Honey

I love the simple things in life, and one of those simple things that brings me joy is honey. Starting my day with a hot cup of tea with honey makes me smile. One day I hope to have my own hives, and be able to harvest my own honey, but for now the store bought kind will do. As I've mentioned in a previous post, I've discovered one of the most amazing honeys out there by the Savannah Bee Company. For my birthday this year, a friend got me a gift box full of honey related items - body lotion, lip balm, a honey pot, and of course a jar of honey! The flavor of this Tupelo honey is great! Anything I bake with it tastes extra delicious. Tonight, I made a honey corn bread (recipe from the taylor house), and it tasted so sweet. The most amazing corn bread, made with the most amazing honey!

Svannah Bee Company

Sweet Honey Corn Bread

Sweet Corn

Have I mentioned before this is my favorite time of the year? I love opening my fridge and seeing fresh veggies from our garden, and always having a healthy snack at hand. Summer really is perfect! This week has been especially great as one of my favorite fruits - peaches- are finally in, and the sweet corn is also here! I don't know if it is like this in the rest of the world - but in central Pennsylvania, it is perfectly acceptable to make a meal out of corn on the cob! So that is exactly what we did for supper tonight (along with a little chocolate zucchini bread for dessert, yum!). My husband and I shared these ears of corn, and it was great! So simple and satisfying on a hot summer evening. 

Lavender Wreath

I'm a little excited today - well very excited! I have been looking for the perfect spring/summer wreath for a long time... it's mid-July and I had yet to find one. I still have our boxwood wreath up from winter; it has now dried - making it a perfect fall wreath - but it just doesn't cut it for summer! 

Last weekend, my husband and I had been shopping at Target, and I was browsing the home section. I found the absolute, most perfect wreath! It was made of lavender - and i LOVE lavender. I'm slightly obsessed with lavender. It was everything I had been looking for - but it was $39.99. I just couldn't bring myself to pay that much for a wreath. I know that price is actually pretty good compared to many others that you can buy, but it still just felt like a lot. I sadly left the store, and hoped that soon my lavender plants would start getting blooms that I could dry, and then create my own wreath - but I knew it would be quite a while until I had enough dried lavender to make a wreath. 

Well, I've been thinking about that wreath since last weekend, so I decided to look it up again today online and remember how beautiful it was. When I got to Target's site, I saw that there was free shipping, and 20% off of that lavender wreath! Not only that - but I'm a member of ebates.com - so by logging in there first, I got an extra 5% off! I am one happy girl, and I cannot wait for my wreath to get here!

Lavender Wreath - Target

Bleach Glass Jug

I like a neat and orderly house where everything is in it's place (My husband and I may be slight neat freaks - you should see his closet). Since we don't have children yet, it hasn't been too difficult to keep everything nice and tidy throughout the week, and to give our home a thorough cleaning once a week. But my cleaning supply cart had been driving me crazy (yes, I want even the cleaning supplies to be nicely displayed in our laundry room). It had all these pretty Mrs. Meyers cleaning supplies on it and then a big ugly bottle of bleach! The past few months I've been in search of an alternative storage solution. Last weekend I found the perfect fix! We have a store in town here - similar to a flea market- with vendors who sell used items/antiques/handmade crafts/etc. You never know what you might find at this place! I came across this large glass jug, and it is exactly what I have been looking for. The cost? $1.99! I'm so excited that I found this - it's much more tasteful then those big white plastic bottles, and what a cheap solution!

Honey Oat Muffins

It's a beautiful Friday morning, and I have the day off! I decided to start my morning with some honey oat muffins and fruit. The muffins are so delicious, I thought I'd share the recipe with you. The honey flavor is amazing!

Honey Oat Muffins

1 cup of white flour

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of salt

1 1/3 cup of oats

1/4 cup of flax seed

1/4 cup of honey

1/3 cup of coconut oil

1 cup of milk

1 egg

Combine your dry ingredients. Then add your honey, coconut oil, milk and egg. Mix into a batter, and pour into muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until cooked all the way through. Serve warm with fresh berries.

Get creative and spice up this recipe by adding a tsp of cinnamon. Or to make it a little healthier, use 1/2 cup of white flour and 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour.

A friend of mine gave me Tupelo honey from the Savannah Bee Company and it was so perfect with these muffins.

Enjoy! 

Homemade Soap

On my day off yesterday, I finally tackled a project I've been wanting to do for quite some time - make homemade soap. For my birthday this winter, my husband bought me some supplies. I've been patiently waiting to plant and grow my herbs ever since. I've never made soap before, so I started off the easy way - with a soap base. I have purchased lye, but I'm not confident enough yet to try it out. I've got a bit more researching to do :).

This turned out to be really fun. If you have kids, it's an easy project I'm sure they would love to help you with. 

To make this soap I used:

1lb of goats milk glycerin soap base

1/2 tsp lavender essential oil

4-5 sprigs of dried lavender flowers

4-5 sprigs of fresh lavender stems

Rubbing alcohol

Soap mold

First, I removed the dried buds from my lavender stalks, and chopped up my fresh stems. Then I chopped up my soap base into one inch cubes. I microwaved the soap base in a Pyrex measuring cup for 15 second intervals stirring in between. 

When my soap was fully melted, I added in my chopped lavender and essential oil.

Then I poured it into my soap molds, and sprayed with rubbing alcohol to remove the tiny bubbles. I let it cool for about 3-4 hours on the counter before popping them out of the molds.

Then I just had to make cute little labels for them. I'm so pleased with how they turned out!  You can incorporate any essential oil and herbs you'd like. My next scent is going to be lemongrass and rosemary. 

These homemade soaps would make perfect hostess gifts paired with a linen tea towels. 

Raspberry Jello Dessert

Tomorrow we are going fishing and boating in the morning with my husband's parents, and then enjoying lunch with them. I offered to bring a dessert along, so today I whipped up this delicious Raspberry Jello dessert. I picked up this recipe from a coworker. It is such a simple, yet tasty dessert.

Raspberry Jello Dessert

6oz raspberry jello packet

3oz pack of non instant vanilla pudding

3 1/2 cups of water

a quart of fresh or frozen berries

1 container of whipped topping

First, stir together the vanilla pudding powder and raspberry jello powder in a saucepan. Slowly add water while stirring, and cook on medium high until it starts to boil. Boil for about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and immediately refrigerate in the pan for approximately 2 hours (it should be starting to gel). Fold in your cool whip and berries, and refrigerate until it sets. Garnish with fresh berries.