Tip to bake cakes evenly

Today was  my oldest son's birthday and I made him a german chocolate cake. I'm not sure if it will make it uncut before he gets home! Happy  Birthday Nick!!

 An inexpensive tip for getting cakes to bake evenly, and not round up in the middle,  is to take a kitchen towel (I used flour sack towels) wet it thoroughly and wrap around the sides of the cake pans. This will keep the outside of the cake from getting done before the inside, and it will bake evenly. If you bake for more than 30 minutes, keep an eye on the towels to make sure they do not totally dry out. You may need to put new wet ones on just to be safe.  There are fancy silver colored cake pan strips that you can buy, they sell for around $10 each. Since I don't bake cakes everyday, the wet towel trip works for me and it uses things I already have!

Healthy Snack--Roasted Chick Peas

While looking for ways to clear out the surplus of chick peas/garbanzo beans in my pantry, I ran across a this recipe. As always, I have tweaked it to suit my own preferences.

• Rinse 2 cans of chick peas.
• Spray a baking sheet with olive or canola oil or coat with 2-3 Tbl of olive or canola oil.
• Pour chick peas onto baking sheet and stir to coat with oil.
• Sprinkle with spices of your choice- I used salt, pepper, onion powder, and paprika.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
• Let cool and store in the refrigerator.

This is a healthy alternative snack to SAD(standard American diet) junk food. Give it a try!

Summertime Facial Scrub

his is an all natural face scrub that I have been using and my skin feels amazing and looks so much better.

• First wet face with warm water to help open pores.
• Take a cotton ball or round cotton pad and saturate with lemon juice. (Lemon juice contains alpha hydroxy acids which help to slough off dead skin cells, promote elasticity of skin and encourages new skin cell growth.)
• Next dip cotton ball into sugar and rub in small circular motions on face. You will have to dip the cotton ball into the sugar several times to cover the entire face area.
• Rinse face with cool water when finished and pat dry.

This is a wonderful summertime scrub to leave your face feeling fresh and soft.  Not to mention (for us frugal types) it uses ingredients you already have in your kitchen! : )