1 a shout out to coconut oil

i know this might be random,
but i keep telling friends about the magic of coconut oil,
and with all the ads about amazing skin treatments and hair serums and healthy oil alternatives,
i had to chime in.

since i have lived here in san diego, it's been the buzz. it's even bigger than kale, and running,
which are both a big deal for some reason....

my uncle, the health guru, was spooning it into his veggies that he roasts in a large batch weekly,
and i asked him what that was all about....

he taught me why it is good to use coconut oil to cook and bake with... it's a healthier oil to begin with, and it doesn't oxidize like other oils do when heated in a pan- so it still retains all it's goodness.

then, when at a friend's house for dinner, {who has now sadly moved back to arizona without us}
she had her own little container of coconut oil that she said she used as a moisturizer/night cream.
genius. and who knew?

so, on a week when he wasn't too excited about the extra $30 on the costco bill,
i just threw in a huge container of the stuff.

that was a handful of months ago,
it's half-full now {as apposed to half-empty of course. i am an optimist after all}

not only do i use it on my dry face and skin before i go to bed at night, but every so often when i demand whine nicely for a massage, it doubles as perfect massage oil cause it melts in your hands. good stuff i tell you... i also use a small dot before i put on make-up for the day. it's the perfect primer too.

and not only do i use it exclusively while i cook instead of olive oil or the spray stuff, i have added it to many a baked good with success.

AND, my new favorite: for my hair.

i wouldn't recommend it if your hair is greasy to begin with,
but i have thick, dry, frizzy hair. which is only worse in the humid summer here...
i am the kind to put grease in my hair, and after 5 days, it's still dry...
it means i can go a week without washing it, but it also means it's always thirsty.
even here where my car is covered in a new layer of dew every day.

so instead of getting the annual brazilian blow-out that my aunt and her lady friends get at the beginning of every summer,
i use a small amount in my dry ends and it's even better than any serum i use.
nuts, but worth a try, if you have hair like mine!

this is me after my hair air dries, and then after i add in a tiny bit of coconut oil starting with my ends. {no, i haven't straightened or curled it yet, so it's not cute, per say, but much easier to work with!}

sorry for the pathetic iphone fotos, but really, was i going to wait to let cc do that?
i have a little dignity, folks...

2 sweet baby calvin the brave // and his genius mom

this is jess.

she's such a dear friend, and i basically told her i was coming whether she wanted me or not.
i wanted to catch her and her little dude, her third boy.

and her house with it's glorious window light,
and filled with love, is the perfect place to be.

he is so sweet, and while we had him asleep for awhile, it didn't last long.
he's going to be like his mother, perhaps. alert, busy, creative.

since i first saw her house i was wishing i had a camera with me. every inch is decorated so cute,
and screams JESS! she is bright and colorful and eclectic,
and i love her.

she named her little guy calvin brave, which makes me so happy too.
what a brave little guy to come to a family of all boys...

isn't she to die for?

she just built that foux fireplace so she can take it anywhere.

and that yellow shelf was once a full coffee table, now cut down the middle.

genius, this woman is.

5 kidecals // a fun giveaway!

so,

this cute company sent me some fun stuff to try out and i have to say,
i am loving working on my new teal keys!

kidecals has lots of cute personalizable stickers that are waterproof, so you can organize or monogram just about anything. i think that's fabulous.
you may have seen them recently on the today show here...

and since i went to this wedding and saw the cute chalkboard labels on mason jars i was hoping to find more. {yes, i snagged up 6 of them, but wanted to be sure to make more somehow!} since these are waterproof, they can go in the dishwasher- winner! i had to have them... the cute nerd sticker is also a business card, but now lives on the front of my planner. that's genius.
how did they know me so well?!

images from kidecals

my friends over at kidecals wanted to be sure you could try out some free stuff too, so they are giving away some cash to come check em out.

be sure and enter below and go send em some love.

note: it takes a second to load the rafflecopter. be patient.
note: i only include all of these social media sites cause who knows, what if you are a twitter only person? i just want you to have options. see how nice i am?


a Rafflecopter giveaway

2 quick n dirty nerdy tip // recipe box

since i've been posting more recipes,

i have been asked a handful of times how to make that cute little box around recipes.

so i'm just going to give you the hot tip on this one.

it makes me happy every time i do it.

lots of you actual food bloggers have widgets and things on wordpress that make this real easy,
it practically does all the hard stuff for you, and often has places to print recipe and all that good stuff...

if you don't, this code will work no matter what you're on. just be sure it goes in the right place...

so, once you have written the post, and your recipe looks how you want it with spaces/formatting...etc., switch over to your html view {in the post, not your template},
and find your title to your recipe.
{or whatever you want to put in a box}
like this:

then find the last "closed" tag before it. a closed tag, will have the "/" before it. in this case </div> is the most recent. why? cause this is a formatting tag. if you place your code before it, it will mess with your formatting. {cause things to be large, or bolded..etc. whatever the formatting is set to there in your code.}

place the following code just AFTER that closing tag:

-->

<blockquote style="background-color: #ffffff; border: 2px dashed #888d8d; padding: 10px;">

and at the end of your recipe, post this code:


<br /></blockquote>
until this code is entered, it might give you an error message telling you your code is invalid. cause it is, until we close it with that end code.

now go check your compose view again. if you did it right, you'll have a box around your recipe and it will be centered pretty in the middle! if it's there, but your formatting is now screwy, you can fix most of that now, except for spacing. text style, size, & color can be changed without moving your box.

if you ruined it big time and put it in the wrong place {i've done this multiple times}, you can always select all of the text there in your box and click the "unformat" button in compose view. it's the little T with an x by it. {this removes formatting so it will look clean again in html view and you can start over.}

changes:

the background-color: this is the color of the inside of your box. you can shade in your box any color you'd like. don't know how to find colors? go to colorpicker.com and grab the code of the color you want!

border: the px is the thickness, if you want a thinner line, go for 1px, or larger, go for 3px...etc. i have my line dashed, but you can put "solid" or "dotted" or "double" here. play around until you like it. the color goes right after this and is the color of your line, again, go ahead and change that all you want too! 

extra tip: change the text color of your recipe. if you want to have the text of this box all one color, and different from the rest of your blog post, add <span style="color: #444444;"> to the end of the first code, and an extra </span> to the beginning of the second code. then obviously, change that color to whatever you want....

2 pizza night // clifford style

we like pizza at our house.

and even more when mom is pregnant.

a while ago we were in the habit of pizza night-ing it almost once a week,

and friends were mandatory.

we like the attention of the show we put on...

the dough, the paddle, the oohs and ahhs when they come out one at a time,

the fact that you almost have to eat them as they come out, so it's like snacking for 2 hours.

i love it all.

this recipe was developed my brother,

who is a really good cook and who will eventually open a restaurant.

i've been using it for the last few years and we really like it.

this time we made spicy hawaiian with jalepenos, BBQ chicken with bell peppers and red onion,

and we even tried a yummy spinach alfredo with chicken and bell pepper.

hence why i love pizza/ do-what-ever-you-want night.

easy peasy pizza dough recipe
rich moffat


3 package active dry or fresh yeast (4 ½ tsp)
3 cups warm water (110 degrees)
3 Tbs sugar
6 cups Bread flour or other high-gluten flour
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tsp salt

add all ingredients except salt and 3 cups of the flour to mixer. mix for 1 minute or until all ingredients incorporate. the dough should appear wet like a pancake batter. let stand for 20 minutes in the mixer. the dough will almost double in size. run the mixer for another 10 minutes. this will effectively kneed the dough. run the mixer for an additional 3 minutes, adding the remaining flour until the mix forms a ball around the hook. let stand in mixer for another 20 minutes.

divide the dough into 8 balls, about 6 ounces each. work each ball by pulling down the sides and tucking under the bottom of the ball. repeat 4 or 5 times. roll the ball under the palm of your hand until the top of the dough is smooth and firm.

roll each out into circles and cook on a preheated stone {at least 350 degrees}. i like to butter the edges to get a fluffy golden crust and prevent it from burning. in the last few minutes of cooking, slide off onto the bare rack for a little extra love on the bottom.

enjoy!

0 instalife // #birthdays #momday

my birthday,

was fun.

i did absolutely nothing all day and it felt awesome.

then cc took our kid to the fam,

and i opened my card & gift, which had this iron man mask in it.

hilarious.

the gift was a gel nail lamp and polish so i can do my own gel & shellac!

if you come visit me, i'll give you a gel mani-pedi.

cause that just sounds fun.

 

we went to the fancy mall in la jolla, 

where the awesome arclight theater is,

found some super tasty indian food,

then saw iron man 3.

{the best of the 3 so far. believe me on this.}

my mom sent me this yummy birthday package

from her home cookie biz here

it was a beautiful day.

and such a fun night out with that guy i like so much...

and after the week from hell with a 2 year old,

i was very grateful to have another holiday about me so soon after.

cc always does a great job of stepping in and taking care of me if and when i need him,

which lately, is more and more.

i don't have air conditioning,

so on days like today, when it is 80 something degrees, it is that in my house.

lets just say, when my coconut oil melts,

it's hot.

this is what most nights look like:

cc relieving me, and giving sweet boy the much-needed attention he's been deprived of all day.

it about drains my mom heart right out of me.

mom day...

of course he made me breakfast.

bossy requested pancakes, so thats what cc made us.

banana pancakes with strawberries. perfect.

then he actually got on etsy all by himself and had this hand-stamped necklace for me...

a B and an R for my Boston and Reese

{since many have asked baby girl's name}

can't change the name now!

i love my sweet boys.

thanks for making my days so special.