Thursday, November 27, 2014

Danielle's Homemade Products....Cinnamon Applesauce Dough

It is getting closer to that time of year when we think of Christmas gifts and holidays. Every year me and my daughter try to make new ornaments to adorn our Christmas tree. Today, we are working on a new type of ornament. We have done salt dough ornaments, glass ornaments with paint inside (watch for on a future post) and today we are doing cinnamon applesauce ornaments. They smell heavenly and can be hung on the tree or given as gifts.

The dough itself is simple....or so I thought. Equal parts of ground cinnamon and applesauce. That's it. I dumped it in a bagging and gave it to my daughter to squish together. She always loves that part. This recipe, however, made a sticky mess very quickly.



The dough just stuck to her hands and to the cookie cutters. This was not the plan....so I did a little more work on it.

The next batch I tried I put in the same amount of apple sauce but more cinnamon and we had a winner.



My rolling pin broke after my daughter was making ornaments one day so a can works just well or a glass if you have one with straight sides. The new dough rolled out nicely, was still a little tacky but we were able to make the ornaments. Don't forget to use a straw to put a hole in the top where you are going to hang them later.



I didn't have any Christmas themed cookie cutters but we never let that stop us from making something so use what ever you have or whatever strikes your fancy. After you have them all cut out, they will need to dry for atleast 24 hours or until completely dry and hard. They will still have a smell to them so enjoy the lovely fragrance while they hang on your tree.

Here is my final recipe:

1/2 cup of applesauce
1 1/2 jars of cinnamon (each jar of cinnamon was 2.37 oz)
Add more or less cinnamon to make your dough so that it is not too sticky and rolls out nicely

You can double or triple the batch if you want to make a lot of them. Our batch made about 8 ornaments of varying thickness. I recommend making them about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thick so they do not break when you are transferring them over to a surface to dry. I found they tried to stick to my cookie sheet so I moved them over to a cooling rack with wax paper over it. They are still drying now so I don't have any finished ornament pictures (sorry).

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Danielle's Homemade Products - Flavored Ice Cubes Tip

With a sick kid at home (which seems like often lately), I have had to be creative in getting her to drink extra fluids. After some thought, I decided to use one of my trusty all purpose items.....ice cube tray

My daughter is a big fan of chocolate...anything chocolate and she is a happy kid (maybe not a happy mom with a hyper kid, but a happy kid none the less)

One thing that I tried was to make different flavored ice cubes. There are so many different combinations that can make drinking special for both kids and adults alike.

Some of the ones that we made include:

Kool Aid - I mixed up a about 2 cups of water with one packet of Kool Aid and added about 1/2 cup of sugar and froze the mixture. Then added a cube or two to water. As the cubes melted, they added flavor and color to her water and she enjoyed watching them melt (though I think she watched them melt more than she drank the water).

Coffee - For adults that like cold coffee (ME!ME!ME!), but do not like the watered down taste of using regular ice cubes to cool it down. Take your left over coffee, let the coffee cool down, and pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. Add to coffee on those hot summer days when cold coffee is on your radar.

Milk Cubes - now this is probably not what you are thinking of. Yes there is some milk in it, but this is really to FLAVOR your milk (I don't give these to my daughter if she is vomiting...not a good idea on a sour stomach either). For my daughter, I took a small amount of milk and added in chocolate syrup and froze them. These can be added to milk for a nice cold treat or even added to a homemade milk shake instead of plain ice cubes or ice cream. I also add peanut butter (warmed first so it mixes into the milk mixture easier) to mine for a peanut butter chocolate milk.


(These are our peanut butter chocolate cubes...these we did over the summer before I did the tip on the scrubbing the stove)

Creamers - Liquid creamer frozen in ice cube trays is another way to add flavor to both milk or cold coffee without diluting the flavors with additional water.

Iced Coffee Mixes - My local store now carries containers of cold coffee, flavored and unflavored (YEAH Starbucks)over in the dairy section. These are also nice to freeze in ice cube trays and add to coffee or milk for additional flavor. This is also a good idea if you do not drink all of the container before it expires (like anyone really does that, but you never know).

Flavored Cubes - My daughter is not a big fan of Pedialyte, but she does like Gatorade and other sports drinks. For me, these are all full of so much sugar that I don't always like giving her them straight. I tend to water them down, which just makes her not happy with mommy. So I came up with a compromise. I take Gatorade, some other sports drink, or Pedialyte and freeze it in an ice cube tray and add them to plain water. It is not as much sugar as having it plain, but gives the water a little more flavor and an electrolyte boost.

The flavor combinations can be endless based on what you like...what flavors would you use?

Monday, November 10, 2014

Danielle's Homemade Products....Foot Care Tip

I am a diabetic. Cringe....yes this means my feet are my mortal enemy. Most of the time they feel like this....



I swear they talk back at times....usually when I am abusing them by being on my feet for long periods of time. Knowing that winter is coming (groan) especially with the Arctic storm they say is suppose to hit us here in the next couple of days, I thought I would take a minute to go over some care tips for your feet.

I know many people that cringe just at the thought of feet, they just do not like them, even their own, but our feet are so important to our everyday and we abuse and neglect them constantly. We squish them into shoes that are too small, heels that are high, walking, running, exercising, and forget about how important they are to our everyday life.

With this constant abuse, we must be extra careful to take care of our feet.



Many people say the feet are the window to the soul...or at least a way to help with other disorders. Reflexology is a tool many use to help with other areas in the body. Suffer from sinus issues? Massage the tips of your toes to help gain relief.

My favorite book for reflexology information is The Art of Reflexology written by Inge Dougans with Suzanne Ellis. This book gives details on steps for massage on the feet and hands for specific issues (like sinuses).

Back to the tips...

1. Check feet often for corns, calluses, bunions, and ingrown toe nails. These are painful and will cause additional problems if not taken care of right away.

2. Foot scrub. It is a good idea to use a foot scrub once a week to help remove any scaly skin and keep your feet smooth. A scrub that is mild is best, one meant for the delicate skin on the hands should work for your feet as well. Body scrubs can be a bit too coarse for the feet and may hurt instead of helping.

3. Lotion. Lotion, Lotion, Lotion. Moisturize your feet. Foot lotion containing peppermint will also help with any foot odors and add a tingling sensation which can be soothing to the feet.

4. Calluses and cracked heels may require a pumice stone. This skin has hardened and can be painful so using a pumice stone occasionally to help remove this is a good idea. Soaking your feet before using a pumice stone can help make removing the hardened skin easier.

5. Pedicure. Pedicures are a nice way to help care for your feet. If you are doing an at home pedicure, heat up water to a comfortable temperature and soak your feet for about 10 minutes. After soaking, check and trim any toe nails that need it, and apply lotion to the feet. For an added aromatherapy treatment, add scented bath salts to the water. In spa treatments may include a foot massage which can relief stress and increase circulation.

6. Moisture Treatments. As a diabetic that gets cracked heels, I have found that a nice thick salve or lotion as an overnight treatment goes a long way to helping keep my feet in summer sandal shape. I will put on a nice layer of salve or lotion, put on socks, and go to bed. Morning comes and the lotion or salve has soaked into my feet, helping to keep them nice and soft. My all purpose salve (available on my website at daniandskye.wix.com/danishomemadeproduct) are one that I like for this. I also use it on my hands and cover them and go to sleep.

7. Massage. Treat yourself to a foot massage. Find a friendly person (I use to do this for family all the time, now I try to get one from my daughter in return for her getting one) and get a nice foot rub. This will increase circulation and help ease tired feet.



Take care of your feet....they are the only ones you ever get. How do you take care of your feet?