10 most popular posts for the month of February
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Thursday, March 1, 2012
February 2012 statistics
Butter crock
I like to make Amish butter from time to time:
That is - buy the best and most natural heavy cream. Shake heavy cream till it becomes butter, strain, rinse with cold water, put curds together with spatula.
Otherwise I buy Kate's Homemade butter.
So, take the butter from the fridge and keep it at room temperature for half an hour... Never works this way.
Recently I used butter from butter bell crock at my friends' house and fell in love with the idea. The idea actually belongs to our grand-grands who lived without the fridge or electricity.
Below is a helpful review as how to use the crock. I found it on Amazon (Credit):
I make homemade butter from fresh raw (unpasteurized) milk and the butter bell keeps it fresh on my counter top. The butter bell works well in cooler months but when summer sets in, it is possible for the butter to slide into the water --butter is still good, just scoop it out of the water. In winter months, change the water every few days; in summer months, use very cold water and change it everyday. Use around 1.5" of salted tap water in your butter bell to make the seal. The purpose of the water is to seal the butter off so it will not oxidize as quickly. The purpose of the salt is to stop mold in the summer months. It sounds like a lot work but it doesn't take 10 seconds. For those of you who buy retail butter, it is pasteurized and usually salted so it keeps longer than homemade butter. In Summer, place your butter bell in the fridge after retiring for the evening. First thing in the morning, take it out for the day. In winter, if changing the water regularly your butter will stay fresh on the counter for several weeks; however, in summer, your butter will only stay fresh for a week. If using raw butter in the butter bell you can only leave it out for a week in winter and a few days in summer. You must wash your butter bell in hot water and soap when all butter has been used before putting in more butter or it might mold (especially if you don't use salt in your water). Again, it may seem like a lot of time spent but it is not once you do it a few times it only takes seconds.
Can't decide though whether I should buy Le Creuset or a plain one. 10 bucks vs. 30 bucks.
That is - buy the best and most natural heavy cream. Shake heavy cream till it becomes butter, strain, rinse with cold water, put curds together with spatula.
Otherwise I buy Kate's Homemade butter.
I like to spread my butter on bread by itself or to underline cheese, jam, honey, fish row...
You got it - I need to be able to spread it. So, take the butter from the fridge and keep it at room temperature for half an hour... Never works this way.
Recently I used butter from butter bell crock at my friends' house and fell in love with the idea. The idea actually belongs to our grand-grands who lived without the fridge or electricity.
Below is a helpful review as how to use the crock. I found it on Amazon (Credit):
I make homemade butter from fresh raw (unpasteurized) milk and the butter bell keeps it fresh on my counter top. The butter bell works well in cooler months but when summer sets in, it is possible for the butter to slide into the water --butter is still good, just scoop it out of the water. In winter months, change the water every few days; in summer months, use very cold water and change it everyday. Use around 1.5" of salted tap water in your butter bell to make the seal. The purpose of the water is to seal the butter off so it will not oxidize as quickly. The purpose of the salt is to stop mold in the summer months. It sounds like a lot work but it doesn't take 10 seconds. For those of you who buy retail butter, it is pasteurized and usually salted so it keeps longer than homemade butter. In Summer, place your butter bell in the fridge after retiring for the evening. First thing in the morning, take it out for the day. In winter, if changing the water regularly your butter will stay fresh on the counter for several weeks; however, in summer, your butter will only stay fresh for a week. If using raw butter in the butter bell you can only leave it out for a week in winter and a few days in summer. You must wash your butter bell in hot water and soap when all butter has been used before putting in more butter or it might mold (especially if you don't use salt in your water). Again, it may seem like a lot of time spent but it is not once you do it a few times it only takes seconds.
Can't decide though whether I should buy Le Creuset or a plain one. 10 bucks vs. 30 bucks.
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| Norpro Stoneware Butter Keeper (Amazon) |
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| Le Creuset Stoneware Butter Crock (Williams-Sonoma) |
Vegan cosmetics: castor oil Hot Mama Lip Gloss
We here, at The All Natural Face, care more about our customers than we do the bottom line. Our mission is to provide you with truly pure cosmetics. We use the purest form available for each ingredient in our products. We use organic whenever possible...but do not throw around words for sales like a lot of companies do. The word Vegan is used on tons of products. All that really means is that it doesn’t contain animal products. If you are striving for purely vegan products please read the labels carefully. Just because it is vegan does not mean they can’t put chemicals in there…just not those derived from animal sources.
For all you vegans out there….did you know that carmine is ground up African cockroaches!? Love that tube of bright red lipstick? Read the label. If it contains carmine….that is what you are ingesting. To bring that a little more into the light….the average woman ingests 6-10 lbs of lipstick over their lifetime.
We then formulate from there, making stuff from its purest, simplest forms... We then test it on human guinea pigs…no animal testing here! Our products and raw materials are not tested on animals...
Many people have converted from Bare Minerals, Everyday Minerals, Bare Escentuals, Physicians Formula, and many, many more. The secret is that we use pure natural ingredients here. No bismuth oxychloride, parabens, talc, carmine, silk powder, d &c lake dyes, just to mention a few!
7) Lake lake (lac) dyes: those contain lac, which is rubbery secretion of some insects.
6) Silk powder: obviously non-vegan, comes from cocoons of larvae of silkworms.
5) Carmine: carmine is a pigment of a bright-red colour obtained from the aluminium salt of carminic acid, which is produced by some scale insects, such as the cochineal scale and the Polish cochineal (wiki).
4) Talc: how this is non-vegan? Dolomite and silica is one way to compose talc. They contain bio materials from long long ago.
3) Parabens: parabens are found naturally in plants, nothing non-vegan about them. The rumour is they cause breast cancer. Scary! Because no matter hat you do in regards to cosmetics, they are still everywhere, like in blueberries!
2) Bismuth: unuasually low toxicity for a heavy metal; used all over the place, in pharmaceutics (Pepto-Bismol etc.), cosmetics. Formerly used to treat syphilis, nowadays used to treat gastric ulcers and like. Vegan!
1) No animal testing: I protest. Humans are also animals. No vegan or vegetarian will eat a human or even drink his blood.
Non-vegetarians do eat other humans as pictured in 400+ Cannibal movies.
 Price: $4.60 | Ingredients: Cold pressed castor oil, Candelillia wax, Mica, Oxides |
| Red Hot Mama Lip Gloss |
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Online shopping kills
Online shopping can be addictive and financially devastating akin to gambling. All these little pretty nothings, egg slicers, cedar moth balls, funky spatulas, honey dippers, as little as they cost - add up to hundreds of dollars on your credit card bill. But whatever.
If we look at online shopping from the other side, we see people slavin g away for $11.50 / hr at warehouses, picking and packing stuff you ordered with few mouse clicks.
The Reality Of Online Shopping
Online shopping. We point, click, and buy. Then what happens? We’ll investigate.
In this Nov. 16, 2009 photo, Reginald Armstead, Jr., of Phoenix, sends a package on its way after packing it at the 800,000 sq. ft. Amazon.com warehouse in Goodyear, Ariz. (AP)
In this Nov. 16, 2009 photo, Reginald Armstead, Jr., of Phoenix, sends a package on its way after packing it at the 800,000 sq. ft. Amazon.com warehouse in Goodyear, Ariz. (AP)
Online shopping is such a breeze. Plug in your credit card. Point, click and buy. It seems like magic. But what happens after that little e-mail that says your order is confirmed? .
Well, here’s what happens. Somewhere in America, likely in a truly giant warehouse, likely at a very low wage, often a temp worker is off like a shot to find that product and send it on its way. And they do that maybe a thousand times a day. Running like rabbits. Fire-able for any reason. Desperate. To bring you fast, free shipping.
This hour, On Point: The new coal miners. Inside warehouse America.
Amazon warehouse
Kiva Systems automated warehouse - could be used by Amazon or any other online fulfilling centre.
Robots may substitute warehouse pickers. Everyone happy now?
If we look at online shopping from the other side, we see people slavin g away for $11.50 / hr at warehouses, picking and packing stuff you ordered with few mouse clicks.
The Reality Of Online Shopping
Online shopping. We point, click, and buy. Then what happens? We’ll investigate.
In this Nov. 16, 2009 photo, Reginald Armstead, Jr., of Phoenix, sends a package on its way after packing it at the 800,000 sq. ft. Amazon.com warehouse in Goodyear, Ariz. (AP)
In this Nov. 16, 2009 photo, Reginald Armstead, Jr., of Phoenix, sends a package on its way after packing it at the 800,000 sq. ft. Amazon.com warehouse in Goodyear, Ariz. (AP)
Online shopping is such a breeze. Plug in your credit card. Point, click and buy. It seems like magic. But what happens after that little e-mail that says your order is confirmed? .
Well, here’s what happens. Somewhere in America, likely in a truly giant warehouse, likely at a very low wage, often a temp worker is off like a shot to find that product and send it on its way. And they do that maybe a thousand times a day. Running like rabbits. Fire-able for any reason. Desperate. To bring you fast, free shipping.
This hour, On Point: The new coal miners. Inside warehouse America.
Amazon warehouse
Kiva Systems automated warehouse - could be used by Amazon or any other online fulfilling centre.
Robots may substitute warehouse pickers. Everyone happy now?
Saturday, February 25, 2012
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