Next Stop on the Tour of DIY Blogland

So there's a tour of Blogland, didja hear?

I get to answer some questions and then get excited to share one of my favorite DIY blogs!

So here's the deal: Gina from Ladygoats is one of those people that just touches things and they turn to gold. She brought sexy back with a bookshelf, you guys. One time, she text e-mailed me plans she drew out on a hotel memo pad to build a faux fireplace... whilst on vacation. She cracks me up. I love this girl - she is truly talented, and reminds us that we all have an inner Rosie the Riveter - why ask your husband to build your toddler a big kid bed when you can dang well do it yourself?! The fact that she featured me as someone she considers worth reading in the DIY Blogland Tour is quite the honor! <3

Chiles Rellenos

It means "stuffed peppers" in Spanish. Like everything, there are variations up the wazoo, because of taste preference, spiciness preference, regional traditions, and straight-up lack of or overabundance of know-how. I pretty much don't care at all about any other variation because.... well, this shiz is amazing, and ya don't fix what's not brok(en).

The recipe is cheese, encompassed in a vegetable, egged, fried, put into a delicious heart-attack sauce.... and accompanied by tortillas. Its a caloric nightmare, high in fat (at least its good stuff), and absolutely smothered in dairy. Healthy in any way? I'm not even going to try to justify it. There's some coconut oil in there, and some full-fat dairy... and veggies, but other than that, this isn't a good dish to eat on a regular basis. But is it delicious? You bet your buttons it is.

As always, this is a ridiculously time consuming recipe with way too many steps, but the outcome is delicious and technically vegetarian AND gluten free!

You're going to need a mixing bowl for whipping egg whites, a small bowl to hold egg yolks, a pan for roasting your peppers (every time I write "peppers," I first type "chiles," then have to delete it), a pan to make and contain your sauce, a pan to fry the peppers in, and a cooling rack for the chiles to rest on. Its a long list. And you're going to have a lot of dishes. This is also a doing-5-things-at-once recipe, so novice cooks, beware.

(Photography compliments of my phone - my four year-old decided my DSLR needed to be the catch of the day when he went "fishing" with his belt - when he saw that I saw what he was doing, he straight up dropped it. Children are not expensive because of food and clothing. Episodes like this are why children are expensive. Woosah...)

They're smaller than store-bought Poblanos,
but I GREW these sexy peppers.

Banishing the Alligator Skin

So my kids are both dry-skinned little ones. The big guy was diagnosed with eczema when he was teeny - probably two months old. The doctor prescribed him a topical steroid. She even told me, "if you apply this every day, it can thin his skin." And I still used it! (Can you believe that?!)

Eventually, at about age three, his skin softened up and we just stuck with using regular lotion on his extremities after a bath. He was fine.

Then the little one comes along, and he was a health nightmare! Among several health issues, he of course, had eczema. I didn't want to thin his skin with steroids - I was a bit more educated in natural approaches than I was both my big guy. While littlest was nursing, I eliminated meat, dairy, and peanuts from my diet to see if those were causing issues. They weren't. Dietarily, I was going about it improperly, but I didn't know that, three years ago.

When the little one turned three, his skin did not clear up. It got worse, in fact. He not only had dry skin, but it was rough, scabby, slightly discolored, and the poor guy complained that it itched  constantly. When I went to my [holistic practicing] doctor for my dry skin and allergies, she suggested eliminating dairy and gluten. Isn't that just a fad? I already buy organic, whole wheat flour, shouldn't that be enough? Pffft.

It took about four weeks for me to see any difference, but my face cleared up, my stomach deflated a bit (no, I didn't lose weight, sorry friends!), I could breathe (that was a plus), and I didn't need to scratch my legs with my driver's license every evening because they were so itchy. Mkay... fad or not, no gluten meant yes happy.

Meanwhile, I'm soaking my kid in oatmeal baths, exfoliating him with sugar scrubs, blobbing on straight Shea butter, and not using soap but twice a week on his dry, scabby skin.