Peach And Black Cherry Pie Recipe

Best fruit pie ever. I am not much of a fruit pie eater, because I never found one I loved. This recipe was a total accident. Although I have noticed others online have made Peach and cherry pie with success and love for this combination to. I have created my own version of this fresh delight.

I was looking in my upright freezer and moving things around to add chicken. I threw some recently frozen peaches into an open pie crust. Suddenly I took a second look at the peaches in the pie crust and thought that I should make a peach pie in that crust before it gets stale in the freezer. I placed the crust and peaches on the counter and put the peaches into a glass bowl to thaw. After a while, I noticed that perhaps I did not have enough peaches to fill the whole pie. I had apples and oranges in the fridge. I also had black cherries pitted and frozen. So, I thought that peaches and cherries would be a good combo.

Here is my recipe:

Heat your oven to 375F

Prepare a pie crust and place in a pie plate or use some store bought crust in a tin. Or use store bought crust and put it into a pie plate. What ever works for you.

Mix in a medium to large bowl, about 2 cups fresh or frozen thawed sliced Peaches,
Plus 2 cups fresh or frozen thawed, pitted, cut in half Black Cherries
1 cup sugar (or half sugar and half Splenda)
1 tsp. Almond extract
1 T. Cornstarch
1 tsp. powder Pectin.

Crumb topping:
Mix  in another small to medium bowl, 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2-3 T. butter of choice. Mix with fork or pastry cutter.

Take prepared pie crust that is in a pie plate and place it on a cookie sheet to collect over flow of juices during baking and for ease of moving pie into and out of the oven. Now pour the bowl of fruit mixture into the prepared pie crust. Now sprinkle the crumb topping on top of fruit mixture in prepared pie crust. Place prepared pie into the pre-heated oven of 375F. Bake for 1 hour. When it is done, take the pie out of the oven and place on counter to cool for about an hour. You could serve the pie then, but I put my pie in the fridge and ate it cold for breakfast, the morning after.

This was so yummy. A must try for any time of the year.

Mmm....

Acorn Pancakes Recipe

Recipe tweaked from Ina Garten Cook book. As you can see in the pic. I got a new nut cracker. My other one broke. It is a seafood/nutcracker. works so much better.

Use:

3/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup Acorn meal/flour (or just use more wheat flour if not available)
3 T. sugar
2 tsp. Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup of milk, of choice (Kefired milk is good to.)
2 eggs


Mix all dry ingredients first then add the wet. Mix.

Heat a skillet and add a little butter or oil. Splash a sprinkle of water in the pan. If it sizzles the pan is ready to cook. Pour 1/4 cup of mix for each pancake and cook on each side until done. You know when the first side is done when it bubbles.

Plate and serve with your choice of toppings. Enjoy.

Makes about 10 pancakes.

Freeze leftovers in portions for ready meals in the future.

Remember to never defrost or cook your frozen foods or any foods/liquids in plastic.

Hand And Body Butter, Cream, Recipe

I love my lotion bars. My husband not so much. He has been so considerate to start tossing his lotions, so not to have them come into contact with myself. I got him some 92 degree melting point Coconut oil and he likes that. Unfortunately winter came and the Coconut oil became less user friendly in the cold. I noticed others making simple creams and lotions that were easy to make and use non xeno and phyto estrogen products. I searched to find the right recipe for the ingredients I had on hand.

I sort of combined a few recipes and came up with my own take on a thick cream that is xeno and phyto estrogen free.

Cream ingredients:

6 oz. 92 degree melting point Coconut oil
1/2 oz. Virgin/Organic coconut oil (This has a lower melting point, about 76 degrees)
6 oz. Almond oil
1 T. Cornstarch
4 small gel caps of Vitamin E (optional) Use D-alpha tocopheral vitamin E. That is the natural, non synthetic kind. Try not to use DL-alpha tocopheral acetate, that is synthetic and very bad for diabetics.
40 drops of 100 % Grapefruit essential oil (You can use what you like. all Citrus oils are good. The big no no's are Lavender and Tea Tree). Essential oils not only smell good, but have another purpose. They are antiseptic. Update: I have been told mint blocks progesterone. Just FYI. I was also told to not use Patchouli oil. Ug. But do not worry if you are not suffering from an estrogen dominant disease.

A note up front. You can use 6 1/2 ounces of any high melting point butters/oils that are firm and not normally in a liquid state for this recipe. You can also use any of the other  6 oz. of oil that is normally in a liquid state for this to. To be xeno and phyto estrogen free do not use oils of Safflower, Canola, Cotton seed, and Sunflower. There is also concern for Flax and Soy oil to.

How to make this. Take a glass or stainless steel bowl that will fit over one of your pots. Put a few inches of water in that pot. Then place the bowl on top. Bring the water to a boil and then down to simmer. Put the oils/ butters in and let melt. when melted, take the bowl off the pot and place on the counter. Let cool for about 20 minutes.

Now add the Cornstarch, Vitamin E and the essential oil. Take a hand held mixer/blender. (If you do not have one. I highly recommend getting one of these cheap and wonderful gadgets. Between blending hot soups in the pot and making your own body lotions and creams to mixed drinks. It pays for itself quickly). So, take your hand held mixer/blender and mix. I would take breaks because mine was to hot and it took awhile to cool. Blend and possibly take breaks here and there leaving the blender in the bowl until it becomes thick. spoon into containers of choice.

My cream fit perfectly into a 16 ounces glass jar. I put the top on and let it finish firming up now that it was whipped into a nice mayonnaise state.

It firmed up nice. I gave it to my husband and he loved it. I love it to. He said it looked like mayo, but felt like soft butter. Very pleased with my new product. Hope you will be to.

Update: My husband liked this so much he wants me to make it in baches for him every month from now on. Got my oils from http://www.soapdoods.com and essential oils from http://www.SFherb.com and my vitamin E from walmart or you can get it from http://www.walmat.com . I use spring valley. Organic coconut oil from http://www.swansonvitsmins.com/ I will have to buy the liquid vitamin E now that I will be making this more often.

Henna Hair dye recipe

This is my new hair dye. Xeno and phyto estrogen free.

I got this recipe from Hennaforhair.com

100 grams fresh Henna powder (I got mine from SFHerb.com)
500 ml. liquid (17 ounces). Half acidic/lemon juice, bottled works. The other half, use water that has been boiled.
2 grams powder pectin (0.8 oz.) Optional.

Mix the acidic juice (any citrus juice will work) and Henna powder. Note: The citrus is what helps the Henna bond and last on your hair.

Start adding the boiled water slowly a little at a time. I added 1/4 cup at a time.

 I added juice of a lime since I used bottled lemon. For extra acidity.

Finished mixing all of the boiled water in.

Now add the pectin. Mix in. The pectin helps this goop spread onto and into your hair better.

Now to the bathroom. wear some disposable gloves because it is going to get messy. Please ignore the vitamins and prescription iron pills. ; )

Make soure you wear a towel around you or something that is not new. Or just strip down to your birthday suit or undies. Take a spatula and spread the mixture all over your hair.

I moved this to the bathtub. Very messy.

When done put your hair up high in a bunch. Take off the gloves and throw them away. You want to let this stuff sit in your hair for about 30 minutes. This gives you some time to clean up the bathroom a bit.

My goopy Henna'd hair.

Spatula stained. It will wash out over time. Safe and non toxic Henna.

Now that you are ready to wash this stuff out. Get into a shower or bathtub and rinse as much of it out as you can.You will not be able to get it all out in this rinsing. wait 24 hour to wash your hair. As your hair dries you can brush more of the grainy parts out. So, brush your hair in/over the sink, shower or bathtub. It is more messy, but will clean up easy with wash cloth or vacuum.

I did not notice the Henna conditioning my hair like some say. I can say that it did dye my hair including the grays as a lighter shade. It has lasted almost a month now and I am ready to do this all over again.


Update: I find that since I have many grays and my hair can start to grow faster than I can make time to Henna, I have found a short cut. I have started to spray the front and top of my roots with Sun In. Let it bleach out my greys for a fews days or week, to blend and look a little better. Then when I have the time, I Henna my hair. I think the small amount of Peroxide in the Sun in is harmless and the extra ingredients are not bad enough for my concern of permanent issues. It is cheap and convenient.

In the end. I continue to do crazy things to my hair and stopped using the Sun in. Probably not the non toxic as I was wanting. But on the other hand I have read and tried a new way to rinse out the Henna. When you are ready to rinse the Henna out. Fill a bath tub up with water and get in. Put your hair in the water and swish it around. Then drain the tub and rinse with a large cup or in a shower. you can add conditioner to your hair and leave it in a few minutes and then rinse your hair in the tub or shower. This helps gets the a lot of the granules out.

I have not found adding conditioner right after doing my hair with Henna to cause a problem with color or lasting. I have not had a problem washing my hair to soon either and Yes, You can totaly leave the Henna on your hair for much longer. Like 2-4 hours or more. It is just about the time you have on hand. I have also used 2 year old/from purchased Henna and have it work just fine. Good luck.