Minor kitchen burns:-

Even if you do not like the taste of it one ingredient I think you should always have in a kitchen is HONEY. After working for years in commercial kitchens, I swear by the use of honey when a minor burn occurs. The amount of burns suffered in commecial kitchens is huge. The first time I was offered a jar of honey after a burn I thought they were joking, but I tried it and have used it every time since. Applying a thin layer of honey to the skin & leaving it on for a while first takes out the heat of the burn, but it also helps to prevent blistering. You can have a special burn treatment jar of honey by adding a few drops of teatree oil to the jar to make it even more effective. I have also heard of this being used for healing a dog bite inflicted on a lady who said the healing of the bite was clean & rapid by using honey & teatree to treat it with.

Potato poultice:-

Well, if you don’t like or don’t have any honey, try this remedy. Peel a potato & grate it. Grab a handful of the grated spud, give it a gentle squeeze and place it upon the effected area. This poultice again draws out the heat from the burn, but as always with minor burn treatments, including the one above, running the effected area under cold water is the first thing to do. You can wrap some cloth over the potato poultice and gently tie it around where your skin is burnt to be able to leave it on for a longer period.

Sunburn:-

I think that using Aloe Vera for sunburn is very well known & there are lots of products available for sunburn which include this great plant as it’s main ingredient. If you do get sunburnt & you do not have any Aloe products to hand or an Aloe plant close by to pick your own skin soother than this one is much easier to find.

 A good, old fashioned, simple teabag.

A used teabag, cooled and dabbed onto the skin, helps to take the heat out of the burn & prevent blistering. This, I think, is due to the tannins in the tea but it does work & you should never be too far away from a nice cup of tea.

No, this is no discounted special offer. Just the wonderful power of nature itself. No Dr’s. No painful red, burning face for days & days.

I have never, ever facied the idea of having a chemical peel to make me look younger, get rid of my lines or whatever reasons people put themselfs through unessesary rish & pain for.

But…… that has changed. I will probably now have 1 weekly, or at least on a regular basis.

There is a fab series running at the moment called ” Grow your own drugs “.

Etnobotanist James Wong shows how to make natural treatments for certain ailments, such as motion sickness, insomnia, and the common cold as well as showing how you can make your own beauty treatments using bits of nature picked from your garden & hedgerows or local shop.

One of the treatments in his episode about fruit was a kiwi & papaya face mask.

I tried it tonight & it is great!

All you need is:

1 kiwi fruit

1 lime

1/2 papaya

2 sachets of gelatine

click on this link to see all James Wongs recipies in the eries or to view episode:

www.bbc.co.uk/growyourowndrugs

I enjoyed the preparation of making the peel in my kitchen & the applied it warm. It felt & smelt wonderful.

I left it on for 1 hour & sat at my desk, perusing the net peeling bits off my face. The bits I peeled off looked like transparrant satsuma peel. When I felt that I was being mingin enough, peeling away at my face I went and washed my face in warm water. My face now feels smooth as a babys bum & feels, oh so clean. I don’t think my face has felt any cleaner after a sauna & steamroom session. It’s that good! And still a bit tingly now, 1 hour after rinsing. But, it is a clea tingle, not a stingy one.

When I was peeling the drier parts it reminded me of a slightly evil thing I did years ago to an ex boyfriend.

We were sitting on the floor, in a darkened room, infront of an open fire, slightly inebriated & watching the original Alien film. I got up to go to the loo during an ad break & saw on my bathroom shelf a peel off face mask. I applied it a sat rapidly in front of the tv again. I waied ’til a second before the bit where the dogs head splits open like a banana & an alien bursts out of it. I pocked my ex in the ribs and said hey watch this & pulled my face off! He freaked for a second. Much better reaction than I anticipated.

Anyway, I really recomend this kiwi & papaya face mask. I also recomend the programme ” grow your own drugs “.

James Wong as mentioned above, is an ethnobotanist.   Ethobotany is the scientific study of the relationship between people & plants & combines the knowledge of botany, chemistry & anthropology.

Groovy job.  Gardening should be in the school curriculum.

I first tried dandelion coffee a couple of years ago as I was wanting to detox from caffine for a while. My friend had some dandelion coffee which she offered me to try. I rushed to the health food shop the next day to get myself some as I liked it so much. With regular coffee I take milk, but when I drink dandelion coffee I much prefer it black. It has a deep, earthy taste which to me has a hint of liquorice to the taste. The bitterness of the dandelion stimulates the liver, bile flow and digestion.

I have not yet tried to make my own, but I do intend to dig up the roots of dandelions sometime when I see a large area covered in dandelions and to dry them out & roast them and make some of my own. Yet annother thing to add to my things to do list to expand upon my homemade kitchen larder.

I was looking through a recipe book the other night looking for a recipe for pakora. On my shelf was a recipe book that I bought at Samye Ling Tibetan Monastry in the Scottish borders. I saw a recipe for Colostrum which I found rather strange but now it makes more sense.

Colostrum is the “first milk” produced from a cow when it’s young are born, otherwise known as “beastings”. I found this a little strange as I had been under the impression that the Monks at Samye Ling were supposed to be vegan or at least very strict vegetarian. Well that was what I belived before I stayed there for a couple of nights a few years ago. Yes, the food served was healthy vegetarian wholefood. The prridege was inedible though ( the most wallpaper paste consistency I have ever known for porridge. I am glad that I love it raw now so will not offend anyone who offers me a bowl that I can’t eat without gagging!

The other things I found bizzare about staying there was “the smoking corner down by the burn” as this is supposed to be a strictly no smoking, no drinking site, hence why I booked myself in there for 2 nights and headed there with some herbal teas, yoga mat and NO tabacco ( as I was wanting a chilled out place to start my nicotine withdrawl from). Then I overheard a monk saying that he had bacon & eggs for breakfast tomorrow and inviting his friend round to share it. Then the really funny one was when the firealarm went off about 2am and a monk was going a bit beserk swearing openly about the guy who was the one nominated to attend any firedrills and the going beserk monk was ranting that he should have been in his bloody caravan. Samye Ling is a pretty stunning place in the middle of such beautiful countryside but it did not meet my expectations of a chilled environment with everyone mucking in on the daily food prep and gardening chores I had read about.

Here is the recipe from the Samye Ling cookery book:

Colostrum, also known as “first milk” or “beasings”, is the milk which comes from the cow directly after calving/ First milk contains 20% albuminous matter and has a very yellow colour. Sinve ther is often too much for the young calf, we often get our custard from the excess beastings. As it coagulates upon heating, due to the high albumen content, just put in a pirex or baking trays, sprinkle ground nutmeg on top and bake in a moderate oven until set.

I looked up colostrum in Tibetan culture:

In Tibetan culture it is noted that colostrum has especially regenerative properties & it symbolises spirtual nourishment and the abandonment of negative actions.

Melatonin is a natural hormone made by your body’s pineal gland - a pea-sized gland located just above the middle of the brain. During the day the pineal is inactive. When the sun goes down and darkness occurs, the pineal is “turned on” and begins to actively produce melatonin, which is released into the blood. Usually, this occurs around 9 p.m. As a result, melatonin levels in the blood rise sharply and you begin to feel less alert. Sleep becomes more inviting. Melatonin levels in the blood stay elevated for about 12 hours - all through the night - before the light of a new day when they fall back to low daytime levels by about 9 a.m. Daytime levels of melatonin are barely detectable.

What foods contain Melatonin:

Melatonin is found in oats, sweetcorn, rice, and in dark fruits and berries.

Grapes:

source cbsnews.com:
(WebMD) Scientists in Italy have uncorked a new finding about grapes: The juicy fruit might be packing melatonin, a sleep hormone.

In humans, the brain’s pineal gland makes melatonin to help regulate cycles of sleep and wakefulness. Melatonin levels rise in the evening as a cue for sleep, and ebb as dawn approaches.

News about a possible link between grapes and the sleep hormone appears in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture’s early online edition.

Researchers included Marcello Iriti, Ph.D., of Milan’s Istituto di Virologia Vegetale (Institute of Vegetable Virology).

They tested extracts from eight types of grapes — Nebbiolo, Croatina, Sangiovese, Merlot, Marzemino, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Barbera — for melatonin and found evidence of the hormone.

Cherries:

Source choose cherries.com:

It takes mere seconds to reset our watch to a different time zone after an international flight, but it takes longer for our body’s internal time clocks to adjust.  Frequent travelers often stash a bottle of melatonin in their carry-on bag to help fight jet lag, but now they may have a more natural and tasty way to prepare for the trip: cherries.

Cherries are one of the few known food sources of melatonin, a potent antioxidant produced naturally by the body’s pineal gland that helps regulate biorhythm and natural sleep patterns.  Scientists have found melatonin-rich tart cherries (commonly enjoyed as dried, frozen, juice or concentrate) contain more of this powerful antioxidant than what is normally produced by the body.  Eating cherries can be a natural way to boost your body’s melatonin levels to hasten sleep and ease jet lag.

Interesting:

What I found interesting, on hearing tonight about Melatonin and sleep patterns, is the fact that since I started taking Juice Plus, my sleep is deep and my initial waking is a lot more focused that before. Juice plus is a wholefood nutritional suppliment containing raw fruits and vegetables, including cherries. ( see my post dated August 28th ). My friend who introduced me to this nutritional suppliment commented that better sleep was ( for her also ) very noticeable also within just a few days.

Goodnight & sweet dreams x

I am currently slightly addicted to the commercial version we buy in the uk, and as Japan is notorious for it’s ceremonious ways of drinking tea I wondered if there were special occasions when rice crackers were given & of course there is.

There are 2 main categories of rice crackers ( senbi & Arare ), although both categories come in various shapes, flavours and colours.

senbei made from japonica rice are crispy, flat but come in various shapes, usually savory and are fried, charcoal baked or grilled. There are over 15 types of sweet senbi and you can also get fish senbei, lotus senbei and bone senbei. I am assuming that the lotus senbei is using the lotus flower root and the bone senbei is using fish bones but I cannot find literature to confirm this, any comments from someone with more knowledge on the ingredients for the senbei would be most welcome. Flavourings include shoyu a salty soy sauce and mirrin a type of rice wine (less alcoholic than sake). More modern flavorings for senbei may include curry powder, wasabi ( nick named the japenese horseraddish ) chocolate and a very interesting ( and new to me!) kimchi which I read about on a site about healthy eating superfoods. Visit http://:www.eating.health.com/2008/02/01/worlds-healthiest-foods-kimchi-korea/ to read about kimichi.

ARARE are made form glutinous rice and are often baked with soya beans or peanuts inside which I find particuarly devilishly moorish! These are also often coated with sesame seeds or wrapped in norimaki edible seaweed.

Nori

300,000 metric tons of nori seaweed is harvested in Japan every year and is preesed and dried in the sun in racks of bamboo mats.

Nori is not only native to Japan though. It is found in the North Sea, Pacific coasts, Baltic Sea, Atlantic and alco on Hawaiian beaches.

In Ireland & Wales Nori is eaten as a freash vegetable, called Sloe in Ireland and Laver in Wales where they make Laver bread.

Laver is black with a purple sheen and is mild tasting.

Senbi as offerings:

Senbi is often offered to visiting house guests along with green tea and during the Second World War senbi was stamped with the imperial crest as a token of recognition and presented as a gesture of gratitude by the Japanese emperor.

Senbei & Arare are distinguished by there size, Arare bing the smaller bite sized type.

Arare in cultural celebrations:

Brightly coloured Arare are consumed on March 3rd each year in Japan to celebrate girls day & Japans Doll Festival.

As porrige oats is a slow release energy food it is a great way to start the day on a cold winters morning & as a couple of hardened camping friends of mine at Glastonbury festival taught me this year it can also be pretty good raw with cold milk & fruit on a hot summers day to give the energy needed to last for several hours.

Porridge is a great breakfast as it has a low Glycaemic Index & so is absorbed slowly into the bloodstream helping to keep blood sugar levels stable.

In Scotland the traditional way to prepare porridge is by using oatmeal, water & salt. The traditional tool for stirring the porridge is a flat, wooden spatula like tool called a spurtle. The World Porridge Making Championships (The Golden Spurtle) are held in Carrbridge in Inverness-shire where contestants make a traditional bowl & a speciality bowl, which in last year championships included one participant making porridge ice-cream. That I’d like to try, well, I’ve had Irn Bru sorbet & that was good. Personally I tend to stick to cooked porridge with dates & honey or brown sugar, I went through a phase of adding dried apple slices to my hot breakfast but my dried apple supply ran out but it was a really nice addition to my morning oats.

Talking of which it is said that porridge can boost libido by balancing the testosterone & oestrogen levels in the body.

Porridge oats do have many uses though appart from providing fuel for the body.

A good facial scrub can be made from pounding porridge oats & salt with a pestle and mortar & adding olive oil.This can be kept in the fridge for subsequent facials.

A way of reducing excema is too put some oats in a tied up sock and to soak the sock and dab onto effected areas.In early Greek & Roman civilizations oats were added to baths to help heal minor skin dissorders.

Oats are a very good natural anti-depressant & also a natural anti-inflamatory.

Beta-Glucan in the cell walls of oat kernals stimulate immune system & aid healing.

Many of these uses for porridge oats have been around for many years but one thing I learnt about porridge recently from ” The Book Of General Ignorance” is how it was used for a nutritional study in the 1950’s.

Quoted from “The Book Of General Ignorance” ISBN 0-571-23368-6

I the 1950’s, researchers from Quaker Oats, Harvard University & The Massachusetts Intitute of Technology conducted experiments to try and understand how nutrients from cereals travelled through the body.

Parents of educationally subnormal children at the Walter E. Fernald State School ( formerly known as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic Children) were asked to let their children become members of a special science club. As part of the club, the children were put on a diet high in nutrients and taken to baseball games.

What was not made clear, however, was that the food the children were given was laced with iron and radioactive calcium so it’s path could be traced in the body. The parents sued the Quaker Oats Company, who agreed to pay out $1.85 million to more than 100 participants in 1997.

My final comment on porridge tonight is that oat porridge has been found in the stomachs of 5,000 year old neolithic bog bodies in Central Europe and Scandinavia. So people have been fueling their bodies with the humble porridge for a long, long time.