Pineapple Tea

If you use fresh pineapple, stop throwing the skin away. Lately I have been buying fresh whole pineapples and cutting them up instead of buying can pineapple. It taste a lot better and it’s cheaper too. I just learned today that there are a lot benefits in the skin of the pineapple just like with other fruits. 

When your finished cutting up the goodie of your pineapple, gather the skins and boil them for about 15 minutes then let them simmer for an hour. 

After an hour, you strain the water and you have a nice clean pineapple tea. 

Pineapple peels have an abudance of health benifits including anti inflamatory properites. Anti- flamitory is the major benifit in boiled pineapple skins. 

They say you can lose weight by drinking pineapple tea daily as it is high in fat eating bromelain. 

The skin has 38 % more vitamin C and 40 times more calcium then the flesh. 

It improves digestion, improves  arthritis, and cleans the blood. 

How does it taste? 

It is not as sweet as the pineapple flesh. It has a vinegary/sour taste. I like it. It was like drinking a warm pineapple cider. I will continue to do this every time I cut up a pineapple. It was soothing to sit back with a hot tea to end the evening. And who knows? I could lose a few pounds drinking it. 

Oh but wait……

Let’s not forget the top of the pineapple. Don’t throw that away either. Cut it at the bottom and place in in a bowl of water. Once you see it rooting, you can plant it in a pot of dirt for a nice tropical plant that could produce another pineapple. 

I will share more about this once I see it working. I’m a little skeptical about this trick really working,  but well see. 

Hourglass

I have been wanting an hourglass, but wanted one that did not cost an arm and a leg. The other day I took a visit to the Hobby Lobby craft store. I did not go in to look for an hourglass but as I passed by an hour glass show case, I had to stop and look. I spent several minutes trying to decide if I really wanted to purchase one. They were half off so I gave it a lot of thought. I could get one for 8.00. It would look good on my desk or on the mantle in my house. I caved and bought it.

Hourglass is also know as a sandglass. In the early days, sandglasses were popular on ships as the motion did not affect the hourglass. They depended on them for measurements of time. Seamen would also us the hourglass to determine their position at sea. They called this “marine sandglass”. 

After I got my hourglass home, I was so excited to show it to Nick. I flipped it over and went on about my evening. I came back into the room shortly after and was disappointed to see that the hourglass had already emptied to the bottom. I was confused. “What do you mean it didn’t last an hour?” So I flipped it over again and watched the clock. It lasted 15 minutes.

I was so disappointed that it was not a 60 minute hourglass. I thought all hourglasses were and hour hence the name. I have a quarter hourglass. Now I know why it was so cheap. Even though I’m disappointed in my purchase, I will still flip it over just to watch the sand fall. There is something relaxing about watching the sand build up in the bottom half of the hourglass. 

Valentine Breakfast and Cake Pops

Happy Valentines Day! 

I hope everyone can find someone to call their Valentine today. Someone to share some love and sweetness with. If your single and alone, find someone who could use a hug. Your not alone on this day. 

When we woke up Sunday morning, Nick asked if I would like to try the new breakfast joint in town.  “Sure”, I said in excitement. I jumped up, threw my hair back and put on some bluejeans. I was ready. I love breakfast. It is my favorite meal of the day. It is also the most important meal. 

The place was called “Eggs Up”. The inside looked like a glamorized waffle house. We were seated and I started off with a vanilla cappuccino. I normally drink coffee with almond milk, but today I splurged and sugared up. Boy was it sweet!

For breakfast, I ordered the banana foster french toast. 

What did I think? It was ok but the caramelized glaze they put on top was globbed on and hard as a jaw breaker. They did not do it right. I just put it to the side of my plate and enjoyed the french toast, bananas and bacon. I made a comment to the waitress afterwards. She agreed and other customers had complained about the same thing. They had so many different items on the menu. We plan to go back another day and try something else. 

After breakfast, I went to church wearing my distressed heart sweater. 

I kept it clean so I could wear it again today to work. 

Speaking of work. I worked hard making cake pops for the office to enjoy as a sweet treat for Valentines Day. I have never made cake pops before. I guess because I have never been a fan. I do not like the texture nor the how sweet they are. But they are cute and favorite to a lot of people. 

The cake pops were easy to make but hard to cover with chocolate topping. It was hard to get the topping to look good on the ball of cake. It wanted to drip. If I laid them on wax paper, it would leave a flat spot. If I put them upright, the coating would run down the handle. So I had to just dipped them and held them while turing them until the cocolate would dry enough not to drip or run. It was time consuming. 

 

Cake Pops

-Cook a cake of your flavor.(I used confetti cake) and let it cool.

-Mix unitl crushed to the consistency of. Grits.

-Add about 1/4 to 1/2 cups of icing. Mix until well mixed. 

-Work into 24 balls.

- dip end of stick in the melted chocolate and stick it inside  the ball.

-Dip each ball into the melted chocolate. 

-Add sprinkles (optional). 

I placed each pop in a hole of a colander. This kept them from getting flat spots.

I think they turned out rather pretty and hope they are a hit at the party. I kept out two for Nick and my daughter to enjoy. 

Tonight we plan to stay in and enjoy a nice steak on the grill. We do not usually have good luck finding a place to eat on special occasions like this. By eating at home, I do not have to worry about finding something to wear and there is no wait. 

What are your Valentine plans?

Plants

I have been loving plants lately. Ok, I know that’s random but I have always liked plants. I am also a plant killer. My problem is that I do not have any places in my house to place them where they will get sunshine. I have no ledges on my windows. I have a large bay window in the front room but the sun only shines in it for a little while in the afternoon. Besides, I do not want to put a lot of plants on it to ruin. I currently have a Christmas cactus in that place. 

While visiting my daughter this past weekend, she took me to a place called “Optimist Hall”. It is an old mill turned into a large food court and a few shopping spots. There were isles and isles of different types of unique foods. Just imagine food trucks stationary in a building. 

One of the shopping spots was a plant store. I didn’t get the name but it was fun to walk in and see all the plants. They had everything from air plants to terrariums. You could also feel the oxygen in the air as you walked around looking at all the unique greens.

I did not purchase any new plants because the were to expensive for me. I would rather wait and just go to Lowes or Home depot for my plants. I mean, look at the price of this small plant.

It was probably my favorite plant in the store. I thought it was unique. 

I now work in an office cubicle with a large window. I have been loving plants because now I have a place to put them. I currently have a few succulents in the window and a snake plant. 

My sweet neighbor friend made me this cute plant pot cover for my snake plant. It sits on top of my file cabinet and has been a fun conversation piece. I remember my mom used to have a snake plant. It was much larger than the one I have. 

I plan to get a small potted palm tree soon. It will remind me of summer, sand and sunshine. 

What is your favorite plant in your home or office? 

One Tomato Two Tomato

Growing up my mom always made our eggs either scrambled or with a moon on it. “With a moon on it” was when the egg was cooked well all except the yellow, and then I would sop my toast in the runny yellow. I liked it also with ruffles. That is when the edges were fried to a crisp. It was the best. I think most would call that “Sunny side up” (or was it “over easy”?) I do not know the difference, so still at 52 years old, I call it “an egg with a moon on it”. To avoid the embarrassment, I usually will not order an egg in a restaurant, and if I do I just get it scrambled to save explaining that I want an egg with a moon on it and ruffles. 

One way I have never eaten an egg is called “Egg Benedict”. I always pictured it being a half raw. My daughter has convinced me that is is not raw and that they are really good and I would like it. So here we go.

I visited her in Charlotte this weekend for “brunch”. She had been wanting to try this place call  Ruby Sunshine. They specialize in egg Benedict. So if I wanted to try my first one, I wanted it to be in a good place that knows what they are doing. This place was so popular that we had to wait 2 hours to be seated. Our patience were running short but we decided to wait. We got there at 9:45and it was 11:45 by the time they seated us. I was no longer wanting eggs. I wanted a hamburger. But I stuck to brunch and ordered the egg Benedict. 

They had different recipes to choose from so I chose the “One tomato, two tomato”. It had two slices of tomato on a biscuit. One piece was a fried green tomato and one was a grilled red tomato. On top of that was the egg and hollandaise sauce. Come to find out that egg Benedict was basically just a poached egg. Which I never had either. 

 

What did I think? It still wasn’t as cooked as I like it but it was delicious. I loved it. Was it worth a two hour wait? Maybe, but nothing is really worth a two hour wait when your hungry. 

How do you like your eggs? Have you ever had Egg Benedict? 

I’m Back

Wow, it’s been a month since my last post. To be honest, I have been a little slack on reading blog post from others too. I will jump on here in the morings and skim through blogs I follow but not leaving comments. 

I guess you can say I took a blogging break. With my new job, I have to be at work in the mornings at 8 instead of 9 like I have always been used to. The mornings are when I like to read other blog post but my mornings seem to be getting shorter. Maybe I need to set my alarm to get me up earlier. When I settle down in the afternoons is when I like to relax and write my own blog post, but the afternoons seem shorter too. I just can’t seem to find time to relax and get into the writing zone. 

So what have I been doing with my time?

I spend way to much time on Face book and Instagram. I need to stay away from social media. It will literally suck the life right out of ya. 

I will get to reading and watching videos on social media and before I realize it, and hour has gone by. 

On the weekends, Nick always seems to have to work leaving me to entertain myself. I will usually go shopping or clean the house. 

I have also been trying out a new craft of macrame and still doing a little bit of crocheting. 

Im back now. 

I plan to stay off social media so much and prioritize my chores and errands and start back blogging regularly again. I hope you continue to follow. Remember, if you read my post, drop a comment. It helps a blogger stay motivated to keep blogging when we know someone is reading.