I love making homemade body products, and scrubs made with sugar (or salt) are particularly easy to put together. They are pretty inexpensive and another plus: they’re free of the potentially toxic chemicals that similar store-bought products may contain.

I’ve got a bit of an obsession with tangerines lately, so I used tangerine essential oil, as well as tangerine zest, to scent this scrub. Tangerine essential oil is said to be calming to the mind as well as uplifting to the spirit, which all sounds good to me, but you could certainly use a different essential oil (such as lavender) if you like. In fact, in the photo above, the brown sugar scrub was made with lavender essential oil.

Though I do enjoy the way my skin feels when I exfoliate with sugar (or salt) scrubs, it’s important to note that these can be pretty abrasive. I wouldn’t use this or a similar product on a daily basis because you will quickly strip away your skin’s natural oils if you do. I like to use this type of scrub once or twice a week at most. (According to Dina Falconi, author of Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Personal Care for Every Body, it’s better to use scrubs made from ground grains and seeds if you like to scrub frequently. These gently cleanse and polish, without stripping away the skin’s protective oils.) Another caution: be sure to use care on sensitive areas of your body, such as your face.

I store my scrubs in pretty glass jars. Weck jars are perfect (be sure to enter my weck jar giveaway!).

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Have you discovered Weck glass jars yet? They’re beautiful and so very wonderful to have around the kitchen. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be used for storing a great many things: from herbs and spices to nuts and seeds and dried beans to fresh juice. You can also make and store homemade body products in them (this is a tangerine sugar scrub, the recipe for which I will share in a separate post)…

…and you may water-bath can in them, too. Below you see tangerine vanilla marmalade (yup, I do love tangerines). The recipe is from Marmalade: Sweet and Savory Spreads for a Sophisticated Taste.

One of the best things about these jars is that they are made of thick glass to withstand boiling and sterilization. Also, the glass lids are immune to rusting and may be used many times (and since they are made of glass and not aluminum, there is none of the BPA coating that is found on metal canning jar lids). If you are interested in canning in Weck jars, be sure to familiarize yourself with the these guidelines from Weck. Also, please read this helpful post from Marisa over at Food in Jars.

I love Weck jars, but they are a little pricey. So I was really excited when Mighty Nest asked if they could send some jars to me. What’s Mighty Nest? It’s an online store specializing in natural, non-toxic products for the kitchen and home. Mighty Nest offers an incredibly comprehensive selection of beautiful, durable items that are 100% free of harmful chemicals: it’s the perfect place to shop for many of your green living needs.

Mighty Nest has also generously offered to send a Weck jars prize pack to one of my readers.

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It does not take all that much to make me happy in the food department these days: a thick slice of homemade honey-sweetened bread topped with fat spears of oil-doused, roasted asparagus and a perfectly-poached egg definitely does it.

I recently wrote about wanting more cake in my life. Same goes for bread.

You are probably wondering what’s going on. Am I on a carb binge or something? No… not at all, but I AM eating more carbs (and more food in general) these days. Since I started doing a lot of weight training a few months ago, I have found that I simply need to eat more that I was eating previously (plus I really do believe there is room for both bread AND cake in a healthy, balanced diet).

Good bread is tasty, and it’s a damn convenient food to have in the house. When I have time, I bake my own. It’s something I have always loved to do, but I will be honest with you: for years, I felt like I was doing something “wrong” when I baked bread since I’d convinced myself bread was “bad” for me based on everything I’ve read that demonizes wheat and gluten. Well, I am done with that way of thinking. I am done with categorizing foods as “bad” or “good”. It’s all just food after all: I choose to eat more of some things and less of others, and that’s that (no one in my family has problems with wheat or gluten so there is simply no reason for us to completely avoid them).

If you want to read a little more about where I am at with all of this right now, here you go: My Open Letter To Everyone Who Eats.

The recipe for the honey wheat bread and this dish both come from a new book called Relish: An Adventure in Food, Style, and Everyday Fun by Daphne Oz. I don’t spend much time in front of the tv (unless you count the re-runs of The Nanny and Full House that I watch with my daughter), so I had honestly never heard of the author before this book landed in my mailbox (thanks to the publisher, who sent me a review copy). That said, Daphne is apparently the cohost of a show called The Chew; she is also Dr Mehmet Oz’s daughter.

I’ve only perused the book so far and really can’t speak to much of the content, but I will say that the recipes are pretty lovely, and the photography is really stunning. Also, the book just has a happy “vibe” to it so I do plan to sit down and actually read it soon.

I had this dish for lunch yesterday, but I think it would make the perfect Mother’s Day meal if you are looking for something to that effect. Have a happy weekend, everyone!

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