TOO much honey, the first time I tried this, I had honey dripping off my face. Use only what you need to do a light coat all over your face. Leave on for 10-30 minutes, (I usually leave mine on for about 15) then wipe off with another warm washcloth, not cold! The cold will make it harder to get the honey off your face. Voila! Smooth moisturized skin that will feel amazingly rejuvenated and clean!

While I'm waiting for my honey mask to finish up, I usually make myself up a warm mug of water with the juice of the other half of a lemon in it to help cleanse my system! Lemon has so many benefits and uses, its awesome!

Another great hint:
Have an awful zit coming in? Put some honey on it and walk around with it for about 10 minutes. This also works to help reduce red spots and other acne issues! Who knew honey was so great for your skin? It also has a TON of other health benefits.

I hope you all found this post helpful!

Pumpkin Cake Rolls

Hey All!

Today I'm going to share with you one of my ALL time favorite desserts, and one of our families favorite holiday staples, Pumpkin Cake Rolls! My sister in law and I originally found this recipe on Taste Of Home's
website. I have made it so many times, and it never fails to taste absolutely amazing, and be a great twist on the traditional pumpkin pie! You'll probably think I'm crazy, but I really don't like pumpkin pie, I think it has to do with the consistency of the pumpkin. I like fluffy, and pumpkin pie to me is not fluffy. I'm weird, I know!

Photo Courtesy of Taste of Home

How scrumptious do these look? The best part- these freeze amazingly! So if you make too much, pop it in the freezer and save it for a day when you really want it! Warm it up... Let the cream cheese filling ooze... Mmm mmm mmm!

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grab a flat pan with sides, and either spray it with cooking spray, or line it with wax or parchment paper.

Separate your 3 eggs. Beat the yolks until they are fluffy and lemon colored, either with your hand mixer or stand mixer. Add 1/2 cup of sugar until combined, then add your pumpkin. Should look like this!

After that, take your 3 egg whites, beat them until stiff peaks form. Add in your other 1/2 cup of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form again. Tip: If you can't get it to form stiff peaks, (which I never seem to be able to) Its OK as long as it's fluffy!

Fold your egg white mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Now fold in the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon. Tip: If you enjoy the taste of nutmeg, you can add a sprinkle of that in the bowl too!

Spread it in your pan, and stick it in the oven for 12-15 minutes! Don't let it get too brown, otherwise it will be hard to roll in the end! You want this to be nice and fluffy!

 

 

Once your cake roll is done in the oven, leave it to cool till it is no longer warm. If you fill it too soon it will fall apart and the cream cheese filling with be all over the place! 

For the filling, mix your cream cheese, butter (both at room temperature), confectioners sugar, and vanilla till it is nice and blended. Use your hand mixer for this. Then spread that amazingness allllllll over the roll. Be sure to not place it too close to the edges, otherwise your filling will shoot out everywhere making a huge mess.

Slowly and tightly roll up your cake and filling! Are your taste buds going crazy yet? Mine are just writing this! Once they are rolled, place them seam side down and put them on/in a pan and place them in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve. Slice about 1" thick. Enjoy! 

Cake:

3 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar, divided

2/3 cup canned pumpkin 

3/4 cup unbleached flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

Filling:

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese

2 TBSP butter
1 cup confectioners sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Additional confectioners sugar (optional)

Have a Merry Christmas Everyone!

-A

Savory Turkey Pot Pie!

Well hello everyone! Sorry I have not posted anything in quite some time, the last month has been a whirlwind! I sure hope you all had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving! Speaking of, I thought I'd share with you one of my all time favorite leftover recipes, turkey pot pie! With that said, grab all your Thanksgiving leftovers hanging out in your fridge and join me! Here's what you need:

Turkey Pot Pie
2 cups turkey, shredded or chopped in cubes. I prefer shredded.
Turkey gravy
Leftover mashed potatoes, or 3-4 diced red potatoes, boiled about 10 minutes (or until soft)
Half an onion, diced
2 large carrots, diced into 1/2" cubes
3 celery stalks, halved and cubed
Salt and Pepper to taste
about 1/2 tsp ground sage to taste

Biscuit Topping
Adapted from Pauladeen.com
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (one stick) very cold butter, cubed
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Now, you can either do these pot pies in ramekins, or in a big casserole dish. I use my two 8" x 8" cake pans. Use what you have, right? Here we go!

If you haven't already, boil your potatoes till tender. While your boiling, chop up your onion, carrot, and celery.

Then, add your vegetables to your handy cast iron, (or regular pan if you don't have one) and saute in a little olive oil and butter mixture till warmed through and starting to soften. Add your salt and pepper if you prefer. This will help those veggies sweat it out!

While this is happening, warm your gravy! This is my FAVORITE part of pot pies! Quick tip: If your gravy is too runny, add a couple tablespoons of butter to your pan first, melt it, and then add a couple tablespoons of flour to make a rue. Then stir until all flour is incorporated, and warm for a few minutes before you SLOWLY start to whisk the gravy in. Keep whisking! It will seem like forever, but you don't want that gravy to be lumpy! 

By now your veggies have started to soften. Add in your leftover turkey and warm it through for a few minutes. This is the time to season! If you want to season with salt and pepper again for the turkey, you absolutely can. Add your sage.

Time to assemble! Drain the potatoes, and put a layer down in your pan(s).

Then, add your turkey and veggie mix. Drizzle your gravy over the top! Just until it almost covers your all the goodness going inside these babies!

Now, its time to whip up the biscuits! Add all your dry ingredients into a large bowl. Whisk together, and make sure everything is very well mixed. Cut in with a pastry cutter, or fork, your very cold butter till about pea size. It is important to make sure the butter is really cold! It makes for fluffier biscuits! Once you have completely cut in the butter, add your milk slowly and stir. I had to finish stirring it together with my hands because the dough became sticky. This is a good thing though! Make sure all your ingredients are incorporated. Lastly, grab pieces of your dough and start to layer it on top of all your turkey, veggie goodness!

This is what mine looked like. Then bake about 20-30 minutes, until golden brown on top! Then grab a bowl, and dig in!

I hope you all enjoyed this recipe! Leave your comments below if you tried it!

-A