Face care: Oatmeal & Almond scrub

Well, if you know me I'm sure you saw this one coming. Having shamelessly tomboyed my way through the phase of my "girlyness" where you obsess about everything facial & beauty related I've just started to find some fun in making my own products in the kitchen. It would stand to reason if you're an aspiring cook with lots of ingredients in the kitchen that you'll find a lot of good ways to bash & mash things up to benefit your skin. Plus there's something very generic to making something from scratch that's useful & beautifying. So I may post more of these if you like or I may just get lost into my very own giant pile of dirty dishes and forget I have a face at all.

In any case I'm itching to share it, so here's how we roll. If you don't have a mortar & pestle like this (got it at Ikea) you can always use the Japanese type or blender even? Grab a tbsp or 2 of oatmeal & a few almonds. Bash it all up. If you want a face scrub leave it a little more coarse, if you want a face mask keep grinding it till it's powdery.

Now here' the part where you can add your liquid. I usually use milk but when my skin is really dry I use EV olive oil or grapeseed oil. Pour the liquid slowly cuz' it goes from goopy spread to runny difficult to use mess pretty quickly. If I u do add too much liquid & don't want to bother mashing up anymore oats, u can do what I always do & add sugar to thicken it up again.

So there you go. Wet your face & either use it as a scrub or leave on your face for a5-10 min as a mask. If you're using a mask console your children that you do not indeed have leprosy. Rinse off & finish your face off with some toner & moisturizer. You'll see that you're skin will be ridiculously soft & good looking.

And if you have any left over...don't forget to grab yourself an unsuspecting husband or wandering neighbor on the street & treat them to a good facial exfoliater. You may not want to exfoliate more than 2 times a week (of course it depends on your skin type) but too much of a good thing can leave you with skin stripped of natural oils and looking dull & dry. Ewww! Grosso!

So that's it for today, lovely followers. Hope you're making your "last soups" of the season before spring comes around.

SOUP STOCK!!

It's true....I'm big on soups. There's no denying. Though I only have roughly 5 soup recipes, I sure do love each one of them. I've come to realize that one major aspect of soup making that I've come to respect greatly and consider to be ESSENTIAL to a good soup is SOUP STOCK!!

Believe it or not my modern friendly followers, stock making consists of more than simply dropping a cube of bullion into a pot of boiling water. For shame! Of course I'm dreadfully guilty of doing this! But the difference between using bullion or even canned broth is equivalent of using margarine instead of butter, powdered milk instead of fresh or, God Forbid, freeze-dried mashed potato flakes instead of doing it yourself. EWWWWWWW!!!

If you're a long-time reader you might remember my midevial chicken salad in which I made a fantastic stock to to boil down 2 whole chickens & then soak them in a citrus & spiced vinaigrette for a day to make an unbelievable chicken salad. I agree those were rather elaborate preparations for a chicken salad that I only got to nibble on, but I felt like a winner taking home roughly a gallon of superb chicken stock. So, lets talk about the basics of soup stocks.

Basically what you're looking for is a base to build the rest of your soup flavors on. And for the most part using chicken in your stock is a pretty safe flavor for any soup including heavier stews if you're inclined. Or if you're a vegan then you can even make yourself a veggie broth easily too.

Now I'm not even sure why I'm making a whole post out of this because it's so straightforward. Basically you want a chicken carcass or bones (easy way to make use of whole turkey/chicken left overs). Here in Japan they sell for fairly cheaply a carved out chicken for roughly 100Y more or less. You might also be able to find chicken wing tips cheaply which are really good to use too. Basically you want BONE if you want to make a good chicken stock.

Next you're gonna add veggies. Some of the basics you want to add are onion, carrot, celery. Garlic, of course; but go easy on garlic cuz' you don't want to overpower it. Chop everything roughly.
So for a 6 qt pot full I'd add about:
- 2 onions
- 3-4 carrots
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 3-4 sticks of celery (leaves & all)

Now if you're making a vegetable broth you can really rock out with the vegetables & you'll want to use a LOT because the flavors are much more soft & subtle in flavor than chicken. Carrots give your stock a sweet flavor so be sure to add them. Soup stock is a great way to use older veggies that you wouldn't want to put upfront but they still have some "life" left. Don't be afraid to use negi too, the "Japanese" taste blends away into the stock nicely.

Of course you need to add spices too:

- about 10-20 whole black peppercorns
- 3-4 bay leaves
- if you have fresh herbs you can get real groovy & make a little bouquet de garni & tie it all up with some string to keep the bits & peices from falling off. I use about 6 or 7 sprigs of each herb. Herbs like: thyme, rosemary, Italian parsley, & oregano are standard. Fresh basil will go better if you add it at the very end of your simmering as if you put it in at the beginning you'll loose a lot of the flavor.
- If you're using dried herbs go easy as they can be overpowering. A tsp. here & there.

And then we'll just bring it to a boil & let it simmer covered for about 2-3 hours.

A few little extra tricks I like to do are:

- adding white wine (about 1 c or so)
- if you have any Parmesan rind (you know, the hard part that only guests who've drunk too much will attempt to eat from your fridge). Drop a slice in. I think that adds and incredibly romantic aroma to the stock & the times I've gotten rave reviews for a soup (yes, it has happened) have been when I added a Parmesan rind.
- I like to add salt at the end and not too much roughly (and I'm just estimating here) 1 1/2 tsp. I'd flavor it later when I'm making the actual soup.

So of course to finish up, after it's cooled off you'll need to strain it & store it. I save old ice-cream containers or sturdy zip-lock bags. (beware of curious kids who walk around your house with a tack to see "what will happen" when you stab holes in chairs, floaties & zip-lock bags full of your precious soup stock)

What you do with it after that is up to you of course. I've taken to making totally random soups with no rhyme or reason. But the good thing about stock is as long as you have a good BASE you can build your flavors on top of it as simply or complex as you like & you'll have good results.

Case in point. The soup on at the top of the post is one I made for lunch the other day (apparently a lunch a long time ago in my old kitchen, sniff). Chicken Broth, left over roasted red paprika from last night's dinner, left over broken lasagna noodles that I couldn't use for anything else, sugar peas, sliced cabbage, chives, whipped eggs, fresh Italian parsley & olive oil.

Well......that ended up being a long one. Of course the soup stock is just what I do! I'm sure some of you genius' probably have great tips & tricks of which I'd love to hear. Leave any good ideas in the comments, OK??

Ever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth! Catch you soon.

Tried & True Tips for Turkey Time

I get a fair amount of phone calls every year around Christmas time. My first thought is, "Aww, how sweet, Christmas made you all sentimental & you thought of me?".

Nice try!

"What is this paper bag doing in the turkey?" or"How do you make the nog in the egg?" As much as I love to hear from you I'm probably going to be simultaneously policing Christmas Tree vandalism & cookie snatchers. So after giving it no thought whatsoever I've decided to review the basics of turkey making for you. It's something you do so infrequently that you're bound to practically forget each year anyway. If you call me anyway, I'll probably direct you here. Let's get on with it then:

1# To brine or not to brine: I personally am sold on brining, thanks to my bro-in-law, & will never go back I would encourage you to try it too, it's not that difficult. Here's where you can find the basics on Brining your turkey, recipes are many & varied but will involve lots of SALT & a sweetener like sugar/molasses/honey/maple syrup etc... & herbs/spices. Here are some ideas of brine recipes, I'm sure there are a lot more out there, but these are pretty basic with fairly common ingredients. Come on now, you can do it!

2# Timing the turkey: Once you've decided on that you need to plan the timing of your cooking. WORK YOU WAY BACKWARDS! Find your dinner time, and go back from there. Here are the approximate cooking times for stuffed & unstuffed turkeys:

You need to give yourself time for the following things:

- Defrosting your turkey (Here's a chart for that too) Remember cold bath thawing is quicker than refrigerator thawing but you'll have to be faithful to change the water every 1/2 hr.
- Brining (if you choose to) Brining time takes 1 hr for each lb. (easy to remember) Convert your kgs to lbs & you got the time. (roughly it will take btw 9-15 hrs, give or take)
- Preparing your turkey for baking
- Baking
- Covering & setting with foil for 10 min or so (makes it more moist & makes cutting easier)

So grab a pencil & do your math. Here's an example of your cooking schedule for a 12 lb (5.44kgs) brined & stuffed turkey: (remember cooking time is longer with a stuffed turkey)

Day of dinner
6:00pm Dinner time:
5:45pm Enough time to let it sit for 10 min before carving
12:45pm Turkey in the oven (about 4 1/2 - 5 hrs cooking time, go with the longer cooking time to be on the safe side, nothing like keeping dinner waiting.
11:45am Preparing for baking (1 hr) Turkey washed, dried, stuffed & buttered etc...

Day before
11:45pm Start brining (14 hrs)
11:15pm Preparing turkey for brining, (1/2 hr) pulling out giblets, taking off plastic or wire clip etc... freaking out etc..)
4:00pm defrosting in a cold bath (7 hrs) and make brining solution (it needs enough time to cool off completely after heating)

Once you have your Turkey schedule, guard it with your life. There's nothing like having to re figure the whole thing when you're stirring, whisking & burning Christmas dinner.

3# Preparing: Before we talk about what to do to prepare, A few items that you want to have on hand (I always forget to have prepared until it's too late) DON'T BE CAUGHT UNPREPARED!

- 100g. (1 stick, 1/2 c) butter (BUTTER, not Margarine)
- PAPER TOWELS
- TWINE. (if you want to tie the legs)
- Tin foil for covering during & after baking

Whether you brine or not you'll have to prepare your turkey for baking by pulling the paper sack with the giblets, & liver & the neck. DON'T toss it but save it for turkey stock for the gravy. Fry them in a little oil & put them in 2 l. of boiling water, simmer for about 1 1/2 hrs. (This also will freak out your house hold who will insist that they need to eat Christmas dinner NOW, at 9 in the morning)

As for that annoying leg holder plastic thingie, I always forget how to do that but usually figure it out in a fit of frustration which usually ends with me half in the sink pleading, "Just give it up, already." Good luck with that!

Rinse off the turkey with cold water (rinse extra well if you used brine) Wipe off the outside & inside with a lot of paper towels. Go for it, use them all!! Don't forget to take silly pics of you peering into the gaping cavity of your turkey like a skilled & deranged surgeon.

Even if you do not want to make a "rub" for the turkey (usually made of olive oil or butter & spices, NEVER EVER USE SALT) you can very simply grab 1/4 a c of butter (1/2 a stick) nuke it for a few secs then rub it ALL over the turkey.

Another uper groovy trick I learned is to slice of 4-6 thin (1 cm) slices of butter & using a chopstick or butter knife, slip it under the breast of the skin. Push it pretty far back. 2 or 3 slices on each breast. Ooooh la la!

Stuff the turkey, if you want. Personally I learned from my good friend Niki that stuffing it with sliced whole orange, apple, onion, & bouquet of rosemary, bay leaves & thyme (use the twine)gives it great flavor & your stuffing is left looking a lot less stuffed. Suit yourself!

Nows the time to tie the legs if you like. (Cooking time is longer with the legs tied, & some say the turkey is less moist) but ascetically it looks nicer of course. I'm not particular either way.

#4 Baking: Now is the blessed time to bake, oven should be preheated at 175c (350f)

You'd be hard pressed to find a turkey baking pan in Japan but if you have one more power to you. At the very least put it on a wire rack so the drippings can drip down onto the baking tray underneath. Another tip for a golden crust: After the 1st half hour of baking (or when it's starting to brown) melt another 2--3 tbsp of butter & baste or brush the entire turkey. You'll want to continue basting the turkey with it's own drippings every hour or so.

About 1/2 way into the cooking you'll notice that the skins getting pretty golden looking so you can use heavy foil to cover it. Pretty tricky to get it covered but you'll want to do a good job or you'll have some darker spots. Also as much hasle as it is continue to baste the turkey (probably only 1 or 2 times more) till it's done. Keep it from drying out.

5# Setting: And if you have a "pop-up" button you'll know when it's done. I don't have a meat thermometer so I don't know all the specs on that. Plus this post is turning into a major epistle. Take it out, move it to your serving platter (channel the strength of Samson) and cover with foil for about 10 minutes. DO NOT THROW OUT YOUR DRIPPINGS (That oily burnt goop on you baking tray)

6# Gravy: I'd love to go into the gravy "thing" but instead I'll direct you here for a pretty thorough pictorial review. Not to mention you'll want to dive through your computer screen to get a piece of her kitchen. At least I do. IMPORTANT NOTE: if you've brined your turkey the drippings will be salty so you won't need to add very much salt at all to your gravy. Proceed with caution.

And that's it folks, if you've made it this far, you're obviously a real foodie fan or you're terribly bored but either way I love love love you!

Happy Holidays.

A Few Random Cooking Tips for Your Viewing Pleasure!

Simple but deadly snackie to make with cold unappetizing LO french toast: Cut into strips, deep fry & toss in brown sugar & cinnamon. (Don't try it!....I mean it!!)

Too lazy to cut your biscuits or don't have a biscuit cutter, cutting them into wedges or squares is rustic & ridiculously cool looking.

Give the kids something to do by having them roll out Focaccia dough to make bread sticks. (after the 1st rising). Brush w/ Olive oil, sprinkle w/ herbs or seeds. Bake for 10 min (for soft) or 15 (for crusty) at 200c. Give permission for kids to play with their food because they will anyway.

Use a strainer to strain your cream of celery soup & you'll get a clear smoother textured soup. Ohhh...... baby!!

Will post something of worth when I get the time to take a shower & vacuum.