When we moved from the humid climate of SoCal to an arid climate in the Rockies, the weather reeked havoc on my hair. This has helped immensely. I use it along with the Mark Hill MiracOILicious 2 minute treatment and my hair has improved greatly and has cut down on blow drying time. Plus it smells great.
This is an amazing product if you have dry hair. I still haven’t figured out if I like the smell yet or not, but I am pregnant so that could be affecting my decision. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. Normally my daughter’s hair is snarly and unruly. Whenever she uses this, it is like brushing through butter and it doesn’t leave oily residue or weigh her hair down.
School is upon us which means thousands of germs are also upon us. I mean this quite literally of course. I don’t mean to be gross, but I will call a spade for spade and say that elementary schools are cesspools of bacteria. I am always excited to send my kids to school after summer vacation but not excited for the sickness that comes with it.
I don’t know about yours, my kids are quite picky and don’t enjoy the taste of medicine. They choke it down, only to gag it back up. I first tried to put medicine in juice. Nada. Then I tried smoothies. It took them about 20 minutes for them to drink 2 sips only to let it get warm and separate. Then I’d throw it away because who wants a tepid smoothie that tastes like amoxicilin, spinach and strawberries. A total loss.
My next attempt worked. I made the same smoothies but I made them at night and put them in popsicle molds. This added an element of fun to breakfast because my kids thought they were off the medicine hook and were getting a treat in it’s place. Win for everyone!
You can use any smoothie recipe you have or follow this very vague one of mine.
A handful of frozen blueberries
A handful of frozen strawberries
Some frozen pineapple
A handful of fresh spinach or about 1/2 cup frozen spinach
Apple or pineapple juice to cover the fruit
Depending on the size of your popsicle molds you will want to measure out 1 dose of medicine per mold. I got my molds at Target and they are about 1/2 cup. So I put 1/2 cup smoothie mix into a separate mixing cup with a dose of medicine and then add it to the mold individually. I haven’t perfected adding it to the whole blender.
Freeze them for 6 hours or over night and then give them as a medicine dosage. My doctor said this works and does not make the medicine less effective.
This is the easiest cheese you will ever make. It consists of only 3 ingredients that you most likely have in your kitchen right now. Milk, a lemon, and salt. It sounds too easy to be true, but I promise; it is not.
In a stock pot pour in 8 cups of whole milk. To avoid scalding, bring the milk to a temperature of 160 degrees F while stirring constantly. I seldom use a thermometer, I just watch for a very slight simmer. The milk will look frothy.
Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice from 1 medium lemon; about 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice. Keep stirring until you see the milk curdling. Remember Little Miss Muffet who sat on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey? Well, this is curds and whey. The yellow liquid is the whey and the white solids are the curds.
For this next step you will either want to double or triple up on your cheesecloth or buy some re-usable cheesecloth here.
Pour the curds and whey into a cheesecloth lined strainer over the sink. Or you can reserve the whey liquid and use it in place of water to make homemade bread.
Let the whey drain off while you let it sit and cool for about 2 minutes; then tie it up in the cheesecloth and wring out more liquid.
When you feel like you’ve got most of the liquid out un-do the cheesecloth. It should stay together for the most part, but will probably fall apart a bit if you play or poke at it. It will look like this:
Place the cheese on a clean air dried counter and knead it like you would bread. Add a pinch of kosher salt as you’re working it. If you’ve just got regular salt, that’s okay. Kosher salt just adds a more refined taste. Here is a good explanation why it tastes better. Please excuse my horrible motion shots.
Once you’ve worked the cheese a bit, place it back into the cheesecloth, ring it out again, and secure tightly on 2 sides, like a butterscotch candy. Set the cheese on a towel lined plate (I forgot to put the towel on in the pictures) and place another plate on top of the cheese. Weigh it down by placing a box of salt or something that weighs a few ounces.
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. For a firmer cheese, keep it refrigerated over night. Oh, I prefer to cover mine with a wet towel so it doesn’t dry out.
Cut it into bite sized cubes and serve in place of meat with your favorite indian dish. My favorites? Tikka Masala or Saag. Or just cut it up into squares and sprinkle fresh lemon juice and pepper on top.
Instructions
8 cups whole milk
1 medium lemon
Kosher salt
Bring milk to a temperature of 160 degrees F.
Add juice from lemon and stir until curdles are formed. Transfer to a cheesecloth lined strainer. Drain for 2 minutes. Wring out excess liquid and knead on a counter top to distribute any left over whey. Place back into the cheesecloth and wring out additional liquid. Tightly fasten the cheese in the cloth and place on a towel lined plate. Place another plate on top of the cheese and put something heavy onto of the plate to weight it down, to press any additional liquid out. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before using.
© daphodil 2015
Before I married him, my husband shopped for groceries around the corner at the 7-11; usually coming home with a bag of chips, a bottle of salsa, and a $15 receipt. One night, when we were first dating, he was craving the Old Spaghetti Factory’s Homer Special, and since the restaurants were closed, I suggested we make our own Homer Special with ingredients from the store. He didn’t know you could do that. He was even more surprised to learn that a beloved ‘fancy’ meal only used one more ingredient than his old reliable chips n’ dip.
So while my husband was living proof that one could live on condiments and crackers, after learning this recipe, he no longer wanted to.
Directions:
Boil 8 oz of uncooked vermicelli according to directions. Drain and set aside.
In a medium sauce pan melt 1 stick (1/4 cup) salted butter on medium heat.
Increase the heat to medium high and start whisking the butter. It should go from bubbling (like the pictures above) to frothy (pictured below) fairly quickly.
You will begin to smell the milk solids caramelizing. It’s a glorious scent. Continue to whisk quickly in order to prevent burning the butter. It will begin to take on a golden color and will quickly turn to the next and final color we want; deep brown. Please excuse my horrible action shot photography.
Golden brown Deep brown
Whisk the deep brown butter for about 5- 10 seconds. Immediately remove from the heat and pour over the cooked vermicelli. Stir until all the pasta is coated. Add 1 tablespoon of mizithra cheese and toss. Divide onto 4 plates and sprinkle with additional mizithra cheese. If it lacks flavor, add more cheese, not salt.
It’s simple, beautiful, and absolutely divine.
Recipe
8 0z uncooked vermicelli (angel hair pasta)
1/2 cup salted butter
grated mizithra cheese
Cook pasta according to directions and set aside.
Melt butter on medium heat. Increase heat to medium high and whisk until butter is dark brown and the smell is sweet. Immediately pour onto the cooked pasta and toss with about 1 Tbsp of mizithra cheese. Serve with more mizithra cheese onto to taste.
This recipe does not require a preliminary story or explanation. Trust me when I say this is fantastic mousse. What makes it great is that the eggs are cooked, which you don’t see very often in a high quality mousse.
Step 1
Measure out 8 oz of good quality semi-sweet chocolate. Guittard is one of my favorites that can be purchased in a regular supermarket.
Step 2
Fill about 2 inches of water into a pot and bring to a boil. Then place a stainless steel bowl on top of the pot or water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the boiling water. This is a double boiler and it the most effective way to cook eggs without scrambling them.
Step 3
Place your heat at medium low and melt the chocolate chips.
Step 4
While your chocolate is melting, in a small bowl combine 3 eggs yolks, 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of dutch processed cocoa, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Step 5
Mix together the egg mixture to the melted chocolate. Don’t despair if your mixture looks like the picture below. This is what is is supposed to look like! Incorporate the heavy whipping cream into the mixture with a wire whisk until it is smooth. Change out your whisk for a clean one so there aren’t any clumps.
Step 6
Raise your heat to medium high and slowly stir the chocolate until it reaches 160 degrees F. Remove from heat and set aside to cool a bit.
Step 7
In a medium bowl whip 1 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form, taking care to not over whip.
Step 8
Once you’ve let your chocolate cool slightly (it still needs to be warm), mix lightly it into the whipping cream until it is smooth and there are no major streaks.
Step 9
Pour into 5-6 ramekins and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and a drizzle of strawberry coulis.
List of ingredients
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
3 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp dutch processed cocoa
1/3 cup cream
3 egg yolks
1 1/4 cup cream
Instructions
1- In a double boiler melt your chocolate
2- Mix sugar, vanilla, cocoa and egg yolks together
3- Add egg mixture to melted chocolate.
Mixture will become seedy and may look like it’s ruined. It’s not!
4- Mix in 1/3 cup cream and stir until smooth
5- Continue stirring while bringing the mixture up to 160 degrees F.
6- Once chocolate has reached 160 F, remove from double boiler and let cool slightly. I stir mine occasionally so a film doesn’t form on top.
7- Whip 1 1/4 cup cream until stiff peaks form.
8- Fold the chocolate into the whipped cream until there aren’t any streaks. Immediately put into ramekins, forms, or in a prepared pie dish as it will begin to set.
9- Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, preferable over night.
This mousse may be frozen and thawed out for a quick treat or future event. Just top with whipped cream and any sauce.
Perhaps it’s the Greek in me, but I love orzo. I’m a creamy, stick-to-my-bones soup kinda gal, so give me the roux and cream please. Now here comes the irony of my last statement. If I can make something Greek, I will (husband rolls his eyes). Enter my brothy greek style orzo soup. This soup is a slight twist on a traditional chicken noodle soup. Just a little zing of lemon coupled with a hint of heat from the cracked pepper and you’ve got yourself a fresh and light meal for any occasion. Couple it with a tuscan roll, and it’s so good my husband says he would take it with a kick in the face.
3 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup uncooked orzo
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/4 cup minced yellow onion
1/2 minced garlic
2 bay leaves
a 2 inch sprig of fresh rosemary
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon)
1 1/2 cups shredded chicken breast (I use a rotisserie chicken)
2 cups chicken broth (additional)
TT freshly ground pepper
Instructions
Bring 3 cups of chicken stock to boil. Add the orzo and boil for 7 minutes or for 2 minutes less than what the instructions say on the package. Strain the orzo and reserve the leftover liquid. Set both aside.
In the same pan, add carrots, garlic, and onions to 1/2 cup water. Cook on medium high until onions are transparent and the water has almost evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add the reserved liquid from the cooked orzo along with the bay leaves, and rosemary. Simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes. Remove the rosemary and bay leaves and add the lemon juice, chicken breast, additional broth, orzo and ground pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes and serve piping hot.
©Daphodil 2015
I recently took on the daunting task of designing the menu for a women’s conference in May. This is the salad that I concocted for the event and I must say, it is simple and it is amazing! It’s simply amazing! Besides it being amazing, everything can be made days in advance so you can throw it together at last minute!
Red Wine Vinaigrette
4 Tbsp red wine vinegar
4 Tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp white sugar
pinch of paprika
fresh ground pepper to taste
Add all the ingredients into a bottle and refrigerate
Salad Filler
1 roasted red or yellow beet cubed and chilled(instructions below)
1/2 grapefruit
goat cheese
candied pecans and slivered almonds (instructions below)
Instructions
Toss all but beets (only if using red) together with the dressing and serve chilled. Top the salad with the red beets.
How to roast a beet Wash beets and cut off the leaves leaving a little stalk so you can hold on to them after they are cooked (you can use the beet greens for another salad). Wrap loosely in tin foil and place in a 375 degree oven for approximately 30-45 minutes. Beets are fully cooked when you can stab it with a knife and it will come out very easily. Remove from oven and let sit for about 5 minutes. Under running water pull the skin off the beets. Chop the beets and refrigerate.
Bavarian style pecans and almonds 1/4 cup pecan halves and slivered almonds combined 1 Tbsp sugar sprinkle of cinnamon, approximately 1/8-1/4 tsp. Place all ingredients in a saucepan and, cook on high while stirring consistently. Cook until the sugar has almost completely dissolved. Remove from heat and pan immediately as the nuts will continue to cook. Cool and then separate.
©Daphodil 2015
As a child, my family had a fairly large garden. My summers consisted of walking barefoot through our garden eating fresh veggies and picking raspberries right off the bush. I still look forward to going home during in the hot summer months so I can stuff myself with all the raspberries I can handle.
This sauce only uses 2 ingredients which makes it one of the most simple, most delicious sauces ever.
Step 1. Get yourself one cup of half- thawed raspberries
Step 2. In a blender (I’m using a hand blender because it is such a small amount) add 1/4 cup granulated sugar and blend until smooth
I must apologize for the horrible pictures. I was taking them one handed with my iPhone because nobody else was around. Also, don’t skip this next step. De-seeding the sauce is what makes it so magnificent.
Step 3. Set up a bowl and get some cheesecloth. If you are using regular cheesecloth that you buy in the store, you will want to triple up the layers. Or you can purchase some re-usable cheesecloth here. Place the cheesecloth on the bowl and pour the sauce into the cloth.
Isn’t that beautiful!
Gather up the edges of the cheesecloth and start to “milk” the cloth. Besides cheesecloth I’ve only ever milked a goat. I can state with certainty, milking cheese cloth is way easier.
Squeeze all the sauce out until there isn’t anything but seeds in the cloth. Then you are left with this gorgeous, sweet and tart deliciousness. Too many adjectives? Absolutely not.
I serve this on ice cream, profiteroles, cheesecake, chocolate mousse cake (recipe soon to come) or how my kids enjoy it the best, by the spoonful.
Enjoy!
Daphodil 