Tuesday Spotlight: Pear

Welcome to our Tuesday Spotlight. This week, the spotlight is on our Pear soap and moisturizer. If you love fruity scents, this week will make you smile. After all, making you smile is one of our main goals. I discovered this delicious pear scent very early in my soap-making journey, and it has remained unchanged and a popular scent in our soap family.

Like all our products, Pear soap and moisturizer begin with our fresh, raw goat’s milk. We then lovingly add skin conditioning oils and clean, cruelty-free ingredients to create our lovely, fresh, fruity-scented products. As always, our weekly special is exclusive to the website. No promo code is needed to save. Savings will be applied at checkout, and all orders of $50 or more ship for free six days a week. We pride ourselves on fast shipping and excellent customer service. As long as USPS can keep up, you will have your products within a few days.

Whether stocking up on a favorite, trying something new, or purchasing an affordable gift, now is a wonderful time to stock up. On this blustery November day, stay safe, be smart, enjoy the savings, and keep washing your hands.

Making Good Memories

Welcome to another Monday, dear reader. I had such a good weekend. My friends took me to Pittsburgh this weekend for a belated birthday celebration. We spent the day at the Pittsburgh Glass Center learning how to blow glass ornaments. Glass blowing is something I have a fascination with, and I have wanted to try it for many years now. It was as cool and interesting as I thought it would be. To add to the enjoyment, I spent the day with some of my favorite people and made a new friend.

I’m not sure what began my fascination with glass blowing; perhaps it is the lovely blown glass pumpkins that have been popular for the past several years. Anyhow, trying glass blowing made it onto my fifty fun things list. Remember the list I made when I turned fifty, lost, and then forgot most of what was on it? Yeah, glass-blowing made it on the list, and I remembered it. It was a very cool experience.

However, I was a bit disappointed at the lack of hands-on that was provided. I imagined I would take the steel rod, swirl it in the furnace filled with molten glass, then get to roll it and blow it. Sadly, I was given a paper straw and told when to blow the glass after the instructor got to play with the molten glass lava and rolled it out onto a cool steel slab. When I innocently reached for the steel rod in the melting furnace, I was told I didn’t get to touch anything…sigh. I suppose it is for safety and insurance purposes, but he ruined my glass-blowing experience. Well, not really. I was just a smidge disappointed. I get that people do dumb things, and they could get hurt. I’m not going to lie; it took all my willpower not to poke the molten glass with a steel rod. I know, I know, I’m why no one is permitted to play with molten glass.

Anyhow, I made a blown glass ornament in dark green with white spots. We could do a striped technique or a spotted technique, and I opted for the spotted. I also was not permitted to roll the molten glass in little colored glass beads…very disappointing. I was afraid if I reached for the steel rod again, I might get my fingers slapped…sigh. However, our instructor was a lovely man and laughed at our conversation about “super gonorrhea.” You’ve got to appreciate a man who can laugh over STD jokes with a group of women.

My ornament will be shipped in five days. The glass must cool down slowly so it doesn’t shatter, and then it must cure for a bit. I am looking forward to my ornament arriving. I plan to hang it in my dining room window rather than hang it on the tree. It is too lovely and filled with too many good memories not to enjoy it year-round.

On this lovely November morning, stay safe, be smart, do things to make good memories, enjoy the good people in your life, and keep washing your hands.

Foodie Friday: Keith's Sausage Stuffing

Welcome to the Foodie Friday before Thanksgiving. It’s unfathomable that Thanksgiving is next week. The year is certainly flying by, and we are in the throes of the holiday season. As we move through life, we accumulate friends, family, and, if we’re lucky, friends who become family. Over time, we gather little snippets of wisdom, experience, life lessons, memories, traditions, and often, recipes. My poor old, torn, and time-worn Tinkerbell folder, where I keep my recipes, has seen better days. I keep thinking that I need to write down all my favorite recipes on actual recipe cards and keep them in an old-fashioned recipe box or put my collection of recipes in a personal cookbook for my little bean. This is something I wish I had from my grandmothers and my mom. Perhaps this will be one of my goals for 2024.

As I have moved through life, I have picked up a variety of traditions from close friends. My dear friend from elementary school had a tradition of placing a silver dollar underneath each dinner plate on New Year’s Day while they ate pork and sauerkraut, believing this would bring good luck and prosperity for the upcoming new year. The Schmidt twins shared their tradition of singing a hilarious version of The Bear Went Over The Mountain immediately after singing Happy Birthday. As a family, we opened our gifts one at a time on Christmas morning so we could all enjoy the receiver’s reaction to the present. We also open our stockings after all the gifts have been opened.

As with traditions, I have collected various recipes from those who have come into my life at different stages. Church Window cookies are a recipe I have from an ex-boyfriend’s British mother. I have Christmas cookie recipes from both of my grandmothers. I continue to make various dishes from recipes my sister, who is a good cook, collected over the years. Of course, I also have recipes my mom made while I was growing up. Now, I also include recipes from Grambarb, who is a phenomenal cook. However, I also have recipes from friends and other family members that have become part of the fabric for our holiday meals.

In our house, Thanksgiving wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without Eric’s brother-in-law, Keith’s Sausage Stuffing. Keith shared this recipe during one of our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, and it has been part of our Thanksgiving dinner table ever since. Today, I will share this delicious recipe with you.

Keith’s Sausage Stuffing

Ingredients:

1 package cubed stuffing mix

1 shallot or ½ a small onion

2 medium Granny Smith apples

1 small can of mushrooms

1 can of chicken broth

1 lb. of loose sausage

2 stalks of celery

Poultry seasoning

Directions:

Prepare the stuffing as directed on the package. Brown the sausage and cook the onions and mushrooms with the sausage. Mix the prepared stuffing, sausage, onion, and mushrooms. Slice the celery and add to the stuffing. Dice the apples and add them last so they don’t turn brown. Add the apples to the mixture. Sprinkle the poultry seasoning to taste and mix thoroughly. Add the chicken broth and mix thoroughly. Place in a prepared baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Serve immediately.

On this last Foodie Friday before Thanksgiving, stay safe, be smart, gather traditions as well as friends and family, enjoy delicious food because life is short, and keep washing your hands.