Mystery Stain.

I just took out my favorite white dress tuxedo shirt to wear out tonight only to discover that is has big yellow stains under the arms. And they are very noticeable, because they extend to more than an inch from where my under arms would be. The funny thing is, it is the only dress shirt I packed, and I am almost dressed and ready only to iron my shirt and slip it on. lol, lol, Maybe I should have practiced what my mother always told me: start prepping early.  The thing is most of my shirts have under arm stains, and I know what causes them (the aluminum in most deodorants); and how to remove them (soak in vinegar for couple of minutes then hand wash out).  However, with all this knowledge one would think that I would never be caught in this predicament. Well guess again, the problem is, I cannot find a natural deodorant that can keep the B.O., and sweat at bay.  Most of them that i have tried have always fall short in that department. I have even tried making my own (lol, lol,us scientists' we like to mix things in our kitchens).

Do you know of any aluminum free, natural vegan friendly deodorants on the market that actually works?
Please let me know.
Cheers

Homemade Gifts Edition #1.

I woke up this morning with a sore throat and a blocked nose, and as i am typing this post my head is swirling. Almost everyone in my class is fighting a cold, and since I got to Germany I have been taking the necessary precautions as to not get the cold. I have doubled my vitamin C, B, and zinc intake by eating lots of greens and orange fruits and veggies. Additionally, my daily multivitamin accompanied by breakfast is my mantra everyday.  Getting sick was the last thing on my mind, but I am; so i am wrapped up in bed with no vicks vapor rub (couldn't find any) taking these pills for the cold that I got from the pharmacy and hoping for the best. I guess coming from a hot climate to an extremely cold one (and I do mean cold, and it hasn't even snowed yet) can be a shock for anyone's body.  I have taken some wonder full pictures of Dresden, Prague,and Berlin however, I forgot the USB cord for my camera at home; so adding pictures will have to be a later project. I did promise more gift ideas and recipes for homemade gift giving; so here they are below: 

Scented  Sugar

Layer granulated sugar with aromatic edibles like: lemon, orange or lime  peel (first set out for a day to dry); rose petals,or vanilla beans. Mix small batches, and let them sit for a few days in the sun  in tightly sealed jars while the scents infuse the sugar. After a week they should be ready for gifting, just tie a beautiful bow around the neck and it would make a great addition to any gift basket.

Bath Salts

Ingredients
4 tablespoons jojoba seed or avocado seed oil
1 tablespoon organic essential oil: of lavender flowers, clary sage flowers, rosemary stems, or grapefruit, orange, lemon peel. (it all depends on what effect you are going for here. Do you want a relaxing calming effect?  then use lavender or chamomile.  The peels have a more anti-inflammatory and antiseptic effect so they would work for acne prone skin or to remove dead skin leaving a more fresh young skin).

      3 cups sea salt  ( the texture of the scrub is very important, I once gave my self a horrible rash because the grain of sugar that I had use in a scrub was too big.  You must know your skin, if it is very sensitive, then a course scrub is not the way to go.  Purchase a fine grain salt or sugar to be on the safe side with gift giving).  Some people use Epsom Salts, again it is all a matter of preference and grain size; maybe you can experiment with all. 

 

* You do not have to use any of the essential oils I have listed here, the sky is the limit but the they must be used in moderation. The oils can be purchased at a little store on Main Street, next to McKellys called 'Herbal Heaven' I find that his products are reasonably priced and they have listed on the bottles how and why they are used; i.e to combat what aliment. You should be able to purchase the Carrier oils( jojoba seed or avocado seed oil) here to if not just check Natures Way.

 

Bath Salts How-To
1. In a small bowl, stir base and essential oils together to combine.

       2. Then pour into a large bowl add salt and stir until well coated.  If the mixture appears too runny then add some more salt. If it is too dry then add more oil mixture, again feel the mixture between your fingers to see if it is a good consistency. 

     3. Divide mixture evenly between  sterilized jars and cover; you can even print labels from Microsoft to make these even more perfect. 

Crazy Crayons

Heat makes a crayon a little loopy; it may melt into a swirl or pool into a whirl. These blocks are easy for toddlers to hold and will surely inspire older artists. Encourage kids to come up with combinations: A blue-and-white blend for drawing the sky, for example, and a mix of reds and oranges for sunsets.

Materials
Old crayons
Mini-cake tins (use mini shaped tins  i.e. hearts, squares, fun shapes).

1. First you peel off the wrapping of old crayons and chop them up, take care to keep like colors separate so that they can be combined in interesting colors later. 

2.Preheat the oven to 150 degrees while children fill the tin with crayon pieces, arranging them in interesting designs.

 3.Bake just until the waxes have melted, 15 to 20 minutes.

4. Remove the shapes after they have cooled. If they stick, place tray in the freezer for an hour, and the crayons will pop out.

Fruit Jars

 Ingredients

 1/2 cup walnut halves, toasted and cooled 

1/4 cup dried cranberries 

1/4 cup dried apricots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces 

1/2 cup good-quality honey

*You can use any combination of fruits and nuts you want to. For example you can swap out the walnuts for almonds or hazelnuts or the apricots for dried apples or mangoes. 

Directions

1. Stir together nuts, honey,and fruit; transfer to a 6-ounce jar.Topping can be refrigerated in jar up to 1 month. 

Body Oil

  Ingredients

4 cups jojoba seed or avocado seed oil

1 pound dried herbs, flowers, or leaves, such as yarrow flowers, or dandelion leaves

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon organic essential oil of lavender flowers, clary sage flowers, rosemary stems, or grapefruit peel 

Directions

    

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees; place base oil and herbs in a casserole dish with a lid; stir until herbs are submerged. Cover and transfer casserole to oven for 4 to 8 hours, stirring every hour to ensure that herbs do not burn.

   2. Set a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth over a large heatproof glass measuring cup. Strain herb mixture into measuring cup, squeezing cheesecloth to remove liquid; discard solids.

  3. Pour strained liquid into casserole dish and stir in essential oil. Cover and let stand 24 hours. If fragrance is not strong enough, add another teaspoon of essential oil; let stand, covered, 8 hours more. 

4.  Using a funnel, divide liquid evenly between jars and cover. 

* You do not have to use any of the essential oils I have listed here, the sky is the limit but the they must be used in moderation. The oils can be purchased at a little store on Main Street, next to McKellys called 'Herbal Heaven' I find that his products are reasonably priced and they have listed on the bottles how and why they are used; i.e to combat what aliment. You should be able to purchase the Carrier oils( jojoba seed or avocado seed oil) here to if not just check Natures Way. 

Don't forget to take lots of pictures of the complete gifts and send them to me so that I can put them on Chic' Gourmet Face book page. If you get stuck along the way or have better ideas; or just want to say hi, please don't hesitate to leave a comment on the blog. 

 

Pumpkin Pudding Recipe.

I love  pumpkin anything, it is one of my favorite vegetables. I therefore have it growing in abundance in my garden, or at least I try to.  I am always making curries, pies, bars, breads and bars.  However every now and then I feel like doing something different, like 'Pumpkin fudge' (still working out a few kinks) and 'Pumpkin Pudding'.  I always end up making two batches, which I refrigerate; one for me - vegan version  and the regular version for my beau.  As promised here is my go to 'Pumpkin Pudding' recipe; 

• 5 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup raw brown sugar (or any kind of sugar)
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
•  2 cups pumpkin puree'

*You can also use only 1tablespoon of butter if you want to cut the fat.

Directions:

1. In a large bowl whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and salt.
2. In a saucepan bring the milk to a boil. Slowly whisk in the egg mixture.
3. Cook until thickened. Remove from heat and add the butter, vanilla extract, and pumpkin puree.
4. Let cool in the refrigerator with plastic wrap on top so that it does not form a skin.
5. Serve topped with chopped pecans (optional)

This recipe can be simply altered to make it suitable for diabetics, vegan and gluten free.

Diabetic
Replace regular sugar with splenda equivalent measurement for sweetener, or decrease the amount of sugar and add some apple juice.  However you will have to add a touch more cornstarch to balance out the consistency of the mixture. 

Vegan & Gluten free
Replace eggs with equivalent egg re-placer to five (5) eggs or use no eggs at all, the cornstarch will hold the pumpkin together.  Instead of whole milk use any non diary milk of your choice. Additionally, instead of using butter you can use spectrum vegan butter or any type of vegan butter. If the health store is out (after all we do live in the B.V.I) you can use coconut butter/oil.


let me know how it turns out!

Day 1 of Classes.

Today was my first day of classes and it was great.  I am learning so much and asking lots of questions. Classes run basically all day from 8:30 until about 5:00, I am hoping to get some time to explore the local cuisine but from the looks of things I don't think so.  At least not now, maybe on the weekend. I am however definitely going back to that supermarket to get some goodies. I just don't know when. Oh yea, I finally got my luggage, thank god, any later and my skin would have resembled sandpaper.  My room is pretty large for a dorm room but I don't have an oven, i have two hot plates though.  No baked desserts for me, good thing too because, I only packed one side gym shoes (lol, lol).  Therefore, i can whip up some crazy delights for dinner; starting with tomorrow nights dinner.
Stewed Cabbage with Rice. 

I know white rice is bad, but I am a student on a tight budget here.  Hence my cheap but healthy - ish, and filling dinner plans. My next task will be to come up with meals for every nights dinner.  This is going to be interesting.
Cheers,

Germany, here I come!!

O.K the excitement has left me, the airlines lost my luggage.  Can you believe it ?
 I am soooo.. beyond pissed right now; and my cell phone is not roaming so i had to buy a German Sim card that only speaks in German so i have no idea what the person is saying. Lets just say I am not a happy camper right now. I am so unhappy that i didn't even have fun at the grocery store, and they have a wonderful section with baked goods and a deli stocked with various home made meats that i have never seen before.  Don't worry, i will definitely be back to take lots of pictures. I just grabbed one of those packaged spinach ravioli for dinner, not feeling very creative right now. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day, I'm going to bed.
Cheers,

My Apple Pie Obsession!!

I absolutely love apple pie, I must confess, I once had fried apple pie from a street vendor in New York it was soooo delicious; I actually ate it for the whole week.  Since then, I have been on a quest to make my own healthy version.  So, since we had a long holiday weekend, I decided to bake all weekend.  On the Menu was of course,  a vegan gluten free apple pie and vegan gluten free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  I have never done a gluten free pie crust before so I just made the crust as if I was baking a regular pie crust and substituted with gluten free flours. 

It was a disaster, it tasted like chalk (lol,lol, back to the drawing board). It looked appetizing, but it was not, I could not find any vegan butter at the local Health Store, so I used home made coconut oil.  Also, I substituted the Garbanzo Flour, with All Purpose Gluten Free flour; again because the Health Food Store didn't have any in stock.  Next time I will order all my flours from Amazon, before starting any baking projects.

Now for my pride and joy;  Vegan & Gluten free Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies.
These were absolutely delicious in fact I ate so many of them that my fiancee hid them from me.  I didn't tell him of course that they were vegan & gluten free, they came out perfect.

 OMG boy they tasted good and made with a simple recipe:

1/2 cup vegan butter of your choice
1/2 cup brown sugar (i used Demerara sugar from Guyana)
1/2 cup natural peanut butter of your choice
2 tbsp maple syrup
1tbsp organic rice milk
1 1/3 cups gluten free all purpose flour
2tbsp garbanzo flour
1/2tsp baking soda
1/2 cup vegan carob chips

 In a large bowl mix together the butter and sugar until light and creamy then mix in the remaining ingredients (i used a wooden spoon).  Mix together until well blended, and the ingredients form a dough. Shape the dough into a log and wrap in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour until firm.  Cut the dough into slices and place them on parchment lined cookie sheets and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20 min or until brown and firm.

enjoy !!

What is your favorite go to recipe fro a long weekend?