Friday, April 3, 2015

Coffee and Chai Energizing Eye Mask

I tried another freeman facial mask that I received as samples to test this morning.  I decided to try the energizing coffee and chai eye mask to see if it work any different than my original routine of Clinique All About Eyes Rich. 

It definitely made my eye area tingle once the mask had been on a few minutes.  

I did not notice a major difference but my main issue is the darkness.  It would make a fun spa night party activity for teens or moms needing some TLC!

#FeelingBeautifulIn5  #Influenster  #FreemanVoxBox





Sunday, March 22, 2015

Freeman Charcoal and Black Sugar Polishing Mask

I recently received my Freeman VoxBox from Influenster with complimentary samples of  face masks to try.  So far I have only tried the charcoal and black sugar.  The mask is a nice texture and the sample provides plenty of mask but the perfume fragrance is overwhelmingly strong.  I get migraines and it gave me a headache due to the lingering smell on my face and  hands.  I really wish fragrances were not added to these products.  I can only tolerate certain scents but prefer to use mainly unscented natural or organic products.  I was excited to try Freeman's facial masks, but now I'm concerned the rest may have the same strong fragrance.  I will just have to test them on a day when I don't feel a headache coming on.  

#FeelingBeautifulin5   #Influenster

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Self-Destructing Washing Machine

I have a King sized  Allerease allergen mattress pad that had been washed many times in my parents high capacity Samsung 4.0 washer without any issues.  Its a little bit thicker than a typical mattress pad so it's always washed alone.  Well the washer totally went off the deep end last Saturday.  It had been previously serviced under warranty for a pump that needed attached somewhere else (flooded the laundry room that time since it was during a rinse cycle).  
Anyway it went all the way through the whole process and with 11 minutes left and with no warning/error notice or shutoff, my mom who was in the kitchen cleaning, saw it lift up and twist apart.  Funny thing is that the mattress pad was still balanced in the washer even though the  drum was ripped off the frame.   I have heard of them "walking" if they were off balance but never heard of anything like this.  Neither did the manufacturer or the repair service company that does warranty services for Lowe's.
  According to the repairman he thinks the shocks to the washer malfunctioned and that's what caused it to malfunction.   We are just lucky it did not harm anyone in the process!   The washing machine was just purchased in 2012 and had a 5 year warranty purchased with it, so that was the upside to the whole ordeal.  Funny thing is the repairman did not recommend one brand over the other he just recommended an extended warranty service because $109 bucks for 5 years is much better than $400 plus to replace a washer that suddenly busted.
Below are some pictures of the washer, since a washer tearing apart is not that common.



First Look 

Lifting The Lid


More Damage


Front View Of Damage


Plastics Dispensers And Parts Everywhere Inside


Inside


Overview Front Lid Open


Empty With Just Water and Screws That Tore Out.


Thursday, January 15, 2015

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Ever Since I saw Sally's Baking Addiction's Blog Post on Facebook I was thinking about making this pizza.  Last Saturday I finally got my chance to make it! She has tons of step by step pictures for making the pizza, and a ton of other great recipes.  Just click on the link above to check out her blog.

I made some modification to the recipe and dough prep since I do not have a stand mixer.  I seriously need one my two hand mixers are on their way out.

Yield:  2 Deep Dish 9'' round (probably could do a square if you want)

Total: 4 1/2 hours-5 hours (with rise times)

Ingredients:

Pizza Crust (2 crusts)

  • 3 and 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
  • 1/2 cup cornmeal (I had white on hand use yellow or white)
  • 1 and  1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 TBS granulated sugar
  • 2 and 1/4 tsp yeast
  • 1 and 1/4 cups slightly warm water
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, divided (1/4 cup melted, 1/4 softened)
  • olive oil for coating
Tomato Sauce for Both Pizzas
  • 2 TBS unsalted butter
  • 1/4-1/3 cup onion (I did some red and white onion) *may want to reduce depending on taste preference)
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 3/4 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes (optional) (original recipe reduced to 1/2 tsp) 
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced (I added about 4.5 garlic gloves minced)
  • one can of 28 ounce crushed tomatoes
  • 1/2 tsp dried basil or 1 tsp of fresh basil (unless you get flavored tomatoes) 
  • 1/4 tsp granulated sugar
Toppings for Both Pizzas
  • 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I used about 3.5 cups shredded fresh mozzarella and about 1/2 cup finely shredded regular mozzarella cheese)1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 
  • Optional toppings: I  used pepperoni, bacon and mushroom slices.  Any cooked toppings such as sausage, vegetables or fruits could be added if you like.

My directions are the condensed version of my steps/basic directions, if you need more instructions please check out Sally's blog for the full directions and step-by-step photos.

 Sauce cooking
 Fresh Mozzarella shredded before I added regular 
 Love to buy the double logs of fresh mozzarella at Sam's Club
 Dough working in breadmaker beyond the steam
 Greased up dough ball ready for oven
 Ready to Roll out on a floured surface
 Ready for its butter bath
 Buttered now time to roll up the short side
 Nice buttered layers 
 Chop the buttered layered log in two
 Form the two halves of the logs into balls and place in greased bowl place in refrigerator to rise for 1 hour

Ready to roll out dough ball #1


 Crust number one rolled out
 Crust number #1 transporting to pan
 Crust #1
 Crust #2 Repeat steps to move crust and trim excess crust


 Pizza crusts with excess trimmed
 Building the Pizza: Cheese
  Building the Pizza: Cheese
  Building the Pizza: Bacon, Mushrooms
  Building the Pizza: Bacon, Mushrooms
  Building the Pizza: More Cheese
  Building the Pizza: More Cheese
  Building the Pizza: Pepperoni and more Cheese
  Building the Pizza: Pepperoni and more Cheese
  Building the Pizza: Parmesan Cheese
 Building the Pizza: Parmesan Cheese

 Building the Pizza: Sauce

  Building the Pizza: Sauce
 Cooked and Ready to Eat!
 Yum!
 Its worth the work!
 Are you drooling over the pictures yet? 
Yum! Got to love Chicago Style Pizza and Fresh Mozzarella cheese!


Directions

  1. Make sure you have two 9 inch by 2 inch deep dish round cake pans if you plan to make both pizzas at the same time.  (You can freeze the dough for later if you only want to make one)
  2. For the crust you are going to all your dry ingredients in your bread maker or large bowl. Then you will need to use the dough hook to your stand mixer or mixer with dough hooks. 
  3. I used my bread maker to prepare the dough.  Same principle add dry ingredients (except yeast), mix them up a little, add warm water (heated to 90 degrees F) and melted butter.  Make sure butter is not to hot ( I temped both to make sure, otherwise it will kill your yeast).  In the bread maker make a well in the dry ingredients to  put the yeast, add the liquid ingredients.  (yeast should NEVER come in contact with liquids in bread maker.)  Use Dough setting on bread maker and let the dough mix until it forms a uniform dough ball that easily removes from the bread maker (approx 5-6 minutes may vary by brand)
  4. IF Using a Mixer: Mix the ingredients together with a mixer until dough is formed together and pulls together and fulls off the dough hook.   (approx 5-6min)
  5. Remove the dough from either the bread maker OR the mixing bowl.
  6. Grease a large bowl with Olive Oil or Grape Seed Oil (my favorite)
  7. Place your dough ball inside this bowl and make sure its coated in oil.
  8. Cover bowl with aluminum foil.
  9. Allow bowl of dough to rise in a WARM environment for 1-2 hours or until its DOUBLE in size.   Ideal environment: preheat oven to 300 degrees F, put bowl with dough in once it oven temperature decreases to 250 degrees F.
  10. Close the bowl in the warm oven and allow the dough to rise. (1-2 hours or until DOUBLE in size)
  11. Once the dough is doubled in size, flour your work surface and remove your dough from the bowl.  Keep your bowl and aluminum foil for use later.  
  12. Punch down the dough gently, to remove an air bubbles.  Then roll the dough out into a large rectangle about 15 x12'' in size.
  13. Rub the 1/4 cup of softened butter on top of  the dough until it is evenly spread across it.  
  14. Then roll up the shortest side into a log.
  15. Cut that log in half.  Form those two logs into balls and place back into the greased bowl that was set aside earlier.  
  16. Cover with the aluminum foil and put in the refrigerator to rise for 1 hour.  
  17. For the Sauce:  Melt butter in a saucepan, add grated onion, salt, oregano, basil and red pepper flakes.  Once the onion starts browning, add the garlic, tomatoes and sugar.  Simmer on low until the sauce has thickened.
  18. Preheat Oven to 425 degrees F.
  19. Assemble the Pizza:  Dough balls should come out out of the refrigerator puffy.  Leave one dough ball in the fridge while you roll out the first ball.  Roll out the dough ball on a lightly floured surface till its 12'' round.  Place over the deep dish cake pan using your rolling pin to move the dough over to the pan.
  20. Trim off excess dough off edges with a knife or cooking shears.  Repeat process if making both pizzas.  Brush the edges of the dough with oil to give the crust a little shine.  Fill each pizza with about 2 cups of cheese, then your toppings, then your sauce (1 and 1/4 cups on each pizza approx depending on your sauce preference).  Then sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on each pizza about 1/4 cup on each pizza.
  21. Place pizzas on a baking sheet to prevent overflow. (Nothing did, could always put tinfoil in oven rack below also).  Bake 20-28  minutes or until crust is nice and golden brown.  It may be necessary to cover with tinfoil after 15 minutes to prevent over browning or uneven cooking (just keep an eye on them)  Cool pizzas on a wire rack for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
  22. Pizza can be stored up to a week in an airtight container and reheated in 15-20 minutes in a 300 degree F oven.


**I only cooked one pizza but prepared two whole pizzas and froze the second one. **  You could also just freeze the sauce separately (Can freeze up to 2 months).   Dough freezing instructions below.


****Freezing Dough*****
If you would like to freeze the dough:  Remove the dough from the warm rise, punch out the air gently, and freeze the dough without allowing the dough to go through the second rise in the refrigerator.  Freeze up to 2 months.  Dough will need to thaw overnight in the fridge and rise at room temperature for 1 hour before pizza can be assembled.  


Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Mexican Wedding Cookies/Russian Teacakes

My other favorite Christmas cookie is Mexican Wedding Cookies or Russian Teacakes.  The recipes are very similar so it probably depends on what your family calls them.  Another butter based cookie great with coffee!






I also got this recipe from Food.com

Prep:  15 min   Total Time:  45 min  Serves: 36, Yield: 3 dozen

Ingredients:


  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/4 cups sifted flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup cup nuts (walnuts or pecans)(or both)
  • Powdered sugar (for rolling baked cookies in)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Cream together the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.  Add Vanilla extract.
  3. Mix together flour and salt, gradually add to butter mixture.
  4. Stir in nuts.
  5. Form dough into 1 inch to 1-1/4 inch  balls and place onto parchment lined baking sheets.  
  6. Bake for 10-12 minutes or just until the cookies start to turn light golden brown.
  7. Remove from oven allow to cool slightly, roll in powdered sugar while still warm (but NOT hot) then cool on wire racks.
  8. Cookies can be rolled again when cooled in powdered sugar a second time once cooled to room temperature.
*1 inch balls will increase yield to 48 cookies*