I spent a few days in the desert southwest last week and discovered, to my chagrin, that I was still sneezing my fool head off and blowing my nose like crazy.  When I inquired of the locals, I was told in no uncertain terms that was got me was “West Texas, ma’am.  Everything is dead here, so you’re reacting to the dead things in the air.”  So much for the idea that the desert is good for allergies….

But in the meantime, I found all the blowing and wiping of my nose equaled one AMAZINGLY sore nose.  And all the skin underneath my nose cracked and was raw.  No amount of my favourite moisturizer (coconut oil) even touched it.  So I dealt with it until I arrived back home and put some Neosporin ointment on it before going to bed.

The next morning I awoke and nearly all of the scaly, raw skin was GONE.  Not smoothed down from the ointment base, but GONE.  I have one tiny patch left and if I could remember to keep Neosporin on it, it would also heal quickly.  That’s not the fault of the ointment; it’s my own forgetfulness.

As much as I try to do things au naturale around here, there are times when I’m really grateful for the low-level antibiotics in Neosporin – and I’ll happily shell out a few bucks (after coupons and CVS Extra Bucks) to keep my medicine cabinet stocked with the stuff.

Here’s to happy, smooth noses! 

I typically don’t talk about things that are costly on Things I Love Thursday, as I’m a frugalista at heart.  But this device is My New Best Friend and is well worth the expenditure of cash.  This thing is my Fagor 3-in-1 Multi-Cooker.  It is an electric pressure cooker, rice cooker, and slow cooker in one sleek package.

I used to be afraid of pressure cookers – the tales of my grandmother mopping beets off of her ceiling were plentiful.  The history of pressure cookers is fascinating, though, and I began to understand why Grandma had problems with her pressure cooker as I read.  Apparently, pressure cookers were initially made of aluminum and were quality – before WWII.  During WWII, aluminum was restricted and used for aircraft and war-purposes, so there were few PCs to be found.  Then after the war when aluminum was plentiful again, there were scads of producers who made PCs on the cheap.  And by on the cheap, I mean cheap quality, cheap products, and few, if any, measures of quality control. What you don’t learn, eh?  Among these 80 or so manufacturers, there were those who created PCs with bad seals, inexpensive gauges, etc., and there were women who bought them and then proceeded to mop beets, spaghetti sauce, and other things off the ceiling.  It was unfortunate, but not uncommon, either.

And so generations of us grew up with these tales and a fear of pressure-cooking.  I have never used a pressure-canner, either – for the same reason.  But my Fagor PC has eliminated the fear from pressure cooking for me.  I became interested in it as I researched food storage and decided to stop paying for pre-cooked and canned beans (and all of the water in the cans) and go back to basics.  But I knew with dried beans I would either have to slow-cook them for a day or more or I would have to get over my fear of pressure cookers.

What sealed the deal for me on this device was the fact that it was a rice cooker AND slow cooker in addition to being a pressure cooker.  Mark has wanted a rice cooker for years now, but I’ve resisted with a lack of cabinet space and a lack of counter space.  But my Fagor PC has permitted me to put my crockpot in cold storage and not worry about taking up counter space.  It’s larger than I thought it was, but smaller than my 6 qt crockpot and fits nicely on the counter with space to spare.

But enough about that – what does it DO?  I have the ability to make the most amazing beans – from dried beans – now.  I also have the ability to overcook my beans and make bean puree (more on that later).  I have made amazing brown rice in 20 minutes (yes, you read that right! 2o minutes of PC’g on high and the rice is PERFECT!).  I have PC’d spaghetti sauce to perfection, venison chunks from frozen to fork-tender in 10 minutes, and made my famous vegetable-beef soup in under an hour – a feat that ordinarily takes me 8 hours with a crock pot.  And the best part?  I get to set a timer and forget it.  There’s no watching it, waiting for the rocker to jiggle, or anything else.  It simply does it for me.

I LOVE THIS THING!  Holy cow do I love this thing.  The only thing I’m not crazy about is the Teflon-lined cooking pot, but I just keep wooden utensils around to keep from scratching it.

If you’re getting in to food storage or looking for ways to go back to basics in your cooking, I really think a pressure cooker is the way to go.  There’s no way to get burned (unless you hold your hand or arm over the steam release valve when you’re releasing the pressure), there’s no chance of opening it accidentally if there’s pressure built up in the cooker.  It’s got safety written all over it and there’s no chance I’ll mop beets off of my ceiling, beside the fact that I don’t cook beets. 

If you want to buy it through Amazon, I’m linking it here – the price is pretty stable all over the web and in brick & mortars around me.

Oh, and here’s a picture of the finished soup – perfect, beautiful, and delish.  The meat was so tender it fell apart in our mouths and the vegetables were not mushy at all.  Perfection in a bowl, my friends.  Perfection.

Despite living in an incredibly “progressive” and “organic”-based community, I find that most organic things are beyond me – they are beyond our budget, but moreover, I find soap & water to do a fine job at removing chemicals from our produce and still manage to feed my family well.  One thing I simply cannot tolerate is High Fructose Corn Syrup, HFCS for short.

Back in the early 90s when my PCOS began acting up and no one knew what it was or why I was gaining weight despite following a strict diet, my doctor advised that I begin eating “low fat.”  And at that time, there was a plethora of products on the market that were touted as “low fat,” but which had enormous amounts of sweetener in order to make the products palatable.  And around that same time, HFCS was fast becoming the sweetener of choice for processed foods – because it was cheaper than sugar, due to governmental meddling (yes, I’m a bit passionate about that particular topic) in both the sugar market and the corn market.  HFCS was everywhere and I ate it frequently and unknowingly.

During a 2.5 year period, my symptoms of PCOS became much, much worse.  In retrospect, knowing what I do about HFCS, I truly believe that that processed sweetener, having all of the chemicals, etc. that it does, helped to damage my pancreas, increasing my symptoms of PCOS and deteriorating my overall health.  Some people seem to be able to tolerate the stuff without adverse effects; I am not one of those people.

Our son, possessing one-half of my genes, is more at risk for pancreatic issues than if he wasn’t my biological child.  While my husband doesn’t seem to have a problem with it, I’m not willing to bet my child’s health on whether or not he has his dad’s or my pancreatic markers on his DNA.  And so I’m fondly called the HFCS-Nazi over here.  Really, “Gestapo” is more accurate, but I’m not going to quibble over semantics. 

That means that I don’t permit our son to have HFCS in just about everything.  Occasionally he has a sweetened soda, but it’s infrequent.  He knows to look for “high fructose corn syrup” on ingredient labels at the grocery store, and understands that it’s a death-knoll for a product.  My health has improved by avoiding the stuff, my husband has lost about 5 pounds by drinking cane-sugar sweetened soda instead of HFCS-sweetened stuff, and our son has avoided pancreatic problems and issues thus far.

There are some products that I’ve had a hard time finding reasonable replacements for – ketchup was one of them.  I’ve tried Trader Joe’s ketchup and found it lacking; I’ve tried Heinz’s Organic Ketchup and liked it – except for the price.  Then one day last month, I was in Meijer and found a bottle of their “Naturals” line of ketchup – made with SUGAR, not HFCS!

I bought a bottle of regular Heinz so we could compare taste and see which we preferred – we were out of ketchup anyhow.  A quick taste-test determined that we LOVED the Meijer Natural ketchup.  It tasted perfect – not tweaked to a point where we tasted tomato paste or overly salty or anything else.

So while it’s a small victory, it feels like a huge one and I’m crazy-excited about it.  Okay, maybe just crazy.  Either way, it’s one more thing that I have managed to remove from our lives to improve our health and haven’t had to sacrifice taste. 

I cook with very few guidelines – the few non-negotiables I have are:  *nutrition, *good taste, and *good taste.  There’s no point in making something nutritious or healthy if it tastes terrible. 

A while back, I became convinced that kosher salt was the way to go – Alton Brown (my favourite celebrity chef) talked about the superior flavour and versatility of having a pinch pot (aka “salt cellar”) about the kitchen.  And so, as a dutiful AB-fangirl, I requested a NaCL receptacle for Christmas several years ago.  Quickly, I realize:  I am hooked.

But is there more to my salt cellar than white Morton’s kosher salt?  After some research and taste-testing, I can say (resoundingly), “YES!” 

Redmond Real Salt is a sea salt that is … pink?  Yep – it’s pink.  It maintains all of the minerals and nutrients that unbleached salt has, and where it is mined (in the Great Salt Lake area of Utah), those minerals turn it pink.  I love the kosher grind – it works beautifully with my salt cellar.  Easy to pinch, spoon, or sprinkle – this stuff is SO good!  We have had friends who have suspiciously eyed the salt cellar and its contents at a meal, but after a gentle sprinkle and taste, they are converts. 

You don’t need much, as the flavour it imparts is significantly better than regular white salt.  One pound lasts us close to 4 months, and that includes all baking uses, seasoning-uses, and brining of meat.  There is no burning sensation on you tongue, and a sprinkle of this on freshly steamed broccoli will convince you that you don’t need Ranch Dressing or anything else to hide the taste of broccoli again.

Nicknamed in our house “Mormon Salt,” we won’t do without it.  Amazon doesn’t have it in bulk yet (but when they do, I’ll link to it), and the best price I’ve found is at Whole Foods – $6.59 per pound.  It’s expensive in comparison to Morton’s Iodized salt, but we use so much less to get more flavour in our food.  And beautifully, it contains natural iodide, and if you have high blood pressure, this salt will actually *lower* your blood pressure – naturally and without medication.

If you want more great items that others can’t do without, check out The Diaper Diaries.  If you want to link to your own “can’t do without,” use Mr. Linky below and send us to your Things I Love Thursday post. 

Baking soda isn’t glamourous and it’s not expensive.  It’s not even something I think about all that often – but I use it almost daily and couldn’t do without it.

I use enough baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) that I buy it by the 50lb bag at the local feed store (less than $15 for 50#) and keep it in the basement.  I use it in the kitchen (baking), but also for cleaning, laundry, and as a mild abrasive.

Baking soda has been around forever – my paternal grandmother used it as a child to clean her teeth.  A small wet cloth dipped in baking soda was sufficient for a tooth cleanser – long before toothpaste was around.

I have friends who make their own laundry detergent with baking soda; I’ve never done that, but I do use it in every load of laundry.  We have high efficiency machines and the pre-wash cycle adds about 10 minutes to the total laundry-time for a load.  But putting in 2 tablespoons of baking soda in to the prewash dispenser gets an extra layer of dirt out of the clothes and makes them smell SO much fresher!  I remember the first time I tried it – we had some bath towels that although they were clean, they never *smelled* fresh after coming from the washer & dryer.  I read online that another mom had great success getting her son’s football uniform free from “sweaty-kid-scent” by putting baking soda in the washer.  So I figured I had nothing to lose – and I was pleasantly surprised at how FRESH those towels smelled.  Now I use it in every load of laundry. 

Baking soda is a great way to freshen your carpets before vacuuming – sprinkle it liberally on your carpets and let it sit for at least 1 hour.  If you’ll be gone all day, that’s fine too – just vacuum it up after an hour (or more) and any odor in your carpet will be gone.

You can use it as a dry-shampoo for your dog – take a small amount in your palm and rub it in to the dog’s fur.  Brush it out again and your best friend will smell better and be cleaner than trying to mask the scent with doggie-perfume. 

It’s also great getting scuff marks from shoes off of vinyl flooring.  Just take a wet cloth or paper towel, dip it in the baking soda, and rub gently – no marking the flooring with a harsh abrasive, and it comes right off!

And if you ever need to strip build-up from your hair, this little trick will do a perfect job:  mix 3 T. of baking soda with 3 T. of shampoo and put the paste on your wet hair.  It will take some effort to get it inyour hair and lathered up, but once you do and then you rinse – your hair will be as squeaky clean as if you’d never had any product-build up on it. 

I love this stuff.  It’s not glamourous, it’s frugal, and it totally gets the job done.  What’s your favourite product that does more than you first expected it might?

What do you love? Use Mr. Linky to link to your “must have” or “things i love thursday” post!