Fresh Peach Cobbler

I went to the farmer's market at the Queens Botanical Gardens on Friday and bought way too many peaches.  They are absolutely delicious, so perfectly ripe and juicy.  I highly recommend anyone who lives in the area to make their way to the market on Fridays.  Anyway, I had too many peaches to eat.  Worried that they would go bad before I could finish them all, I made the most delicious peach cobbler.  

Free image courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net

I love making cobblers.  They are super easy, super cheap, and super flexible.  You can use pretty much whatever fruit you have laying around, even frozen fruit will work.  You can also make it as big or small as you need.  I made a pretty small one today since I knew there weren't many of us to eat it, but I've doubled the recipe with no problems.  Just use a 9X13 inch pan to double this.

Yummy goodness with grandpa's bananas in the back ground

I also could not find my 9 inch square pan, so I cheated and baked it in a 9 inch round pan.  Came out perfect.  I've also made this gluten free for my best friend by using a gluten free flour mix.  Also came out perfect.  I use White Whole Wheat flour when I bake, but if you are not a fan, feel free to use All Purpose.  (Seriously though, learn to like Whole Wheat.  It's filled with good things for you.)  The peaches might sink to the bottom depending on the kind of flour you use.  This time the peaches were on top.  When I made it gluten free, they were on the bottom.  Either way it was good.


Peach Cobbler

The crispy outside bit is the best part!

1 stick butter
3/4 cup milk
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup Stevia or 3/4 cup sugar
2 cups peaches - peeled and cut into 1/2 inch slices (about 6-8 peaches)


Melt the butter and pour it into a 9-inch square or round pan.  Mix the milk, flour, vanilla, baking powder, and sweetener in a bowl.  Pour over the butter.  Put the peaches over the flour mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until flour is cakey and light brown.


Serve warm and with whipped cream for the nicest of treats.

Custom Orders

Me mixing away while making lip balms

Last night was kind of a big deal for me.  I started working on my first custom order, 50 lavender lip balms for a local sorority's fundraiser party.  Because they ordered so many, we were able to give them a really good price and now the girls are going to resell the lip balms to make some money for charity.  Drew even designed custom labels for them.  Everyone involved has been really excited and happy with the whole process (including me).  I can only hope that more custom work will come my way.  I'll post pics of the final product when they are all cleaned up and labeled.


If you have any custom products you'd like made, the best way to contact me is through our facebook page.


I thought I'd share a little bit of our behind the scenes process with you.  This video is from a previous batch of lip balms, but the process is always pretty much the same.  Measure ingredients, melt ingredients, pour lip balms, let solidify.  Let me know what you think!

All Natural

I've always been very sensitive to certain things, mostly cosmetics and medications.  It's not unusual for my face (especially my brow area) to randomly swell and flake.  My skin is incredibly sensitive and I'm starting to wonder if my diet might be playing a part in that.

Image:Suat Eman 

A few years ago, a very dear friend of mine discovered that she was gluten-intolerant.  She had suffered from debilitating stomach cramps for years, but things got better when she changed her diet.  Not long ago, my boyfriend discovered that he is sensitive to soy and that it might be contributing to his own health issues.  The more I hear, the more I read (and I'm a public health student.  I read the real science), the more I find myself thinking that a lot of our health issues as individuals and as a country have more to do with our diets that we are willing to admit.  And I'm not talking obesity and diabetes.  The link between food and being fat is obvious.  I'm talking more subtle things, like kids with behavior problems that may be triggered by artificial flavoring, like studies showing links between trans fat and Alzheimer's disease. These are real health concerns.


And then there is our complete reliance on  soy and corn products.  Soy and corn are in pretty much everything you eat.  If it's not fresh produce or diary, chances are it contains soy or corn.  The other day I went on a mission to buy a salad dressing that had no soy in it.  I picked up a bottle of "Oil and Vinegar".  Soy.  I picked up "French".  Soy.  I picked up five more bottles and finally gave up because they all had soy.  It makes no sense, especially given the large amounts of research showing that many of us are highly soy sensitive and that it can cause everything from high blood pressure to thyroid conditions.


So I'm making a change.  I don't know if my skin will get better.  I don't know if anything will get better, but I do know that no one ever died from eating more fruits and vegetables and that cutting out processed food can't be bad for me.  So I'm trying.  One day at a time, I cutting more and more processed food from my diet.  I'm slowly making the switch to as close to an all-natural diet that a girl living hundreds of miles from the nearest farm can switch to.


Wish me luck because I'm really really gonna miss cookies.

Lip Balms

Since I've spent some time writing about other people's products, I thought it was only fair I spend some time writing about mine.  Introducing Athena's Arbor All Natural Lip Balm!


This whole thing started when I stumbled upon a recipe for all natural lip balm.  For those of you who don't know, I am seriously allergic to pretty much any kind of skin product.  I literally have a drawer filled with rejected lip balms/sticks/glosses that leave me either covered in red splotches, with broken skin, or purple.  It gets depressing and really hard to enjoy the little perks of being a girl (ie. smelling really good all the time).  My sisters always seem to have some new little lip balm that they love and every time I try it, it all goes horribly wrong.


So imagine how psyched I was when I figured out I could make my own little tubes of happy.  I found a recipe, bought the ingredients, and ten empty lip balm tubes figuring I'd have enough to get through the whole winter, plus extra.  I may have miscalculated a little.  Turns out, I had enough materials to make about 100 tubes.  Obviously, I couldn't use that many so I decided to share them with you!


My products are all natural because I wouldn't use anything else.  They're high quality because I wouldn't let anything else touch my skin.  You are getting exactly what I use, exactly as I made it, for my ridiculously sensitive skin.  Imagine how easy this stuff is on your normal skin!


Right now I'm making five flavors: natural, lavender, peppermint, chocolate mint, and sweet orange.  I'm hoping to expand with another few flavors in the future.  If you have an flavor ideas, feel free to share them!


You can buy Athena's Arbor All Natural Lip Balm right on this website!  Or for more information, follow me on Facebook and Twitter.


Love,
Heather

Easy Nutella Cinnamon Buns

I am not a good cook (ask my boyfriend about the lasagna soup incident), but I can bake.  With the holidays approaching I wanted to make something sweet to bring for work.  I had originally planned on making Alton Brown's Coconut Cake, but it takes at least two days.  Three if you do it right.  With school finals, Christmas shopping to do, and presents to wrap, I just didn't have the time.  So I needed something fast, easy, and delicious.  Low and behold, I invented my own version of the cinnamon bun.  I give you the super easy Nutella Cinnamon Roll!

Absolute Deliciousness

These are ridiculously easy to make and you probably already have most of the ingredients.  You don't have to make your own dough.  I used store bought crescent roll dough.  When they are done, leave them in the pan and cover with whatever kind of frosting you want.  I decided to skip the frosting (the nutella is already pretty sweet).

Everything you need

Nutella Cinnamon Rolls
Makes about 48 mini-rolls


Ingredients
2 packages crescent roll dough - in sheets
1 stick softened butter
1/4 cup Nutella
Brown sugar - about 1/2 cup
Cinnamon
Nutmeg


Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease/butter/spray a 9-inch round pan.  Mix the butter and Nutella to combine.  Unroll the crescent roll sheets and cut each in half.  Spread the dough on a flat surface like a cutting board.  Coat with the Nutella mixture and sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to taste.

Roll the dough into logs then cut into one-inch thick slices.  Place in pan, making sure the dough touches other rolls.  Bake 20 mins at 350 degrees.

Spread the dough with the Nutella mixture the sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to taste.

Roll up the dough and cut into 1-inch slices.  This can get messy.

Add the rolls to the pan, making sure they touch

Keep going until you fill it up, then put it in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 mins.

Ten Holiday Cookie Recipes that even Heather can make

I'm a big fan of cookies.  I'd rather eat cookies than any other sweet so I love this time of year when cookies seem to be everywhere.  Since I'm not the greatest baker, one of my requirements when picking a recipe is that it be super easy.  Having scourged the Internet looking for pretty and simple recipes I give you Ten Holiday Cookie Recipes that even Heather can make.

M&M Christmas Cookies

Amy over at Sing For Your Supper has been making these M&M cookies since she was a little girl.  It's hard to top these.  They are a super simple drop cookie that is hard to mess up.  Plus, you get to eat all the leftover M&M's.

Trios

This recipe comes from Epicurious and is a twist on a classic holiday thumbprint cookie.  My mother makes thumbprint cookies every Christmas and they always go super fast.  I love the idea of using three different kinds of jam so everyone can get a little taste of something sweet.

Chocolate-Peppermint Wafers

These come from Real Simple, one of my favorite magazines/websites.  What I love about these cookies is if you are feeling really lazy you could just buy some shortbread cookies and dip them in chocolate.  It's a quick and easy way to say "I made this".

Marble Decorated Cookies

I admit I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew when it comes to baking.  I can't tell you how many times I've started something only to end up with a big pile of mess.  That said, Marion's video tutorial over on Sweetopia makes me think I can totally handle this.

Lace Cookies

Found this over on Martha Stewart.  These are pretty much my favorite cookie, though they are more like a brittle than a cookie.  They are super super easy to make, but you have to keep a few tricks in mind.  They are going to spread a lot when you bake them, so bake in really small batches (think two or three per cookie sheet).  Be very careful not to burn them.  These cookies leave no room for error.  Burnt sugar tastes gross.  That said, they really are an easy cookie to make and one that will get you lots of compliments.

Melted Snowman Cookies

These are more about presentation than the cookie itself.  You could us pretty much any cookie as a base, but on Crazy Domestic they actually use a premade sugar cookie dough.  Hard to get much easier than that.  I think these would be a big hit at an office party.  What do you think?

Candy Cane Blossoms

I think we've all made some variation of this cookie, usually a peanut butter 

cookie with regular Hershey's Kisses.  These are just as easy to make, the hardest part might be finding the candy cane kisses.  I love Risa's take on these from Baked Perfection.  She even shows you how to save some money by making your own colored sugars.

Lattice Cookie

When I first saw these, I thought they would be really complicated to make, but Megan at not martha gives you simple, step by step directions to make these beautiful cookies.  I love how she served them with a cup of hot apple cider!  I think they'd be equally delicious with some hot chocolate.

Swirl Cookies

While this recipe may be lengthy, it's not hard at all!  At least not with help from Our Italian Kitchen.  I think these would make the perfect cookie to leave out for Santa, with a few extra for mom and dad.

Rainbow Cookies

Let's be honest.  It just wouldn't be Christmas without Rainbow Cookies.   These are probably the most ambitious cookie on my list, but I know you can do it.  The folks over at Epicurious have kindly put together a great , easy to follow recipe.  I think these are what I'm bringing to my mom's house for desert this year.

Natural Essentials

Before I started putting together my lip balms, I did a lot of research on the benefits of certain oils and  herbs.  So many of mother nature's creations do wonderful things for our health.  I thought I'd share a little of this knowledge with you, at least for the oils that are being used in my lip balms.  Goodness knows I read up on others, but I'll post on those when I have products that feature them.

Lavender

Lavender is an incredibly hardly plant that is easy to grow and care for.  This is great because lavender has so many healthy properties and it smells amazing!  Lavender herbs and oils can be used to help relax spasms, ease digestion, and help with cramps.  It's a natural anti-septic and anti-depressant.  It works great on burns and helps heal and prevent scarring.  It's great for treating eczema and acne and is even a natural insect repellent.

                                      Peppermint

If you're like me and you have mint growing in your garden, you probably hate it.  But don't fret!  Peppermint is actually an incredibly useful herb.    Peppermint is a  natural decongestant.  It's also used to treat sore throats and to ease respiratory pain.  It's a great winter time herb!  Peppermint tea can be used to help with indigestion and is used to help relieve menstrual cramping.

Orange

I think everyone's mom has clean with orange oil at some point.  Between it's beautiful aroma, anti-tumoral, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties, there is little orange oil can't be used for.  I use sweet orange oil in my lip balms and they are great for chapped lips.  You'll stay germ and bacteria free while those lip heal.

Cocoa Powder

Okay, I know technically cocoa powder isn't an herb or oil, but it still does some pretty awesome things.  First off, cocoa or cacao powder produces a natural euphoria when ingested.  I don't recommend eating my lip balms, but just the smell is enough to make you happy.  Cacao also contains high levels of antioxidants which helps to heal and prevent skin damage.  I make Chocolate Mint lip balms so you get a double dose of goodness.

Be sure to check out my lip balms when they go up for sale.  Now that you know some of what goes into the planning process, I'm sure you'll appreciate seeing the final product!

Love!

Heather