Not-a-Food Recipe: K2's Happy Hands Sugar Scrub

 

Every year my Girls Night Out (GNO) crew has a Summer Birthday Bash to celebrate all of our birthdays (three June babies, three July babies, no wonder we all get along so well).  And every year, I like to make homemade gifts, everyone gets the same thing only personalized to their individual tastes or personalities.

This year I decided to make sugar scrub.  There's a steak place down in Charleston we always go to for dessert when we're out and about in the market area and in their ladies room they always have a big bowl of sugar scrub.  Spoon a little out, rub it on your hands, rinse, pat dry...voila! baby soft skin.  It's WUNderful.

So I did a little research and found that you can make it yourself...and it's super easy!  The hardest part is tracking down essential oils, but once you have them it takes only minutes to throw a batch together.  Everyone seems to have their own variation on the recipe so I checked out a handful from here and there and came up with my own concoction formula.

K2's Happy Hands Sugar Scrub
Note -- this is NOT, repeat NOT an edible recipe, please don't eat it, no matter how tempting it is to try!

1-1/2 cups sugar (white, raw, and/or brown)
1/2 cup light olive oil
1/2 tsp. vitamin E oil
10-12 drops essential oil
1/2 tsp. dried herbs or spices (optional)

Measure, mix, moosh together, package prettily...annnnnnd done.

Recipe fills two (2) 10 oz. jam jars.

NOTES 

K2H2S2 has a shelf-life of 2 months, so make it and use it right away.

You can buy vitamin E in liquid form, in some places you may find a lanolin/vitamin E blend.  I had a bottle of vitamin E capsules at home that I popped open and squeezed the oil out of (4 capsules = 1/2 tsp.).  Vitamin E is available anywhere you can buy over the counter vitamins.

You can find essential oils at some drug stores, grocery stores or specialty food shops.  Depending on where you go and what scent you choose, be prepared to pay between $3-$25 per bottle.  I found my sweet almond oil at Rite Aid for $3.19, and my lime and tangerine oils at Whole Foods for $4.99 and $5.99, respectively.

Here are some sugar/scent variations I made following the recipe above.

Tango Lime = white sugar + 6 drops lime essential oil + 6 drops tangerine essential oil

Sweet Almond = raw sugar + sweet almond oil

Cinnamon Brown Sugar = brown sugar + cinnamon + 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

You can use extract in lieu of essential oil, but because its alcohol-based, the scent won't linger like it does with essential oils and it will not have the same softening effect that the essential oil does.  If you do try it, I would use it sparingly.

For packaging, I went to Michael's and found my screw lid jars, but you can find the same at Walmart.  In fact, Walmart has some Ball wide mouth half-pint (8 oz.) mason jars with screw on lids which are perfect packaging for the sugar scrub. I also found some plastic long-handled miniature spoons at Party City which are great for scooping out of the taller jars.  Or small coffee spoons would do the trick too.

Have fun experimenting!

"Kitty Nibbles" Doggie Treats

For all you dog lovers out there, here's a little something special for your puppy pals.

Since I was looking for something to do that was peanut-related and have enough canine connections to know that peanut butter is a dog's best friend, this made the most sense...plus it was fun to make and something new add to my culinary repertoire. 

"Kitty Nibbles" Doggie Treats

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Combine all the ingredients in a mixer until they form a globular dough mass.  If you have a Kitchen Aid mixer, use the paddle on medium speed, will only take a few minutes to bring it all together.

Dump the dough out onto a rolling mat and knead until it is smooth.

Then roll the dough out to a 1/4" thick sheet and use a cookie cutter to cut out the treats.

You can re-roll the scraps several times until most of the dough is used.  I divided my dough into two halves because it was easier to roll it out into manageable sections.

Place the treats on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Remove cookie sheet from oven, and let sit for a few minutes before moving the treats to a cooling rack.   

Cool to room temperature.  Then let the feeding frenzy begin.

Five out of five dogs agree, Kitty Nibbles rock!

NOTES

The dough will feel a little greasy and your hands will get a little slick because of the peanut butter in the mixture, but that's why you don't need to grease the cookie sheet and they treats will come off the sheet easily.

You can use any shape cutter you want.  I chose a kitty cutter because I thought it was funny.  I may be a cat person, but I'm a cat person with a twisted sense of humor.

I was able to get 20 3" cookies out of the batch.  Depending on what shape you use, you can probably get another dozen out of the recipe.

If you don't want to feed your puppy the whole batch, you can freeze the baked treats so that they will last longer.  How long they last outside the freezer is anyone's guess because the dogs ain't letting them stay out long enough for us to find out.

Quick-n-Easy Salted Chocolate Bark

Since chocolates with salt are a hot item in the food world these days, I thought I'd bring you a couple of quick-n-easy recipes to wow your friends with.  Please note, you are not required to share these with anyone, but it would be nice, just ask your mom.

Sea Salt and Pistachio Dark Chocolate Bark

1/2 cup chopped pistachios

12 oz bag dark chocolate candy melts

2 tsp sea salt

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and spread out the chopped pistachios in a squared layer on top.

Either in a double boiler or in a thick bottomed saucepan over low heat (setting 3), melt the chocolate until smooth.

Pour chocolate over the chopped pistachios and spread until covered.

Let sit for a minute or two before sprinkling the salt over the chocolate.

Put in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to set.  Break bark into bite-sized pieces and serve.

White Chocolate Bark with Roast Almonds and Himalayan Pink Salt

1/2 cup chopped roasted almonds

12 oz bag white chocolate candy melts

2 tsp Himalayan pink salt

Follow instructions as above.

NOTES

You can find high quality melting chocolates in the baking section of most craft stores like Michaels and AC Moore, but many grocery stores will carry them too.

You can also find 1/2 lb and 1 lb candy boxes at most craft stores as well.  Line one with wax paper and fill with bark pieces.  Tie up with a fetching ribbon and voila!  Instant homemade candy gift (your friends and recipients will be most impressed).

Variety REALLY is the Spice Mixture of life

Some people collect stamps, some people collect coins, after going through our spice cabinets, we found out that we were spice collectors. So, in keeping with the gifting theme, we thought it appropriate to share some ideas for spice gifting.

Does the person you’re giving a gift to enjoy baking? Give them a little kit of a pie pan, server, and homemade pie spice mix. To make it even more personal, attach your favorite pie recipe that uses the spice mixture.

Giving something as simple as a mug filled with mulling spices for wine or cider or even a cocoa with marshmallows and a bag of homemade cookies, can make for a quick and inexpensive gift. If you want to add to this, put in a book that you think the recipient would like, maybe add in a CD or a snuggie (come on, you know you want an excuse to buy one!)

If you want to give a variety of spices, and aren’t sure how to highlight each, create your own spice rack with some of your favorite mixtures. We went to the dollar store and found some spice jars, and used a silverware organizing basket as our rack. We filled each of these with homemade mixtures. A Cajun spice mix, an Italian spice blend, a BBQ spice, and of course the pie spice mixture. If you’re pressed for time, and don’t want to create your own spice mixtures you can take the store bought mixtures and put them into the nice jars in the rack. Make sure you label each jar with what spice mixture they contain.

There are ways to customize even further. Add in a few recipes, or include a small recipe box/book with recipes that use the spice mixtures that you have prepared. Find out your recipients favorite cuisine and create an entire spice rack that correlates to that cuisine.

If you’re planning on doing a larger number of racks, a great place to find spices is at one of those large warehouse stores. Membership is normally required, but some will give you a free one day trial membership. If you DO plan on making the spice mixtures yourself, try to locate a store with bulk spices (many co-ops, as well as whole foods and fresh markets carry bulk spices, as do online stores, such as penzys.com). We find that you get a much better bang for your buck with these spices.

So, now you’re completely excited to start making your spice mixtures right? Below are just a couple of the links we used to find recipes.

http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blspice32.htm
http://www.budget101.com/seasoning_mixes.htm
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/emerils-creole-seasoning-essence-recipe3/index.html

In vino veritas

We’re starting off our Food Gifting marathon with wine. Now we don’t claim to be wine experts by any stretch of the imagination –- Wendi doesn’t drink wine and K2’s more a “ooh, look a pretty bottle” connoisseur –- so actual recommendations we’ll leave to the experts, BUT we will give you ideas on how to make a Wow presentation with your gift!

We look at wine gifting as a chance to expose friends to new wines that they might not have chosen for themselves otherwise. So, to that end, our rule of thumb is that if you don’t know how it tastes, go with how it looks. (If you’re not that brave and want your wine-drinking friends to ask you back, we would suggest asking someone who knows.)

“Simply” Elegant

If you want a near-to-no brainer gift, pick out your wine gift bag first then find a wine to match it! There are so many cool labels and bottle shapes out there that it should be easy to do. It’s subtle, but if you find a bag, bottle, and tissue that has a theme it’s going to make your gift look well put-together and it will register on some level that this is more than just a grab-and-go gift.





A Little Something Extra

Don’t send your wine out on its own! Add a little something extra to tag along with it -- like chocolate, a nice corkscrew, fancy nuts, or some cute coasters. There are lots of little things you can find that will make a nice companion for your vino. Check out the dollar bins at your local craft store or hit a dollar store to see what you can find.





A Trisket A Trasket

Gift baskets are fun to put together, though honestly it’s not always the less expensive route to go. But when cost is not really an issue, what we like about doing it ourselves is that it can be personalized to suit your "giftee's" tastes or used as an opportunity to show off your artistic and/or culinary talents.

This basket has two half-bottles of wine, three sample-size cheeses and a variety of homemade crackers – cracked pepper, sesame, and plain. With smaller items you can get a wider variety of goodies in it. You may already have a favorite cracker recipe, but if not, this is the one we use and just add our own spice variety to it, http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/breads/07/rec0708.html.




For more of a splash, we picked a red color scheme for this festive bucket. The shiny star spray and red fill (both from the Dollar Store) picks up the shininess of the metal bucket. Then for the gift we have a bottle of red, some fancy crackers, a wheel of brie and a matching red bottle opener (sorry not really visible, see "stuff" photo above).



The Right Stuff

For baskets, buckets, and other containers, we recommend you check not only craft stores, but hardware stores or shops like Ross or TJ Maxx where you can find unusual items at discount prices. Thrift shops is another place to find baskets or unusual containers. Fills, bows, and funky ribbons can be found inexpensively at dollar stores, fabric shops, or craft shops.

Most grocery stores these days have a pretty decent selection of wines and there are any number of wine warehouses around too, but if you’re in the market for great wine at great prices you should check out the smaller specialty stores. In fact, we have a family & friend favorite to recommend for those of you who are local, Wine Authorities in Durham (check out our “Check It Out” post for their web link).

We hope this will give you some things to think about and get those creative juices flowing!