Ancient Asian Remedies

To prevent age spots: Starting at age fifty, drink the juice of one carrot every day.

(I have a few gallons to catch up on...LOL!)

How to Make Corned Beef Brisket, Nitrate-Free at Home

A little late in the day to start this, but you can always make some for later and save this recipe for next year (start it on 6 March for best results!).

Click here: How to Make Corned Beef Brisket, Nitrate-Free at Home

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Since I'm very calorie conscious these days...down 13 pounds so far!...I often have to skip cocktail time. However, I found this "guilt-free margarita" recipe just in time for summer! One regular margarita can contain up to 250 calories (or more if you add some yummy amaretto or grand mariner...sigh!).

Here's the lower calorie (105) and low carb (2g*) recipe to try:

• 6 ounces of diet lemon-lime soda
• 1.5 ounces of tequila
• 1/2 tsp. powdered sugar-free lemonade (or try another flavor)
• 1/4 tsp orange extract (optional - but good!)
• 1 ounce of lime juice*

Mix all the ingredients together and pour over crushed ice in a margarita glass. OLE!

*Carbs: 2g using bottled lime juice or 2.5g for fresh lime juice

It's Samhain...Trick or Treat!...and a sweet freebie for you!

The Celtic year begins at Samhain [pronounced sow-in]. It is divided into two seasons: the light and the dark, celebrating the light at Beltane on 1 May and the dark at Samhain on 1 November. Some believe that Samhain was the more important festival, since it marked the beginning of a new dark-light cycle. It is a time of death and birth, a time of change, where we leave our old life behind and pass out of the darkness into our new life. The Celts observed time as proceeding from darkness to light because they understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed below the ground.

The night of Samhain [in Irish, Oíche Shamhna and in Scots Gaelic, Oidhche Shamhna] is one of the principal festivals of the Celtic calendar, falling on 31 October - Halloween. It represents the final harvest. According to Celtic lore, Samhain is a time when the boundaries between the world of the living and the world of the dead become thinner, at times even fading away completely, allowing spirits and other supernatural entities to pass between the worlds to socialize with humans. It is the time of the year when ancestors and other departed souls are especially honored. It is still the custom, in some areas, to set a place for the dead at the Samhain feast and to tell tales of the ancestors on that night. (Perhaps this is where 'ghost' stories came from.)

Bonfires played a large part in the festivities celebrated down through the last several centuries, and up through the present day in some rural areas. With the bonfire ablaze, the villagers extinguished all other fires. Each family then solemnly re-lit their hearth from the common flame, thus bonding the families of the village together. Often two bonfires would be built side by side, and the people would walk between the fires as a ritual of purification. Sometimes the cattle and other livestock would be driven between the fires, as well.

When Christianization came to the Celtic people, the religious spin doctors of the day turned this ancient celebration of the changing of the seasons into a scary bedtime story of witches and goblins. This misguided belief still survives in various branches of Christianity today. The Celtic Samhain festival was converted to All Hallows' Day on 1 November by All Souls' Day on 2 November. Over time, the night of 31 October and the remnants of the festival dedicated to the dead came to be called All Hallow's Eve which was eventually shortened to Hallowe'en (Hallow's Evening) and today it's Halloween.

Some of the customs and traditions of Halloween that we celebrate today were brought here by Irish and Scottish immigrants. One Irish custom is to bake a ring into a Barnbrack Cake. Each member of the family gets a slice and great interest is taken in the outcome as there is a piece of rag, a coin, and a ring in each cake. If you get the rag then your financial future is doubtful. If you get the coin then you can look forward to a prosperous year. Getting the ring is a sure sign of impending romance or continued happiness. Another custom popular one at parties is dunking for apples and coins: a portent for success and wealth. Even wearing costumes and masquerading as the souls of the dead came from our ancestors from the Celtic countries.

All the designers at PDW have set out some tasty treats for you and they're scattered all over the store. Here's just a few previews of the treats you can find to fill up your goodie bags! Click on the picture below to get started!

Here's a wee lighthearted freebie for your Hallow'een treating...click here. And tell all your friends to come knock on my door to get their free treat, too!

Happy Ne'erday!

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
~ Robert Burns

Ne'erday, 1 January, falls in the middle of the Daft Days which end with a big party on Twelfth Night (6 January) also known as Uphaliday.

In Scotland, the official start of the new year was changed to 1 January in 1600, while England and the rest of Europe stayed with the date of 25 March for another 151 years (1751).

Here’s a recipe for the traditional Black Bun to take with you while First Footing today. (However, you really should have made this several weeks ago, (like a fruit cake) so it had plenty of time to mature.)

Black Bun

Crust Ingredients
8 oz flour
4 oz butter
1/2 tsp. baking powder
a little cold water
1 beaten egg for finishing

Filling Ingredients
2 lb seedless raisins
3 lb currants
1/2 lb chopped blanched almonds
3/4 lb flour
1/2 lb sugar
2 tsp. Jamaica pepper (allspice)
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 level tsp. cream of tartar
1 level tsp. baking powder
1 tblsp. Brandy
1/4 pt milk

Crust Directions
Rub the butter into the flour, add baking powder, and mix to a stiff paste with water (about 4 tblsp). Put on to a floured board and roll out to a thin sheet. Grease a loaf pan (8 in by 4 in by 3 in) and line with the pastry, keeping back enough for the top crust.

Filling Directions
Mix all the filling ingredients together except the milk. Add just enough milk to moisten the mixture. Put it in the pastry-lined pan and cover with the top crust. Crimp the edges well to seal. Prick all over with a fork. With a thin skewer, make four holes right down to the bottom of the cake. Brush the top with beaten egg and cook in a slow (225F) oven for about three hours. It will keep for a year in an airtight tin.

Happy New Year!