How to Make Lip Balm

Last summer while having some friends stay for the weekend, my mom, the girls and I got the priviledge of hosting a little lip balm party. This is the recipe our dear friend Thema searched out for us. It's not the exact same one we used, but we followed the same steps and used most of the same ingredients. And, although it may sound complicated, it's really not. :) Have fun!

Ingredients and Supplies:

Sweet Almond Oil, or Coconut Oil

Wheat Germ Oil

Beeswax pearls

Lip Balm Tubes or Jars (you can buy them very cheaply online)

The rule of thumb is two parts oil, one part beeswax pearls and a drop or two of wheat germ oil. If you want it thin like cream or Vaseline use a little less beeswax pearls. Want it thicker, like the chapstick in the tubes? Just add a little more pearls.

Heat almond/coconut oil in a saucepan and add beeswax pearls and wheat germ oil. Allow mixture to cool down. If it is too thick, add more oil. Too thin? Add more pearls. Reheat.

While letting the mixture cool, add a few drops of essential oils to enhance the healing effects to the balm. Comfry, Rosemary, Tea Tree and Camphor oils are excellent for this. We used more fun oils for yummy scents; like peach and mint, but any will work. After you add the essential oils but your mixture is still warm, carefully pour it into the lip balm tubes or jars. Let cool. Apply to lips as necessary. Enjoy!

Note: 4 oz. Almond/Coconut oil mixed with 2 oz. Beeswax pearls will fill more than enough of 12, quarter oz. tubes and/or jars. Any unused base can be stored for a very long time for future use.

Easy Homemade Hamburger Patties

There is just something about a homemade burger, wouldn't you say? My full-to-bursting stomach definitely agrees. Tonight my whole family raved about the hamburgers for dinner, so of course I'm looking forward to using this recipe again.

2 lbs. hamburger

2 tsp. seasoning salt

2 tsp. Worshtishire sauce

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 eggs

Mix all together, mold into about 10 patty shapes and grill. Don't forget adding your fresh-from-the-garden veggies, and even, if you want to go really far, your delicious homemade buns.

The Best Chip Dip on the Planet

Last night I made this extremely delicious dip to go with our practically-free-because-of-a-deal lime corn chips. The recipe doesn't take much, but it always turns out yummy - no matter how many substitutions you have to put in!

Fiesta Dip

1 cup sour cream
1 can refried beans
1 can green chillies
1 envelope fiesta ranch dressing mix
2 cups Mexican blend (or plain cheddar) cheese
olives,tomatoes, lettuce, green onions chopped
tortilla chips

In a shallow microwave-safe dish, combine the sour cream, beans, chilies, and dip mix, along with 1 pound cooked, warm ground beef if using for a main dish.

Stir in 1 cup of cheese. Cover and microwave on high for 2 minutes and stir. Keep cooking in 2 minute intervals, stirring in between, until warm.

Stir until blended.

Sprinkle with remaining cheese and top with olives, tomatoes, onions, and lettuce if desired.

Serve with tortilla chips. Makes approximately 6-7 cups.

Fourth of July Cupcake Cake

Last night I whipped up this fun dessert for tonight's dinner. It was super easy, and stress-free!

Here's what you do:

• Bake a batch of 24 cupcakes.
• Make a x3 batch of this frosting (just to be safe :). Color about a cup blue, a cup and a half red, and leave the rest white.
• Arrange the cupcakes into a shape of some sort.
• Fill in all the spaces in between the tops with white frosting, making a somewhat smooth surface to decorate.
• Take three decorating bags (or large zip top bags) and put a #18 star tip in one and two round #5 tips in the others.
• Fill the star tip bag with blue, and the others with the red and white.
• Now, got ahead and decorate! Use your imagination. And remember: it doesn't have to be perfect.
  

** Have icing left over? Make another batch of cupcakes, cut each in half and ice the middle, putting them together like a sandwich. Wrap them individually, put them in gallon-size zip top bags, then throw them in the freezer. Perfect for Dad's at-work-snacks, or easy afternoon snacks for your sibs! **

Easy Fourth of July Breakfast

Need a breakfast in a snap? Why not use those leftover pancakes that have been sitting in the bread basket for a couple of days now? Just add whip cream, sprinkles and those cherries that are so bountiful at the moment, and you've got yourself some happy kids. (I know this isn't the healthiest breakfast on earth, but hey, it's the 4th - a good excuse, right?)

Challah Time!

Challah is the braided bread used in the Friday evening ceremony that is done to sanctify the Shabbat, and I am currently the "Official Challah Bread Maker" of the family. Here is the recipe our family has used since we started celebrating the Sabbath on the seventh day (as commanded in the Bible) and held the little Sabbath ceremony in our home.

1 T active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 oil
4 eggs
9 cups flour
2 T salt
poppy or sesame seeds for sprinkling (optional)
1 additional egg for the glaze

1. In large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add the sugar and oil and mix well with a whisk or wooden spoon. Beat in four of the eggs and gradually stir in 8 cups of flour and salt. When you have a dough that holds together well, it's ready for kneading. Kneed about 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface. You can work in up to another 1 - 1 1/2 cups of flour as needed.

2. Place the dough in a large, oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise in a warm place for about an hour, until it's about doubled it's size.

3. Remove it from the bowl and punch it down. Be rough! The dough loves it!

4. Return to bowl and let it rise again for 30 minutes more.

5. Take it out of the bowl and make six equal balls of dough. Make each ball into a rope about 14 inches long. Pinch three together on one end and braid. Do it again for the second loaf. (Want to make a six-stranded braid? Go here for a great tutorial.)

6. Let the challah loaves rise another hour, uncovered. Fifteen minutes before putting the loaves in the oven, beat the remaining egg and brush it gently over them. Five minutes later, brush them again. Sprinkle with the seeds.

7. Preheat the oven to 375 and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove and cool on a rack.

Enjoy!

To Freeze: Stop at #5. After braiding your bread, but before letting it rise again, double wrap it in plastic wrap and place on a cookie sheet in the freezer. When you are ready to use it, take it out 5 hours before you want to glaze and bake.

***************************************

***********************

Want to learn more about the Sabbath ceremony? Check out my uncle's blog for an in-depth study in parts one, two and three of the simple steps to go through.

Shabbat Shalom!

Coconut Macaroons - Perfect for Passover!

For snacks we like muffins and cookies, fish crackers and Fig Newtons, snack mix and granola bars (of course all of them always pared with something fruitish :); So you can imagine that it is somewhat a challenge for us to find good Passover snacks. For the past few years, along with trail and dried fruit mix, macaroons have been a delicious snack staple. They're great because they contain no flour (which has natural leavening ingredients) - so they're perfect for Passover! If you've never made them before, or maybe aren't even celebrating Passover, you should definitely try them out! Here is a wonderful, melt-in-your-mouth recipe that we've been using for a few years now.

Coconut Macaroons

2 egg whites

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Dash of salt

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

Grease a cookie sheet. Beat egg whites, vanilla and salt till soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating till stiff peaks form. Fold in coconut. Drop from a teaspoon 1 1/2 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet (they'll grow!) Bake in a 325 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. If you like, you can drizzle them with chocolate, but we like them plain! Makes approximately 20 cookies.

Delicious and Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Thanks for coming back! Today we're going to use up the rest of that pie crust mix and make some chicken pot pies, just like Mother used to make, only this time it's Sissi. :)

1 16 oz. package frozen peas and carrots

3/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground sage, rounded

1/4 tsp. tarragon

1/8 tsp. pepper, rounded

2 cups water

3/4 cups milk

2 Tbsp. instant chicken bouillon granules

4 cups cooked, cubed chicken

1/4 cup snipped parsley, rounded

Pastry for 2 Double Crust pies

Cook peas and carrots according to package; drain. While you're waiting for them to cook, combine the flour, salt and spices in a small bowl. In another combine water, milk and chicken bouillon granules. When the veggies are done, combine them with the chicken and parsley in a large bowl (all this makes the cooking process easier so that you don't have to yell for someone to stir the flour and onions while you're looking for the sage :).

In a large sauce pan cook onion in butter until tender but not brown. Stir in flour and spice mixture. Add the liquid mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes more. Stir in chicken and veggie mixture. Heat till bubbly.

Dish out into two pastry lined pie plates. Cover with top crust. I didn't have enough mix to do the second top crust, so I covered it with three cups herb-seasoned stuffing mixed with 5 Tbsp. melted butter (just for the record, I didn't bake that! Someone else put it in for lunch :). Flute edges and cut slits in top for escape of steam.

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Slice and serve!

Care For A Slice of Pie?

A couple weeks ago we received two free boxes of apples. Even though Active Boy seems to constantly have one in his hand and we've been trying to use them in every snack, they just haven't disappeared yet, much to our dismay since they are going to go bad pretty quick here. Thankfully, I love to make pies, so I whipped up a couple yesterday. They are delish! A bonus? I got to use up most of the pie crust mix that's been sitting in our leaven box waiting to be used up! I've never used one before, and it made the pie process much easier, I must say. :)


Here's my new favorite apple pie recipe, straight from our old, falling apart Better Homes and Gardens cook book with a few variations:

12 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (2 pounds) soaked in watered down lemon juice

2 cups sugar

4 Tbsp. flour

Approximately 1 1/2 tsp. Apple Pie Spice (or 1 tsp. cinnamon and a dash or two of nutmeg)

Pastry for two Double Crust pies

2 Tbsp. butter

Combine sugar, flour and spices. Add sugar mixture to the sliced apples; toss to coat fruit. Fill two pastry-lined 9 inch pie plates with apple mixture; dot with butter. Put on top crust. Seal and flute edge. Brush a light coating of water on crust and sprinkle with sugar to make a nice looking top. Cover edges of the pies with foil. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil; bake for another 15 minutes or more or until crust is golden. Enjoy!

*Come back tomorrow for another pie recipe - this time to be used for dinner!*

Spinach & Pepper Rigatoni and Mia's Breadsticks

We had a very delicious dinner this evening! Earlier today I was looking at a recipe on the back of the Kosher Salt box, and saw that we had everything, plus the recipe said to serve it with breadsticks. "Perfect!" I thought. "I've been wanting to make those breadsticks on Aspiring Homemaker for a while now."

A little while later Mother Dear happened to see the breadstick recipe I had printed off, and mentioned that she thought we were out of brown sugar, which it called for. I was pretty disappointed, so I searched high and low to make sure she was right. At the very back of one of our pantry shelves I found a couple bags of rock hard, clumpy of brown sugar. Boy did I rejoice!

Before I give you the recipes, I'd like to mention that Active Boy had me write them both down in his recipe book he is saving for when he gets married. Because of that alone should you trust that these recipes make some pretty good food here.

Spinach and Pepper Rigatoni

1 chopped red onion

1 large red pepper, cut into 1 inch strips

1/2 cup prepared garlic vinaigrette, divided

1 Tbsp. coarse kosher salt, divided

1 lb. rigatoni pasta, uncooked

10 oz. fresh baby spinach leaves, rinsed and coarsely chopped

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a medium skillet, saute onion and red peppers in 1 Tbsp. vinaigrette until crisp and tender, about 6 minutes. Season with 2 tsp. kosher salt; keep warm.

Cook pasta according to package directions with remaining 1 tsp kosher salt; drain.

Thoroughly toss hot pasta with spinach, pepper/onion mixture, remaining vinaigrette and Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately with garlic breasticks. Makes 6 servings.

To get the breadstick recipe, go here.

Baked Mediterranean Tilapia With Flavored Rice

Last night I made this great fish recipe with the rice to go with it! Even though I usually hate fish, the tilapia wasn't so bad. Tonight we're having the rice in a casserole pan, with the leftover fish on top, sprinkled with cheese, so this is a good two-night dinner, depending on how many people are in your family!


Baked Mediterranean Tilapia

8 Tilapia loins
2 Large or 4 medium onions
4 Medium tomatoes
8 Tbs. Fresh chopped basil, or 4 Tbs. dry basil
16 Cloves garlic
8 Tbs. Olive oil
24 Olives


1. Defrost tilapia loins in the fridge a day or two before you start dinner.

2. Slice and chop all your vegetables. Slice tomatoes and onions 1/4" thick. Chop olives , basil and
garlic.

3. Preheat oven to 375 F. Heat olive oil in sauce pan over medium heat. Saute onions, 2-3 minutes on each side or until onions are translucent.


4. Place loins over onion slices. Sprinkle olives, garlic and basil over fish. Place tomato slices on
top. Salt and Pepper to taste.

5. Place pan with fish in the center of oven, uncovered, for 12-15 minutes, or until fish is opaque. Serve.



Flavored Rice

2 cups uncooked rice
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
2 tsp. garlic powder


Bring 4 cups of water to boil (add an extra cup of water for brown rice). Add rice, soup mix and seasoning. Lower heat and simmer 20 minutes for white rice, and 40 minutes for brown. Serve.


To make Vegetable Rice, substitute an envelope of vegetable soup mix.

To make Spanish Rice, substitute 1/2 cup taco seasoning for envelope of onion soup.

Enjoy your meal!

Easy and Healthy Pancake and Waffle Recipe

My mom and I personally love this recipe. Once in a while we'll have a "breakfast for dinner" night, and these are usually the main course of the meal. It's so nice to be able to start the pancakes up in the morning, and when it's time to make dinner, just blend a few things in with the soaked grains and pour the batter on the griddle. While they taste a little more "healthy" than normal pancakes, with a little syrup or fruit sauce, they're good!

Blender Batter Pancakes
6-8 servings

1. Place in blender:

- 2 cups buttermilk or yogurt thinned to same consistency (or, if you're making waffles, 2 1/2 cups)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup rolled oats, whole oats or other grain
- 1 cup buckwheat, brown rice, corn, millet or other grain

2. Mill on high speed.

3. Cover batter and let stand at room temperature for several hours or over night.

4. Preheat griddle on medium high or waffle iron on highest temperature.

5. Just before cooking, add (dropping in vortex of blender) and blend:

- 2 eggs
- 2 Tbsp flax seed
- 1 or 2 bananas (to sweeten the flavor)
additional liquid - as needed to keep churning

6. Blend in thoroughly but briefly:

- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder

7. Bake on griddle or waffle iron (3-5 minutes or until crisp).

Picture courtesy from The Happy Housewife

Herbed Batter Rolls

I got a chance to make my first homemade rolls yesterday. They turned out great! I was so happy. They were light, flaky and had just the right amount of a herby-ness taste to them. :) I got the recipe off of allrecipes.com, but tweaked it a bit to make the rolls taste a bit more flavorful.


Ingredients:

2 tablespoons active dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1 heaping teaspoon sage
1 heaping teaspoon dried tarragon
2 teaspoons rosemary
1/4 heaping teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces
4-1/2 cups flour, divided

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sage, tarragon, nutmeg, rosemary, sugar, salt, egg, butter and 2 cups of the flour. Using a wire whisk, beat until smooth. Stir in remaining 2 1/2 cups of flour with a wooden spoon and beat until smooth. Scrape batter from sides of the bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes or until doubled in volume (for a warm place to let the dough rise that's out of the way, try filling a casserole pan with hot water, put it on the bottom rack of the oven, then put your covered bowl of dough on the top rack, closing the door and turning the oven light on.)

2. Deflate batter by stirring with a wooden spoon. Lightly grease two 12 cup muffin pans. With clean, oiled hands, scoop little blobs of dough with your hands into the prepared muffin cups. Fill each cup about 1/2 way full; set aside in a warm place and let rise for about 15 to 20 minutes or until doubled. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden. Optional: About 10 minutes into baking, brush melted butter over the tops of the rolls to give them a shiny and buttery look. Resume baking.


Enjoy your delicious, quick and easy rolls! They are perfect paired with soups on a chilly day, which are in abundance at this time of year - so get baking!

Hot Cocoa for Those Chilly Days!

Hot chocolate is almost a necessity at our house in the fall and winter time! That's why Mother Dear decided to make us up a big bucket of it to last (hopefully!) for a while. She posted her recipe here, and I have to say, it makes the best hot cocoa ever! I just finished a mug of it with breakfast, along with my siblings who raved about it too (of course, I think the little ones just like anything with sugar in it :).

Hot chocolate was also a staple in the winter at my dad's house when he was growing up. He told me his mom would make a gigantic Tupperware bowl full of the mix, and they would all have a cup of cocoa almost every day. Funny thing is, it was the same exact recipe as the one Mother Dear is now using, although she never knew it until Dad tasted the cocoa and saw the recipe.

Dad also told me his mom would make another big bowl of cocoa mix to take with them whenever his family went camping. He said they would have their Coleman stove on every morning and evening with a big pot of water on it, just for the cocoa.

So you see, it is a recipe worth trying! Not exactly handed down from generation to generation, but almost. :)

Making Pumpkin Pie

Remember when I linked to Miss Mia's pumpkin-pie-from-scratch recipe? Well, I tried it out! It worked very well, and everyone in my family was very pleased with the end result, especially my dad, who loves pumpkin pie. :)

I used one large pumpkin, and two small ones for making the cooked pumpkin.

My preschoolers helped me pull out all the pumpkin pulp, and save the seeds (my "preschoolers" are Creative Genius, Mini Active Boy and MIT #2). We sorted a good bowl full of punkin' seeds, and Mother Dear baked and seasoned them for us. She mixed them up with nuts, popcorn and dried apples for a delicious snack!

That afternoon, while everyone was napping, I made a couple of pies (I snapped a picture of one as it came out of the oven.)

Thanks again Miss Mia!

Pumpkin Spice Pie

Miss Mia over at Aspiring Homemaker posted this great recipe and how-to for making pumpkin pie starting from a 10 lb. pumpkin, to two baked, delicious looking pumpkin pies - plus with extra pumpkin in the fridge. We just bought a large pumpkin for roasting pumpkin seeds yesterday, and Mother Dear said I could try this recipe out with the rest of it. Thanks Miss Mia!

Quick Homemade Pizza Recipe

This pizza recipe is the easiest and quickest yeast dough recipe I've seen yet. It takes about 45 minutes from start to finish - with no dough rising! Mom found the recipe on Biblical Womanhood. Makes two pizzas.

2 Tbsp. active dry yeast

2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)

2 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. vegetable or olive oil

5 cups of flour

First, put mix your yeast and warm water together, setting in a warm spot to dissolve the yeast (I put mine on top of the fridge.) This takes about 15 minutes.

While you are waiting for your yeast to dissolve, mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl. Then, mix in your yeast water.

Dump onto a a floured surface and knead into a smooth dough (about 5 minutes).

Roll out and press onto a lightly oiled pizza pan. We don't have pizza pans, so I just used two regular sized jelly roll pans.

Next, add your toppings. I did one pizza cheese and pineapple, and one half pineapple, half extra cheese.


Bake at 450 degrees F. for about 12 to 15 minutes or until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned.


Then, enjoy!


And look - there was almost a whole pizza left, so we had that for lunch the next day.



By the way... When I made this, I doubled the recipe and made four pizza crusts, separating the dough into four balls, putting two in the freezer for the next pizza dinner. So, next time I'll just defrost the dough balls, spread them out in greased pans, add the toppings and bake!


Topping suggestions:

For a veggie pizza:

• tomato sauce (spaghetti sauce is fine)


• mozzarella cheese


• chopped peppers, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, olives, spinach

For Hawaiian pizza:

• tomato sauce


• mozzarella cheese


• chopped pineapple


• sausage

For Chicken BBQ:

• Barbecue sauce


• chicken


• mozzarella cheese

For Taco pizza:

• refried beans

Put on after baking:

• sliced tomatoes


• lettuce leaves


• ground beef (hot) cooked with taco seasoning