It is that time of year again – both for those delicious fresh strawberries and time to express your patriotism by celebrating all things red, white and blue for 4th of July and Memorial Day. Here is a simple way to dress your strawberries up and it will make your next get together more festive. Simple dip strawberries into melted white chocolate or melting chocolate and dip end in a mix of red and blue sprinkles. They even have sprinkle with little stars that come as blue and red.
Sea salt is kind of pretentious because it’s better than all other salts. If salts were fonts, sea salt would be Helvetica and table salt would be Old English (can you say douchebag?). There isn’t much of a difference, but sea salt is a more natural substance that comes from the sea (duh) rather than the ground, with minimal processing before it hits store shelves. It is made of bigger chunks, meaning it tastes better (and you can use less) and is great for non-food uses, such as cleaning and beauty. Not only do I sprinkle sea salt on baked goods, but I’ve also used it to clean my oven and added it to a homemade body scrub.
Here are my top 20 uses for sea salt.
1. Calm psoriasis and skin inflammation in a sea salt bath or body scrub.
2. After a workout, add to a warm bath to soothe muscles and aches.
3. Add to a facial or skin scrub to slough away dead skin and improve its tone.
4. Sprinkle on baked goods (brownie bites or any other chocolate dessert are a fave) for a light contrast of sweet and salty flavors.
5. Sprinkle on thick meat filets to enhance the flavor and absorption of your marinade.
6. Sprinkle on sliced cucumbers for a fresh, crunchy summer snack. Then dip them in ranch dressing, duh!
7. Add to water when making hardboiled eggs to make them easier to peel (although I prefer the oven method, this still works great).
8. Mix with cinnamon for an easy, natural oven cleaning scrub.
9. Mix with soda water for a refrigerator cleaner.
10. Mix with turpentine for a bathroom and shower cleaner.
11. Relieve a sore throat by gargling sea salt with warm water.
12. Heal fresh body piercings with a warm water and sea salt solution.
13. Fade bruises by soaking a washcloth in a sea salt and warm water solution and applying it to the bruise for a minute or two.
14. Remove blood, red wine, and perspiration stains on clothes by scrubbing with sea salt and hot water.
15. Whiten your clothes by boiling them in water, baking soda, and sea salt for an hour. Follow up by washing them as normal.
16. Brighten your teeth by brushing them with one part sea salt and 2 parts baking soda.
17. Alleviate the pain of a bug bite or sting by soaking it in a warm water and sea salt solution.
18. Rinse your sinus cavities with sea salt and warm water in a Neti Pot.
19. Add one eighth of a teaspoon of a sea salt to a glass of water on really hot days to decrease dehydration.
20. Volumize your hair by mixing one part hair conditioner with one part sea salt, coating your strands with it, leaving it on for 20 minutes, and rinsing.
What a completely elegant way to serve strawberries or some other goodies to a special someone or at an elegant party. Take a solid bowl (glass or metal because plastic bowls will tend to shift and can crack chocolate) and use thin foil to cover the outside of the bowl. Melt chocolate or candy melt/almond bark and keep drizzling over foil to create a nesting look. Make sure to get enough so it will be strong and don’t forget to get the ridges of the bowl and the bottom.You can do a two-tone effect of white chocolate/dark chocolate or three if you added a medium colored chocolate. DO NOT FREEZE as this will make the chocolate very brittle. Air dry the chocolate at least eight hours. Gently turn bottom of your new bowl so it is sitting on its bottom. Pull foil away from glass/metal bowl and then remove glass/metal bowl. Then gently pull away from your chocolate bowl. Slight breaks can be fixed with some patching (melt chocolate and hold a piece of foil on the underside of your chocolate bowl and drizzle to repair and hold for a few minutes. Let dry completely before you pull foil away. Your new bowl is ready – would make a great way to serve Mom or Dad a breakfast of fresh strawberries for Mother’s / Father’s Day. For Diabetic’s use sugar free chocolate and if you want to lower calories the rule of the darker the chocolate is the better.
When you use contents of baby food jar clean completely and dry. Paint the lids with two layers of chalkboard paint. Now you can use a top drawer and have your spices more easily available to you. Don’t stop at spices – what about all of your findings, sewing notions etc.? Would be great for your excess office supplies too like paper clips, rubber bands, staples.
Mix a clear white paint with fabric dye/food coloring until you get desired color. Paint the outside of the glass and let dry. You should have a nice color and you can seal that with varnish or polyurethane to prevent it from peeling. Use to store food products (stored in zip lock bags) in the kitchen, craft items, office supplies in the office, seeds for your garden etc. Do not use these by directly putting food inside of them for your protection. You could paint the bottoms one color and when dry paint the tops another color letting them drip down. I think this being done to a larger size container could be used as a centerpiece for a wedding since you could color co-ordinate them with different color schemes. You can do this with recycled items or it would really bring a dollar store vase up a notch… and don’t stop at glass – you can do this same process with plastic.
Country & Victorian Times 