Gifts From The Earth

In my early twenties as I was raising a family, learning the ins and outs of providing for my family and stretching our paycheck I often relied on these principles...





Fix it up,  reuse it, make it from scratch and sometimes just do without. When it came to taking care of the health needs of our family I had a wonderful mentor, my mother-in-law Alice. She was a wise, creative woman who loved quality, enjoyed a simple Godly lifestyle and often made things herself. She taught me how to care for my family using her knowledge of herbs, massage and reflexology so even though we had no health insurance my family was healthy and cared for.  Just like my great aunt Nana, she was practical, believed in using the many gifts from the earth God gave us to take care of ourselves.

With today's amazing array of products you would think it would be simple to find personal care items that are healthy, safe and effective. Shopping and reviewing products with labels listing long ingredient lists of names we can't even pronounce can be daunting. It is common to buy a product we see advertised as the next great thing and try it out, often judging its effectiveness without taking in to account what else it might be doing. Have you ever given thought to how a product penetrates? I discovered that our skins natural proteins were being broken down to allow certain products to penetrate. If the body's natural defense barrier has been compromised the body becomes susceptible to infection etc. Learning about ingredients in personal care products that were harmful to us as well as environmentally unfriendly set me on a mission to find alternatives that would be healthy, effective, and improve my family's health not destroy it.

My personal quest over the years started in my kitchen as I tried my hand at making my own handmade bath soaks, hair rinses, facial treatments. Since I do not always have the time to create from scratch and frankly I do not always want to take the time, I was searching for a personal care line I would be confidant to use on my babies and grandbabies too. My criterion: free of known toxins, environmentally friendly, choice botanical ingredients, safe on a variety of skin types and would it be too much to hope that these products would, nourish with clean and safe formulas?

In celebration of Labor Day...BBQ's Family and Fun with Friends

Wishing everyone a day of rest and full of joy! May Labor Day be filled with BBQ's, Family celebrations and FUN! Here's a video from DYI with some BBQ tips for you. Now...I'm off to enjoy my day too. Check out my other blog for a delicious Peach Pie recipe I made to go along with the BBQ.
 

Cobbler, Crisp, Crumble -- What's in a Name?

Cobbler, Crisp, Crumble -- What's in a Name?

 At a recent gathering of friends I made my favorite super easy Peach Crisp and of course as it always does we started talking about trying to define the difference between a fruit cobbler, fruit crisp and the many other names we had heard these delicious fruit desserts called. I was sure there was a specific way to tell what characteristics a dessert should have to be called a certain title and of course there is, now we all know, aren't you relieved!

Peach Crisp

Here is the main dessert category, which includes:
•Betty — a baked pudding made of layers of spiced and sugared fruit and buttered bread crumbs.
 •Clafoutis — a French cobbler, with fruit (usually cherries) on the bottom, custard, and a rough batter crust baked on top
 •Cobbler — a spoon pie (more like a fruit stew with dumplings), in which biscuit dough is dropped onto the fruit before baking. The consensus is that the dish got its name because the lumps of cooked dough resembled cobblestones.
 •Crisp — a deep-dish fruit dessert made with a crumb or streusel topping and baked.
 •Crumble — a British dessert in which raw fruit is topped with a crumbly pastry mixture and baked. One reference says a crumble is like a crisp, but not as rich.
 •Grunt — a spoon pie, with biscuit dough on top of stewed fruit, which is steamed, not baked
 •Pandowdy — a spoon pie, with fruit on the bottom and a rolled crust on top, which is broken up to allow the juices to come through
 •Slump — a spoon pie, including cooked or uncooked fruit topped with biscuit dough or piecrust, which can be baked or steamed, and can be made upside down

I was truely relieved to read this because it reassured me that my Peach Crisp was in fact REALLY a Peach Crisp. So the burning question for you is, was your dessert really a cobbler?

Caprese Ensalada

My Nana was an amazing woman, perhaps you guessed that since I dedicated the name of this blog to her.Today as I enjoyed making my fresh Caprese Ensalada I thought of the many ways she influenced my life and how I hope I am like her.

It was along side of Nana that I learned to appreciate handmade, fresh, home grown and honesty.

Although I do not remember her ever making Caprese Ensalada, if she would have known of it she would have enjoyed it too I'd bet. Her backyard had a tidy row of tomato plants each year. She served them up fresh with a sprinkling of sugar or salt... yes, she would have enjoyed this dish!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Do you have a favorite relative that means the world to you? If they're still with you let them know how much they mean to you. I hope I did that while my great aunt was alive...most all the skills of consequence to me I learned from her.  Every time I pass the old treadle sewing machine I think of Nana, a warm and comforting feeling washes over me and I think for just a moment of her. Happy Birthday!!