Adventures With The Sage

Have you ever had a birthday sneak up on you so suddenly? I have and it usually means I’m scrambling to find the perfect gift at the last minute. Today, I’ll show you how to make a money rose for those surprise occasions or the recipient that is next to impossible to shop for. This gift is fun to make and give. You can give any amount of money you desire with the minimum of $6 (United States Dollars). Doesn’t that just sound fun? See photo 1.

Photo 1. Completed roses.

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Dirk, one of our web programmers, wrote this guest blog post for us and I just had to share it with you! His cornbread recipe is fantastic and we are lucky to get this recipe where we can use our scales for something other than bath and body creations!

Enjoy!

I love my daughters, but they drive me crazy. Nothing in the kitchen seems to end up where I think it should be. My wife asked me to bake something over the weekend.  I decided to make Cornbread from scratch. As I started working in the kitchen, I couldn’t find the measuring cups that I needed for the recipe. “Honey, where is the 2/3 cup measure? I can’t find it.”  Blast! So, my wife says “Why don’t you make it by weight?”  Other than it is going to be a pain in the patootie to convert, that is a great idea. After searching the kitchen, the various flour and sugar bins in the pantry and still coming up with nothing, a conversion was in order. I used a 1 cup measure to determine the weight of each major ingredient per fluid ounce. I then made these conversions for each ingredient. Once I did the math, it was time to use my skills. The following is that converted recipe. Northern Style Cornbread, By Weight Ingredients 150 grams sugar 7 grams salt 75 grams butter or margarine 10 milliliters vanilla extract 2 large eggs 285 grams flour 135 grams cornmeal 15 grams baking powder (double acting) 325 milliliters milk

Cornbread in the skillet after baking. A slice of cornbread. Yummy!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. If using a cast iron skillet, preheat the skillet as well.
2. Combine the sugar, salt, butter and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl until creamy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. In a separate bowl combine the flour, cornmeal and baking powder.
5. Add the egg mixture to the dry mixture and stir lightly with a spoon.
6. Add the milk and mix with a spoon until just blended.
7. Pour into heated, greased skillet or 8×8 inch pan.
8. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick comes clean.
9. Turn out of pan or skillet and serve warm.

You can see the photos, they are all that is left of the cornbread. Not even a speck large enough to feed a mouse remains.

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As I said earlier today, our weather has been cold and foggy. I took this fantastic picture of hoarfrost just outside our building. I just had to share this picture with you. During the last week or so, we have had lots of hoarfrost each morning and it is beautiful! Some days it is dense like shown in this picture and other days it has been quite long and spiky. Ahhh! The beauty of winter!

Since the beginning of the year, our daily temperatures have averaged between 31° F and 13° F, with the highest temperature being 50° F and the lowest temperature being -15° F. Brrrr! These are normal temperatures for us and we have learned to bundle up.

Now I just need to find my mug of hot chocolate!

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Happy New Year!

We look forward to helping you during 2010.  We will be back at work on Monday, January 4th.

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Merry Christmas! We hope you have a wonderful day and if you need to travel, please travel safely. Enjoy your day and we will see you back in the New Year! Our first day of work in 2010 will be January 4th! UPS and USPS are closed. No deliveries will happen today. Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by December 1st for posts during October and November.

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I have finished about 320 samples (2 fl oz) of the Head to Toe Cream and they will be shipping out with orders! Yippee! If you get one of these samples or you have used the Head to Toe Cream before, I would love to hear your thoughts about this cream. I think it is my favorite moisturizing base in our entire catalog!

Good Luck!

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by January 1st for posts during December.

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Macadamia nuts are plentiful on Oahu. A ripe, harvested nut looks like this:

The crack open this nut, Mother Nature has given you a hint: look for the small white-ish dot and apply pressure there. Special nut crackers can be used or a direct hit with a hammer will work.

Macadamia nuts are large and a great resource of oil. The nuts and their outer shells remind me of hazelnuts, sometimes known as filberts, except macadamia nuts are bigger than hazel nuts.

Here are some cracked open macadamia nuts.

These nuts offer an oil that is high in oleic acid and is very shelf stable.

I’m going to share 3 recipes with you that focus on Macadamia Nut Oil. Because macadamia oil has shown to be helpful to the skin for UV protection, I am going to make a lip balm. I’m also making a massage oil which can be used as a face and skin oil to moisturize the skin. And lastly, I will be making macadamia pancakes. I know that isn’t cosmetic related, but I liked the pancakes and French Toast from Boots & Kimo’s in Kailua. Their mac sauce is yummy. While I can’t duplicate their dreamy sauce, I can make pancakes.

Aloha!

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by January 1st for posts during December.

Macadamia nut cracker ready to be used.

Cracked macadamia in the nut cracker.

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You may be wondering why I have been absent from this microphone, (Thank you, Paul Harvey). Well, let me tell you.

Two years ago, my paternal grandparents started a plan to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They asked the family to join them in Hawaii. Grandma and Grandpa sprang for the beach house and we saved for our airline tickets. In all there were my grandparents, their 3 children, 7 grandchildren, 1 great grandchild, and 5 spouses!

It was a great celebration!

During the next series of blogs, I’m going to share with you many things I learned, and enjoyed, about the state of Hawaii and the island of Oahu. I hope you enjoy these posts.

Aloha!

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by January 1st for posts during December.

P.S. The snow has arrived in the Rocky Mountains, and covered our valleys with lots of fluffy crystals. Be sure to watch our sire for weather announcements. We’ll post these on our Twitter and Facebook too.

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Olives are a wonderful crop. These trees are long lived and very massive. They also don’t grow where we play in the snow for months at a time. Olive trees are often said that they are such a slow growing tree that you plant the business for your children, not for yourself.

With that in mind, please watch your olive oil purchases. Olive oil is often diluted with cheaper oils which give crops much sooner than olive trees. Think sunflower, sesame, canola, soy. Check the ingredients label to be sure your product is supposed to be 100% olive oil. Certainly blends can be used in soapmaking, but they won’t react the same. They make lovely soaps, but they aren’t pure olive oil soaps.

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by January 1st for posts during December.

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Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you have a wonderful day and if you need to travel, please travel safely. Enjoy your day and we will see you on Monday! All orders placed over the Thanksgiving break will be processed Monday. We will ship as many orders as possible on Monday, so I expect we will almost fill the UPS truck!

UPS Delivery Schedule

Wednesday, Nov. 25 Normal pickup and delivery service. UPS Next Day Air® packages picked up today will be delivered on Friday, Nov. 27. UPS 2nd Day Air packages picked up today will be delivered on Monday, Nov. 30

Thursday, Nov. 26 Thanksgiving Day No UPS pickup or delivery service.

Friday, Nov. 27 Delivery of UPS air and international packages only. No UPS Ground pickups or deliveries today.

USPS Delivery Schedule

Wednesday, Nov. 25 Normal pickup and delivery service.

Thursday, Nov. 26 Thanksgiving Day No USPS pickup or delivery service.

Friday, Nov. 27 Normal pickup and delivery service.

Don’t forget to submit your blog or video posts to win the MMS Perfumer’s Kit. Remember, this kit is worth $280! Submissions are due by December 1st for posts during October and November.

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