Cooking with Pinterest: Beauty Edition

As a native New Mexican, I have always fought the great fight against dry skin. Moving to California has helped tremendously, but in the winter months the fight still lives on.  In addition to dry skin, I have mild skin allergies which limit my use of most yummy smelling, mass-produced skincare products. My latest ally is this coffee and coconut oil body scrub from Pure Ella. It’s effective and it smells delicious. I have been using this body scrub a few times a week for about a month now and have nothing bad say about it. My skin feels so much healthier than before, it’s not dull or tight and no more dry patches. Plus the smell of coffee fills the shower, the perfect way to wake up. The caffeine from the coffee is supposed to be skin firming, Ella gives a good explanation for this. I haven’t really noticed, but I’d recommend it regardless.

When it’s cold it can be a little difficult to get out of the container, so I keep a spoon with it. It melts with the warmth of your hands and spreads on easily.

I’m about to run out of my first batch and I will definitely be making more. With the next round, I may add a touch of cinnamon  to play with the aroma.

Thanksgiving Menu

I’m pretty excited for Thanksgiving. We aren’t traveling this year, so I get to cook! I tried to keep it simple, hopefully it’s delicious enough to forget I skipped a few traditional favorites (sorry sweet potato casserole, maybe we’ll see you next year). Here are the recipes I’m planning to use:

Brined Turkey and Green Chile Cornbread Stuffing

1. Cranberry Orange Sauce 2. Pomegranate, Feta, Walnut Salad 3. Sauteed Green Beans with Mushrooms and Caramelized Onions 4. Spinach Mashed Potatoes

Pear Ginger Cocktails and Pumpkin Pecan Pie

I think it will work out well. The cranberry sauce and salad dressing can be made the day before (that’s tomorrow); the pie crust and filling can also be made the day before then assembled just before cooking; this just leaves 3 sides to actively make, a salad to throw together, and the turkey which will be brined and roasted in a bag so there isn’t much to do once it’s in the oven.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! Don’t stress too much and never be afraid to ask for help, you won’t be the only one eating there is no reason you should be the only one cooking. Besides the best memories are made together.

P.S. photo credits belongs to the respective blogs

Cooking with Pinterest: Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies

I’m so glad I found this recipe from the No. 2 Pencil. These cookies were absolutely perfect. I’ve used this recipe twice now and I know I will be using it again and again.

First, I made them as directed minus the icing. They were perfectly sweet and spiced. They cooked great; soft in the middle and crisp around the edge. I didn’t have any pre-mixed pumpkin pie spice, so I used this recipe from My Baking Addiction to make some. It did the job perfectly.

The cookies were so good that I used the recipe again without the pumpkin spice for simple sugar cookies. Oh and they were perfect! This is absolutely the best sugar cookie recipe I have ever used. The texture is perfect and they are not overly sweet. They made great drop cookies, I’m not sure how they would do as roll-outs though.

I recommend this recipe with or without the pumpkin spice. Although pumpkin spice is great this time of year.

Cooking with Pinterest: Roasted Garlic Olive Oil

I am a garlic fanatic, so naturally this is something I keep on hand all the time.

This oil is amazing drizzled over hummus or on a salad with a little salt and pepper or in mashed potatoes or over veggies, so many possibilities. The flavor is full and rich. It’s a great way to upgrade your cheap olive oil.

Plus you end up with a whole bunch of roasted garlic! Delicious. Roasted garlic should be can be added to almost anything. It’s great on chicken, fish, or veggies. It mixes well into dips. It can be smeared on bread and toasted for absolutely perfect garlic bread. Trust me, you will find a use for all that lovely roasted garlic.

If you’ve never made this, head over to the Pixelated Crumb for the recipe and get started immediately. You will not regret it. Plus with all the holiday parties and dinners coming up this makes a great hostess gift.

Pumpkin Spice Chai Rice Krispie Treats

Since my foodie pen pal sent me a canister of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte mix, I thought I would share this amazing recipe that uses it. Pumpkin spice is one of my favorite things about fall and I am fine with it making it’s way into practically everything! It’s so delicious and seems to make me feel like putting on a sweater even if it is still 85º outside here.

Basically you just add the Latte Mix to standard Rice Krispie treats, but here’s the recipe for good measure.

Ingredients:
3 TBS butter or margarine
4 cups mini marshmallows
6 TBS Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte Mix
6 cups rice cereal

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat butter and marshmallows for about 3 minutes. Stir after 2 minutes and continue to heat.
2.  Stir in drink mix.
3. Add rice cereal. Stir until well coated.
4. Spread mixture into a buttered pan or onto a piece of parchment paper (use wet hands to keep it from sticking). Cool and serve.

I imagine this recipe would work with a lot of other drink mixes, but I’ve really only tried it with this. I’m thinking of trying Salted Caramel next time!

Cooking with Pinterest: Garlic Butter Pizza Crust

I made pizza! The crust was delicious thanks to this recipe from A Beautiful Mess.

Chris worked at Papa John’s throughout college, so he is an expert pizza tosser. Thanks to this, he also used a bunch of technical terms to tell me I was doing it wrong. Like you really want to get the crust even so you don’t have a “gel line” (the line of undercooked dough you can see when you cut into the cooked pizza, if the crust is not spread evenly). And he insisted we put enough cheese around the edge to create a good “cheese lock” (if you don’t cover the sauce at the edge with cheese, then the cheese will slide off rather than sticking to the crust when you bite into it). All in all, my pizza may not have met Papa John’s quality standards but I loved it.

I don’t have extensive experience working with yeast, so I was afraid I would mess it up. For that reason, I didn’t change anything in this recipe. Luckily nothing needed changed, it was delicious. Perfectly seasoned! It was both fluffy and crispy. I did use a pizza pan, which helped the bottom turn out crispy.

Go make a pizza, it’s easier than you’d think.

PS I do have some more postcard projects in the works, I just didn’t get as much done over the long weekend as I’d hoped

Cooking with Pinterest: Cara’s Crispy Orange Cauliflower

Just like many of you, I have an overflowing Pinterest board full of recipes. In an effort to actually cook more of these delicious recipes, I’m starting a new segment. I will include a link to the original recipe (click the link or the image) to keep credit where credit is due, any substitutions, and a short review. I present to you my first installment of: Cooking with Pinterest!

This week I made Cara’s Crispy Orange Cauliflower from Vegan Richa (a guest post from Cara at Fork and Beans).

I did alter the recipe slightly. In the interest of not buying extra ingredients (I am not sensitive to gluten), I used flour instead of the gluten-free flour blend. Just a simple straight across substitution. 1/4 cup flour instead of 1/4 cup Cara’s gluten-free flour blend. I also omitted the 1 tsp oil in the batter. Everything else remained the same.

It was amazing. I cannot overstate how delicious this turned out. The cauliflower was the perfect amount of tender by the time the outside was golden brown. And the sauce was both sweet and tangy. Perfect, I’ve tried other orange chicken recipes and this was by far the best sauce I’ve came across. The green onion complimented the flavors perfectly. I served it over rice with a salad. Delicious and pseudo-healthy, what more could you ask for?

Head over to Vegan Richa and try it for yourself!