Whole Green Love

Rhubarb is one of those foods that people usually love or hate. I grew up eating it raw, straight out of the garden. I know. A little extreme, seeing as most people pair it with a sweet fruit in a baking dish, but we enjoyed the straight up version just as well. We’d use a paring knife to peel the fibrous skin off the outside and then we’d dip it into a sprinkling of salt on a plate.  It was juicy, crunchy, mouth puckering goodness. It was a routine my mom and I had, so as you can imagine I have a special fondness for this tart treat.

Every time Spring rolls around I start thinking about rhubarb…I know, the life of a foodie, right? I don’t have a garden with this lovely plant anymore, so I headed straight to the co-op. Sure enough they had some beautiful stalks ready to go. I was going to be meeting up with Laura for some blogging fun and thought a strawberry rhubarb crumble would be a great spring treat for our get together.

When your crumble is done it will be golden brown and the fruit will be bubbly and roasted. We served ours with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I have to say, you really should serve it with ice cream to get the full affect. This treat is sweet, tart, creamy, and crunchy…a whole flavor explosion with every bite. We dug right into our dish straight from the oven, but it probably would have been best to let it cool just a bit so the liquid can thicken up a bit. The strawberries made it a little juicy, which actually was great seeing that it created a “sauce” for the ice cream. I may explore next time with using a little arrowroot to thicken it up just a little more. If you plan on having any left over, be sure to throw it back in the oven before serving so the crumble can crunch up again. Also, make sure to read your labels! We were spoofed by a local ice cream company and found carrageenan on their ingredient list! We couldn’t believe our eyes!

I hope you enjoy this tasty Spring treat! What to you use your rhubarb in? I’m looking forward to using it in more dishes.

So there was this stain on the rug in our office area. I honestly had no idea where it came from. It was also getting darker and darker over time as we walked over the spot. Gross.

I had some carpet cleaner left over from when we had a dog and were cleaning up Max’s pee spots all. the. time, on the carpet that we used to have in our house. I wanted to try something different because I knew that carpet cleaner was loaded with chemicals. Not ideal in the home of a toddler. And I can’t stand the smell of this carpet cleaner. It’s like a fake floral “clean” scent. The bottle has no list of ingredients, which I don’t like. So, I decided to make my own carpet spot treatment for carpet.

This is so easy that I can’t believe I’m calling this a “recipe”.

Can anyone share other natural options for spot treating carpet stains? I’m also curious to know if anyone has natural options for cleaners to use in the tank of commercial carpet cleaning machines.

Happy stain removing!

I was hitting up Trader Joe’s the other week and I came across these cute little guys.

Kumquats.

I’d never had them before. They were too cute to pass up. I often come across different foods that I haven’t tried before (this usually happens at the farmers’ market) and I must buy them to experiment.

These little cutie kumquats are seriously sour though! They are not a snack food, like I was hoping they would be. I was hoping I could give them to Lyla to try something different than the clementines she’s obsessed with. Too too sour!

So when you don’t know how to eat a food, turn it into an alcoholic beverage. Duh.

Kumquat Lime Margaritas

Serves 4

1 pint of kumquats, cut in half and seeded

½ cup water (or enough water to get your blender going)

1/2 – 3/4 cup tequila

8 oz lime simple syrup (see recipe below)

8 oz club soda

Ice

Course salt for the glass rims

Combine kumquats and water in a blender (or use your immersion blender) and blend until smooth. Pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove the pulp. Set aside.

Combine the tequila and simple syrup in a pourable container.

Rim each glass with salt and add a small handful of ice to each glass. Scoop 3 tablespoons of kumquat puree into each glass. Divide the tequila mixture between all glasses. Pour about 2 oz of club soda into each glass. Stir to combine.

Lime simple syrup:

¼ cup water

½ cup cane sugar

The juice of 3 limes

1 tsp lime zest (optional, for a little extra zest. Ha! Get it? Zest?)

Combine water, sugar, and lime juice in a small saucepan on the stove. Heat and stir often over medium high heat until the mixture boils. Stir to dissolve the sugar and then remove from heat to cool. Add in the zest after the mixture has cooled.

This margarita recipe would be fabulous with a different fruit puree too! Kumquats may be hard to find and I’ll be honest, they aren’t the quickest fruit to prepare for a puree with the cutting and de-seeding. This margarita would be equally as delicious with strawberry or mango as well. Give some other flavors a try!

Do you have a favorite margarita recipe?

I am a dip fanatic. Some people have more of a sweet tooth, which don’t get me wrong, I do have that tooth as well, but most of the time I’ll opt for a savory and salty treat. That being said, I’ve always had to control myself around a bowl of dip. Once you get started it can be a challenge to stop! Whether it’s crispy crudité or crunchy potato chips with a sprinkle of sea salt, you can’t beat dunking them in to a rich and creamy homemade dip. This recipe that I threw together doesn’t have too much prep and you’ll have yourself an awesome homemade dip or dressing afterwards.

Roasted Garlic & Parmesan Dip

1 head of garlic, roasted

½ c sour cream

½ c mayo

½ tsp Worcestershire

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp fresh parsley, minced

½ stem of green onion, finely minced (reserve the green ends for garnish)

¼ c Parmesan cheese

¼ c buttermilk

Salt & pepper to taste

The longest process in this recipe is roasting your garlic, but if it’s pre-roasted you’ll have your dip ready in no time! Preheat your oven to 350°F. Take the whole head of garlic and on the wide flatter end of it, make one thin slice off the end exposing the garlic cloves inside. Place it face down on top of a small pat of butter and roast in your oven for about 40 minutes. Your house will smell so fabulous afterwards and you’ll have to refrain from eating all of the delicious garlic you just roasted.

Squeeze your soft, roasted garlic cloves out onto a cutting board. Cut into small bite sized pieces so it can be evenly distributed throughout the dip. Scrape your garlic into a medium sized mixing bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well so all of the ingredients are able to marry well. At this point I transfer it to a sealable glass dish for easy storing in the fridge.

Your dip will taste great the first day you make it, but will taste even better the next day, after it has had time to develop a nice full flavor. This dip is perfect to keep around to serve with crudité, potato or sweet potato chips, chicken strips or wings, hamburgers or homemade veggie burgers…the list goes on. You can always add just a little more buttermilk to thin it out for a nice, pourable dressing. It’s great on top of a big fresh salad that is loaded with cut up veggies, hard-boiled eggs, and nuts.

I like making this dip instead of buy dips or dressings from the store. You have control of the quality of ingredients you are putting in it, and don’t have to worry about any hidden ingredients that might be trying to sneak into your home. I’ve found that this lasts for a week in the fridge, I haven’t tried it longer only because it is usually gone by that time!

Any easy, homemade dip recipes that you serve your family?

Is it weird we are talking about skin fungus today? Is it too much that I’m sharing with you guys that I even had skin fungus? Ah well.

I went to see a dermatologist a few years ago because I saw a couple of small, light pink patches of skin about 5 inches above my belly button. Not painful, not itchy, barely noticeable, but I thought I should get it checked out.

My dermatologist took one look at it, said, “I bet this is tinea versicolor” and left the room to look at the cells she had scraped off my skin under a microscope.

Rx happy dermo returns. “Yup,” she says, “That’s what it is. Just a harmless skin fungus. It’s pretty common and actually, a lot of people have it without even knowing. Some people have it on their back or in places on your skin where there is a lot of heat or the skin can’t breathe well. It bothers people because they don’t like how it looks and the affected skin won’t tan in the sun. But it’s not harmful and it’s nothing to be concerned about. I’m going to write you a prescription for an oral medication, which should get rid of it for you. You should know though, that even if it goes away it will likely come back again and you’ll need to take the medication again.”

Click here for more information on tinea versicolor.

Timeout a second here. Just to give you a little more information, these two spots on my skin were literally half the size of a dime. I’m not even sure my husband would have noticed it if I hadn’t pointed it out. But already we’re talking prescription medications?

“Is there something else I can do to get rid of it? Maybe something besides taking the medication?” I asked.

“Well I could write you a prescription for a cream, but the oral meds are just easier.”

I left the appointment with a prescription for the cream (which I never filled). I wasn’t about to load up on a bunch of antifungal pills for something that was not harmful at all to my health. C’mon.

When I got home, a quick Internet search brought up a whole bunch of solutions. The first suggestion I tried worked for me.

Like the dermatologist said, it came back and the recipe below worked like a charm again.

Anti-Fungal Skin Treatment

1 Tbsp olive oil

5-10 drops of tea tree oil

Mix olive oil and tea tree oil in a small sealable container. Apply once or twice per day to the affected area. I found the best way to apply it was to dab a Q-tip in the mixture and apply.

This recipe makes a very small amount of treatment oil, but you don’t need much. If you have larger areas of your skin that are affected, double or triple the recipe for application. Some people also apply straight tea tree oil to their skin for a more potent affect. I would suggest starting with the olive oil mixture, especially if you have sensitive skin.

First of all, sorry about my glowing white Wisconsin skin. It’s, like, translucent. Also, the after picture was taken post workout, so it looks a little red and blotchy compared the the first photo. You can see though, compared to the Before picture, the 2 red spots are gone. The Before and After was a two week time period. I was not good about putting it on twice a day and even missed a day here and there. If you follow the twice per day rule, you’ll see results fast!

Please see a dermatologist if you see something questionable on your skin. Do not use my information, descriptions, or any links I provide here to self diagnose.

What home remedies do you use to clear up skin ailments?