Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Plain Purple Phalanges & a Pink Frost Touch-Up, Protruding Pregnant Belly, Family Favorite Recipe, & a Snippet on Vaccinations!


My plain Zoya MIRA Manicure


After all these "layers on layers of polish manicures, I just wanted a simple, one-coat look. On the other hand, I thought I would hate the plain creme look by itself. To my surprise and delight, the Zoya polish is extremely WET in appearance, but it dries fantastically quickly!



~FOR MY FAMILY IN CALIFORNIA~
I think that people who've known me all my life get a kick out of my pregnant belly, because it's no longer flat. LOL. So this is for my family and friends...

Pure Ice OUTRAGEOUS Tip Touch-Up
I did have this planned when I chose the ZOYA color a few days earlier. With all the baking and meals I cook, the piles of dishes and kitchen cleaning I do wreaks havoc on my nails in one or two days. But, borrowing the ideas of my sister, I chose a color for the tips ahead of time, knowing that I'd need to cover my tips in order to save a new manicure. It's not my favorite look, but it beats redoing a whole set of phalanges!


DO YOU KNOW ABOUT GARDASIL??
Gardasil is marketed as the vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. This statement is incorrect.
Learn more:
http://www.naturalnews.com/031454_Gardasil_risks.html#ixzz1notBVCJQ


"...In seeking answers to why adolescent girls are suffering devastating health damage after being injected with HPV vaccines, SANE Vax, Inc decided to have vials of Gardasil tested in a laboratory. There, they found over a dozen Gardasil vaccine vials to be contaminated with rDNA of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). The vials were purchased in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Poland and France, indicating Gardasil contamination is a global phenomenon.
This means that adolescents who are injected with these vials are being contaminated with a biohazard..."
Learn more:
http://www.naturalnews.com/033585_Gardasil_contamination.html#ixzz1noqfmexS

"...Gardasil is a vaccination that has been linked to multiple deaths and over 8,000 adverse reactions. Recently, the FDA approved this deadly injection to be used against anal cancer..."
Learn more:
http://www.naturalnews.com/030991_Gardasil_vaccine.html#ixzz1nosOlvRz

 
On a lighter note...
~Essie Set In Stones top coat for bling~
My manicures last much longer when I add a top coat, and I wanted to see what my diamonds looked like on this purple and pink frost set. I could add diamonds to EVERYTHING!




Bobby Flay's Cheese Steak
This is, by far, my family's favorite cheese steak recipe! We improvise when the cheese we have on hand is not the same as what is listed on this recipe. It always tastes aMAZing!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Dark Nails, Delectable Coffeecake, Delicious Salad, & A Word on McDs & GMOs!

TOO-DARK-FOR-ME NAILS
I bought a black polish (w/a bit of shimmer) to use under my all-time favorite ESSIE Set In Stones, but when a fleck polish arrived in the mail from my sister, I had to try that on the black instead.
On the index finger is one thin (uneven) coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength "Black Diamonds". On the rest is a thick single coat.
 I was extremely annoyed by the thick, gel-like polish and its brush that seemingly had no grace to it. The clumsy bristles brushed to one extreme or another- all over the cuticle and then some, or not far enough over the surface. As you can see below, it was a messy process. (More to come later in the post...)

TORI GLORY
for our families...
While I painted my nails, Tori played with her Papa,
and I took full advantage of her love of the camera.
 She asked Papa to bury her in animals...
 then 'hid' from him in a box...
 ...which turned into Hide-And-Seek...
 ...the night continued with a father/daughter sword fight,
and ended with an all-out meltdown of a very tired four-year-old who hadn't napped.

TOO-DARK-FOR-ME NAILS continued...
2nd thick single coat. The look was more pleasing to me, but the process was still on my hit list.
 Here, I added a coat of  the ZOYA (Fleck) Opal. I admit that I wasn't a fan of the way it turned godzilla green. Below shows one hand "godzilla" (Opal) and one hand just Black Diamonds.

 Zoya Opal over Sally Hansen Black Diamonds.
 
 

I thought I'd be clever by trying my Set In Stones idea over the whole "godzilla" manicure, thus saving a bad manicure and lots of time starting over to try my idea...
 The "godzilla" shone through the "stones" so much that it was a waste of polish and time.
But, in the future, I plan to try the fleck polish over something totally unassuming, such as ZOYA purples or an irridescent white or creme. Maybe even Tori's turquoise! So all is not lost.
Besides, Tori saw my manicure and insisted on having the same on her nails. She loved it. :o) To each her own!

 Farfalle Asparagus Salad
For our snack meal when we gather with friends on the weekend, I made this cold pasta salad. (I don't have enough hands to snap photos while I cook, so all I have is end-result pictures.) It was DELICIOUS and the recipe went right into my recipe folder! Try it for yourself!


SIDE NOTE 
On the day I made this salad, I had also made a spinach dip and planned a huge roast in a crockpot, because we were having a friend come for the weekend. I had a placenta-on-the-brain moment and forgot to start the roast in time for dinner that Friday, so at nearly 8:00 pm (3 hours past our normal dinner time), we ordered a $10 any size, any topping pizza. Pizza Hut isn't gourmet or anything in our opinion, but that night, someone made a superior vegetable w/ burger pizza, and we were in pizza heaven! lol!
 At the same time, I bought this new root beer from a natural marketplace and all three of us LOVED it! So creamy and not-too-sweet!

The Muffin Lady's coffeecake
I have a book called The Muffin Lady. She has a great story and even greater muffin and loaf recipes! I attempted a muffin experiment with her coffeecake recipe (included at the end of blog post)...
 Here's the batter (above) and here is the streusel (below)
 For those interested, this is Linda's book. The base ingredients for most of her recipes is her mother's original pancake recipe, which explains the thicker consistency than typical muffin batters. It's simply irresistable batter- I can't keep my fingers out of it! *SHH!*
 As for my muffin experiment, it's back to the drawing board with this one, because the streusel topping collapsed into the streusel in between batter layers, creating a huge crater in each muffin. Plus, they "rose sideways" across my muffin tins, instead of rising upwards to create a dome.
 But, according to my husband, they were still very tasty, so I'll probably use the recipe as-is for family coffeecake, and experiment a little to create a muffin to sell. (I'll just stick to my most popular selling muffins for now, Raspberry Chocolate and Orange Almond.)


NUTRITION TIDBIT
Natural immune builders: RAW FOODS!
Are you being attacked by 'the common cold'?
Did your cold turn sour and become bronchitis or pneumonia?
Want to know how to gear up for allergy season?
The following popular RAW fruits and vegetables have aMAZing natural healing properties to combat (or prevent) those ailments:
Blueberries, Cranberries, & Cherries-Kill infectious bacteria & viruses
Grapefruit-reduces fever from colds and flu, relieves chest congestion
Kiwis-fight off viruses
Lemons, Limes-kill fungi, bacteria, parasites and cut mucus build-up, prevent colds, and fight fever
Oranges-fight viral infections, strengthen immune system
Papayas-cut mucus buildup, fight off infections
Strawberries-protect agains viral infection

Avocados-ward off infection (also protects against miscarriages!)
Cabbage-stimulates immune system, kills bacteria and viruses, increases antioxidant mechanisms
Garlic cloves-fight infections, stimulates immune system, prevents AND relieves bronchitis, destroys bacteria (antibiotic!)
Mustard Greens-clears chest congestion, stimulates the immune system, reduces mucus buildup from colds
Onions-kill bacteria
Peas-fight infections
Bell peppers-fight off infection and ward off colds
Potatos-protect against viruses
Radishes-clear the sinuses, reduce hoarseness, phlegm, and sore throats, cut mucus congestion
Turnips, Turnip greens, Rutabagas-treat bronchial disorders, sinus problems, clear mucus conditions and lung congestion, and relieve coughing
Watercress-clear mucus from lungs
Papaya, onion, turnips/greens/rutabagas, & garlic cloves, again- treat (asthma &)hay fever*


Seasonal Allergies
(Start building immunity against seasonal allergies by consuming a teaspoon of LOCALLY GROWN, RAW honey each day! Also, SPIRULINA (found in green drinks such as Odwalla or Bolthouse Farms offers) and in tablets/capsules at your local health/vitamin store- is known to combat the ailments of seasonal allergies).

WHAT AMERICA NEEDS TO KNOW
Do you eat (or feed your children) McD's chicken nuggets? Do your body a favor and watch this short clip on what they're really made of!

Heard of GMOs? No?! Then click on this link and discover a whole world of deception in our foods. Your health will thank you for it! (Look for more on this subject in future posts.)

 Streusel-Filled Coffeecake Recipe

For the cake:
1 1/2 C flour
1 T baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 C sugar
4 T butter or margarine
1 egg
1/2 C milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling and topping:
1/2 C brown sugar
2 T flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 T melted butter or margarine
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Sift the dry ingredients. Slice the butter into pieces and use a knife to stir them into the dry ingredients until a fine cornmeal-like mixture is attained. Mix together the egg, milk, and vanilla, and add to the flour mixture.  To make the topping, mix together the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon.  Blend in the butter and nuts.  Spread half of the batter in a wax paper-lined 8-inch square pan.  Sprinkle with half the topping.  Add remaining batter and cover with the remaining topping. Bake 25-35 minutes. Yields 8-12 servings.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

A New PB Choc Chip Muffin Recipe, My Favorite Salad, and a Quickie Manicure!

My previous PB Choc Chip recipe is wonderful, if you eat them on the same day you bake them. They tend to dry out after the first two days, but the domed top is priceless & they scream "eat me"!
So, the following recipe, though not as beautiful coming out of the oven, is more moist.



 Sorry to leave you hanging without notes on baking, but the recipe (found below, at the end of the post) is pretty self-explanatory. :o) And I am recovering from a migraine.
See how these come out with some dark peaks? You can avoid that by placing a baking sheet on a rack above the muffins in the last 5 minutes of baking. Clearly, I failed to take my own advice. Twice.

Now for the salad!
This is my favorite lately, and I've been craving it consistently for more than a month! My husband has been loving it right along with me (as well as the swiss mushroom burgers, homemade greek salad, pickles on cheeseburgers, and....). They call it Sympathy Food Cravings for men, but he doesn't look sympathetic. He looks downright wild like a hungry coyote! LOL.

Anyways, this salad is directly from a magazine, and I'm not ashamed to say I didn't create it myself. Although, I DO add a few items to compliment the flavors. Try adding thinly sliced pears or apples. They seem to complete the flavors in the salad! DELISH!!!
 The dressing isn't hard to make, and you can subsitute nearly any lemon product for the lemon flavored olive oil, although (fresh) lemon peel does make it *pop* so much more than just adding lemon juice to the olive oil.
I've had this salad with candied or glazed pecans as well. Your personal taste is really what determines which is appropriate. Do you have a sweet tooth? Then use the candied or glazed pecans. Our family prefers just plain toasted pecans (my four year old will eat them only raw. She says the baking makes them bitter lol).

I had originally planned a ZOYA manicure touchup, but the colors never worked together, so I started over with new colors. And they're not Zoya. Tee hee.
There was a particular [maternity] outfit that I had in mind to wear on the weekend, and reverting to my late teen years, I wanted to coordinate my polish with it. That was the intent of the original ZOYA plan, but my brown (Faye) and bronze (Ivy) were too similar to show contrast, and my polish caboodle doesn't boast the wonderful array that many of [your] blogs do! *wink* To top off the bad manicure idea, the Essie Set In Stones (diamond-dipped look) looked terrible on top of them (this was to be the touch-up idea). I suppose I need a GOLD glitter top coat after all, for my browns. *frowns at the idea of spending more money on polish*
So, as shown above, I painted PURE ICE "Best Friend" on all my nails first. (I own a LOT of Pure Ice. It seems to be my favorite drug store brand. Is it silly that one of my favorite features- besides price point- is the size and shape of the bottle, because it's easy to handle between knuckles as I paint? For some reason, I hear my sister saying that in one of her posts. Ha ha!)

Next, I swept across half my nail in a diagonal fashion,  PURE ICE "Hot Tamale" (I like that name, but it reeks of  Mary Murphy's outbursts on SYTYCD... Sheesh, I miss that show! Is it time for the season premiere yet???)
My third coat was, again "Best Friend" over the whole of the nail, in order to tone down the orange. My oufit was a rusty orange, not a halloween orange. :o)
The end result was a little more bland than I desired. You pretty nearly couldn't see any contrast unless you were staring closely at it. But the touch up stage glammed it up a bit. Enough for the rest of the week, anyway. *wink*

...and the touch-up idea was to dip my whole nail in ESSIE's LuxEffects "Set In Stones". I'm addicted to that little bottle of glamour. I don't even care that it takes 10 minutes to remove.

WHATCHA THINK?
Later this week, a Farfalle Asparagus salad, some fun(?), new manicure with the new colors Michelle sent me in the mail, and maybe a new muffin recipe (coffeecake), IF it turns out well. In a moment, I'm going to test a recipe for coffeecake in the form of muffins. :o) So excited to offer a new idea for sale locally if it tastes awesome!

PEANUT BUTTER & CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

Ingredients

1 1/2 C flour
1 C chocolate chips
1/3 C sugar
1 T baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 C milk
1/2 C peanut butter
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 egg

Preheat oven to 400F. In large bowl, combine flour, chocolate, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In small bowl, combine oil, peanut butter, egg and milk. Stir into flour mixture until just moistened. Spoon into lined or greased cups, filling 3/4 full. Bake 20 minutes (or longer for jumbo) or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into center. Cool in tins for five minutes. Remove to rack. Serve warm or cool completely. *check on your muffins about 15 minutes into the baking time. If they are browning too quickly, place a cookie sheet on a rack above the muffins.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Couple of Sassy Manis, Couple of Sassy Girl Photos

 Hiding in a photo folder somewhere in my laptop, I found the manicure from last week (& the photos aren't as blurry as I thought). I plan to recreate it sometime this month, because I received multitudes of compliments from people everywhere. Even my daughter asked me to repeat it when she saw the photos just now.
 On one slant, I used Sephora by OPI's "Shiny Dancer" and on the opposite slant is PURE ICE's "A List". As a top coat, Essie's luxeffects "Set In Stones" provided a glittery, glossy, glitzy, glamorous finish that really caught the eyes of all ages and lifestyles.
 One night, I was laying near a window, the moon was full enough to cast light into my room, and the reflection on my nails kept me up longer than I should have allowed. From the "Shiny Dancer" angle, I saw nothing but sparkles. From the "A List" angle, I saw flashes of light because he color is so bright and metallic in nature. I sat, turning my hands from one side to the other, admiring the shimmer and the 'glow-in-the-dark' effect.
My only complaint (& the reason I didn't use Set In Stones for today's manicure) is how long it takes to remove the glitter polish, but it was worth the effort!
 My post wouldn't be complete without a current photo of my firstborn to share with relatives abroad (what am I talking about? All of our relatives are abroad...across the continent anyway). Victoria picked this fidora a few months ago, and she has a knack for wearing it. When we go out in public with that hat, I prepare for compliments, comments, stares, giggles, and exclamations. She is JUST too cute in it. (She actually posed this face on purpose.)
 When she sees me paint my nails, the reaction is the same: "Paint mine, too. Paint them rainbow." Each time, I attempt to mix it up a bit, because I'm bored with rainbow. Today, I successfully recruited purple, red, and pink, in time for her "Heart Parties" on Monday and Tuesday.
 I grew tired of my red manicure dipped in diamonds from last Thursday, because, well, I felt like blogging and didn't have enough material to write. I chose re-painting nails over baking new muffins. LOL.
 I'm really not a fan of reversed french tip manicures, but I wanted red for this week. Sorry to admit that I also didn't spend much time on making it look good, because I plan to remove it by Thursday. :o) I have some ZOYA plans for the weekend.
 One day, my mother and daughter talked on the phone. "Mema" asked her a series of questions, and I took photos of the 'answers'.
 Can you kiss your elbow?
 Can you touch your nose with your tongue?
Can you bite your heel?
Ha ha ha. Hope you had a good laugh, if nothing else this time.