Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Adventures with mink oil

Adventures with mink oil
I have a customer that has been looking for pure mink oil.. I happen to sell it
I have only used it as a lip gloss and on my face and arms but never on leather so I tried it today
I took an old Coach bag I got in Key West that
has been hanging  in my closet for the last 6 year
it was dirty dust and very dull looking


I like the way it came out
The mink completely soaked into the leather
there is a beautiful sheen to it. All the scratches that were on the back are gone. I cant even feel the scratches. The smell -top note is leather bottom note is mink

Tropical fruit trees

I have a assortment of tropical fruit trees that I have been collecting 
This is the key lime tree
She was a few inches tall when I got her.. She survived the frost in SW Florida last year when it got down to the 30s. I was in Texas when this happen out of the blue, it never gets that cold here
She is 5 years old. Last year she was full of flowers but no fruit ,this year came the fruit
 I will be making key lime pie

This one below is called a a frangipani or plumeria the ley flower
These are the flowers they use to make ley's in Hawaii 
This was just a stick I got from someone in Key West
It dies it comes back it dies it comes back .
These will get huge when planted in the grown 
This one you can just stick it in the grown and it will grown no experience necessary
Just flowers no fruit
On the left
This one below I  got in Miami a couple weeks ago. It did not like the 5 hour  ride home in the back of the truck
This is called guanĂ¡bana or soursop.
Its flavor is described as a combination of strawberry and pineapple with sour citrus flavor notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavor reminiscent of coconut or banana.
I cant wait. This should product fruit in about 1 1/2 years
I have these in pots,   if the weather gets cold again I can move them

On the right is the brewster lychee
this will have beautiful bright red fruit
Cant wait until I have fruit



 
I have some activity with the lychee tree

 

Cooked Bananas in Lychee Coconut Sauce

by Deborah Adams - Holiday/Seasonal Cooking Editor for BellaOnline.com

Ingredients:
1½ cups canned seedless

5 bananas ripe
1 cup coconut milk
1½ tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. sugar
¼ tsp. cinnamon powder
¼ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp vanilla

Directions:
Steam bananas , skins intact.
Allow to steam for 4-5 minutes.
Peel, keeping bananas whole. Set aside.

To make sauce:

Warm flour, cinnamon, nutmeg in a pan.
Add sugar, mix well.
Add coconut milk and lychee syrup, stirring continuously, till mixture is smooth.
Add vanilla.
Cook further for a few minutes, until sauce is thickened.
Serve poured over hot bananas.

Good served as a dessert or a sweet side dish with Seafood, Ham, Turkey or Chicken.

Lychee Ice Cream

1½ cups  seedless lychee's  diced
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
¾ cup sugar
2 egg yolks, beaten
¼ cup fresh lemon juice 1. Combine the cream, milk and sugar in a saucepan or double boiler; heat until warm and the sugar is completely dissolved. Add 1 cup of the cream mixture to the yolks while whisking lightly. Gradually pour the egg mixture back into the cream mixture while continuing to whisk lightly.
2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the back of your spoon is thinly coated, about 8 minutes. Do not allow to boil or the ice cream custard mixture will curdle.
3. Add the lychee and lemon juice and let it cool in the refrigetator overnight.
4. Freeze in an electric or manual ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. If you don't have an ice cream maker you can put the ice cream custard in a bowl and put it in your freezer until frozen.
4 Servings
Recipe by Martin Yan, celebrated host of more than 1,500 cooking shows, highly respected food and restaurant consultant, and certified Master Chef, enjoys distinction as both a teacher and author. His many talents have found unique expression in 24 cookbooks; his most recent releases are "Martin Yan's Feast: The Best of Yan Can Cook," "Chinese Cooking for Dummies" and "Martin Yan's Asian Favorites." www.yancancook.com
'BrewsterT


This is my lemon tree
normally this is packed with lemons pretty much year round.  After the frost last year it stopped flowering
I'm bringing it back to life
Banana  trees grow like weeds
once you have one you will always have them
I am always chopping these down
Star fruit
This tree is actually next door but there is plenty of fruit to go around. This tree is 5 years old

This is a really cool plant the Staghorn Furn 
I feed it bananas from the bananas tree
It was a tiny little thing 5 years ago





The herb garden


While in Miami a few weeks ago I met a amazing lady
We call her the herb lady
She has the first in ground summing pool in South Dade. Build in the 1920.s
Bought some herbs from her and that started the herb garden

We have tomatoes

I always have extra buckets from my supplies that I purchase for the company 
Normally I recycle them
Today 10-26-10  tomatoes and zucchini  were planted
It will be interesting to see if the bug manage to find the plants 
This was painted with my soap colors I don't recommended this.
Soap colors will wash off

 This is about 2 weeks after planting
t
this is about a month after planting

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

My New Toy

I have wanted a soap cutter for the longest time
This is the front view

You place you soap in the platform
And slice. .
Pretty cool huh?