September 30, 2009

Hippo birdies art by monettenriquez on Flickr

Hippo birdies to us, hippo birdies to us, hippo birdies BigSisLilSis, hippo birdies to us!  Today is BigSisLilSis’ first birthday!  Woo hoo!!  We’re so excited that we made it our first blogiversary!  Plus, a big bonus is that we’re still speaking to each other.  It’s been a crazy, hectic, fun, challenging and sometimes stressful year of learning new technology, working together on design and ideas, and making compromises since both of us are stubborn independent control freaks!  😀

After all that, and with 394 posts published, we’re still totally committed to the mission we started with, which is to:

• Write for women like us.

• Strive to be encouraging, and as positive as we can be (with the inevitable occasional Sis rant!)

• Pass along info that we hope will be helpful.

• Share our humor, however odd and twisted it might be!

When we look back over the last year, it has literally flown by on wings, but we’re really happy about some of the enhancements we’ve added to BigSisLilSis:

• We’re finally twittering!  Yes!  Finally!

• To show our appreciation, we added Comment Luv to provide a link to our commenters’ last post.

• Every 2 or 3 weeks, we feature one of our favorite bloggers in our “We’re Crazy About” feature to let everyone else know how awesome they are!

• We’re sharing links to the books (and cookbooks) that we’re reading at the moment.

• You can see our most popular posts in our sidebar, based on the number of comments received.

• Related posts also show up for each post, so if you liked a particular post, you can see more like it.

So that’s where we’ve been.  Where the heck are we going?  We have a few ideas!  First, we’re going to Vegas, baby, for BlogWorld!  But once we get back and recuperate, we have a bunch of things that we’re noodling around:

• The BigSisLilSis Facebook page is in the works; yep, another belated overdue foray into current technology for us!

• Our “Shop” page will be a comprehensive list of our favorite things, all gathered in one place.

• We’re both working on ideas for some fun individual blogs.

• And, we’re super-duper excited about starting a new joint blog exclusively devoted to food!

The most important thing we can say about the last year is that we’re abundantly grateful for the support our readers have shown us!  There would be no point in us writing if you weren’t reading! So THANK YOU all so very much!  We appreciate you, and hope that you’ll stick around for another year!  God willing, we definitely will!

~BigSis

September 28, 2009

I had a thousand things to do last night.  You know how it is on Sunday night.  There are things left to do and the weekend is running out.  I know that people think single people have oodles of spare time on their hands, but it doesn’t work out that way for me.  Besides a stressful full-time day job, the bills have to be paid, the animals need care, the house needs cleaning, the laundry needs tending to, the car needs maintaining, meals needs preparing, and errands need to be done.  Oh, yeah, and then there is BigSisLilSis, exercising, and maybe a tiny bit of a social life, if I’m lucky.  But, that’s just life, right?  We’re all busy.

So with all of that going on, what did I do last night?  I baked cookies, of course!  😀  What the heck!  As I was stirring up a big mess in my kitchen, I started thinking.  Why do people bake?  Why am I baking?  Now I’m wondering…why do you bake?

• To alleviate stress? Some people, like LilSis, would say that baking is a stress-inducer, rather than a stress-reducer.

• To fill a need to fill tummies? Do you bake because your family needs food, and whipping something up is the easiest way to feed them?

• To save money? Depending on the ingredients, it definitely can be more economical to bake a batch of cookies or a loaf of bread from scratch than it is to buy something at the grocery store.

• To carry on a family tradition? Lots of families have vintage recipes that have been passed down for generations, so baking them and teaching them to children and grandchildren keeps the tradition alive.

• To have fun? Baking can be fun, when things work out right, and mastering a challenging recipe is really rewarding.  Spending time in the kitchen to me is just plain fun!

• To show your love for people? Lots of people, me included, love to bake something that pleases people.  For me, baking isn’t just a task, it’s something I put my heart into.  I want it to be perfect, and for people to know I did it for them because I care about them.

So, now that you know I bake for fun and love, please tell me.  Why do you bake?

~BigSis

September 25, 2009

I’ve never been an early adopter.  I don’t buy the newest car, TV, camera, phone or computer operating system until long after all of the bugs have been worked out.  I didn’t even get my first iPod til last year!

So, I’m also not cool.  Intentionally.  If everyone is buying or doing some fabulous new trendy thing, then I really don’t want to do it at all.  I guess I don’t want to feel like a trend-captive lemming, just going along with what everyone else has decided I should do or buy.

That’s how it was with belly button piercing.  I wanted to do it really badly years ago, and was about to do it when the piercer/tattoo artist told me I couldn’t get in the water for 2 weeks afterward, but I was in ding dang Hawaii so I knew that wasn’t going to fly.  Once I got back home though, it seemed like everybody and their dog were getting their belly buttons pierced, and I lost my interest in it for good.

I have to admit that I’ve had that same stubborn don’t-wanna-do-it attitude about Twitter.  Everyone else’s been tweeting like crazy, and I just haven’t had the desire to do it.  I didn’t see the point.  Who cares what I’m doing right now?  Most of the time, I don’t even care about what I’m doing!  Honestly, it’s just not very interesting to think about what I’m having for lunch, or how long I’ve been in line at the cleaners, or how my mammogram went (btw, it hurt like a son of a gun, thanks for asking).  I also couldn’t imagine how I could find any time in my day to put this stuff out there.

I’ve caved though, in fact, I’ve joined in with fervor!  I’m a happy little lemming!  And so is LilSis.  We’re tweeting and it’s so much fun!!  Who knew!  What happened?  Well, we started exploring a little and followed a couple of people.  Then we hesitantly tweeted once, and then twitted a couple of times, and then twittered like crazy, and by then we were hooked! 😀

We’ve made a promise to each other though.  We want to only tweet about things we would like to read.  That might be an article we think is valuable, a great inspiring quote, a delicious recipe, some important news, or maybe something just full of ridiculous fun!  We want our Twitter time to bring a little something more to BigSisLilSis, and we would love for you to come join in and follow us!

We’re coming up on our first Blogiversary in a few days (woo hoo), and are excited to start our second year as Tweeters!  We’ll be at BlogWorld in Vegas in 3 weeks, and plan to tweet up a storm!  Oh, and we both also just got our first smart phone last week!  Aren’t you proud of us?

What’s next for these two wild and crazy women?  Flat panel televisions?  BluRay players?  Stay tuned to our Twitter accounts (BigSisTX and LilSisCA) and find out!

~BigSis

September 23, 2009

Multigrain Sandwich Bread Up Close and Personal

I’m not a Wonder Bread kind of a girl. I like my bread grainy and seedy and nutty, but not too dense or clunky.  Sometimes those heavy breads can make fabulous toast; Ezekiel Bread is a perfect example. But in sandwiches they’re just a little too much, you know?

I usually buy Sprouts’ delicious whole grain bread, but I thought it would be fun to make my own.  Months ago, I saw a recipe for a multigrain bread that used Bob’s Red Mill 7 Grain Cereal, and I bought the cereal in anticipation of making the bread.  I never got around to making it though…til now! Ta da!

Multigrain Sandwich Bread

This is the best bread!  I absolutely love the way it came out.  It’s light enough for sammies, but it’s still a substantial whole grain bread.  It’s not too sweet or too bitter as some multigrain breads can be.  This is Goldilock’s multigrain bread…it’s just right.

Was it easy to make?  Ummm, yeah, I guess, but it took all day to make 2 loaves (without a bread making machine).  I actually enjoyed the process, but it was a process so be prepared to tend to it off and on all day.

You can find the recipe on Bob’s Red Mill site.  I followed it exactly except for adding 1/2 cup chopped almonds, and using salted roasted sunflower seeds instead of raw ones.  I’ll definitely make this again.  Do any of you have a favorite multigrain bread recipe I should try?  Think about it while I go make some toast and find some butter.

~BigSis

September 21, 2009

One of the things I love about blogging is the community.  We share a common interest, and it seems to me that most bloggers are very supportive of each other and encourage each others’ success.  And if you’re lucky, at some point you might get to meet your online friends in person.

The other thing I really like is that bloggers know food!  If I see a recipe posted by Anna, Peabody, Grace, Cathy, Susan, Michelle, Susan, Lisa, or  Heather (among many, many other incredible cooks and bakers), I am confident that I can make that recipe and it’ll turn out great.  If I have any questions or problems, or successes I want to share, then I know who to go to.  I can’t do that with the cookbooks on my shelves.

The only problem with online recipes though is how to organize them.  I used to highlight the recipe and paste it into Microsoft Word, then print it out and save it to my hard drive.  But then I had all of these hard copies to sort and file, and who ever goes back through all of those?  There’s too much paper in our lives to deal with already.  And invariably I save a recipe to my laptop at home, and then later need to access the recipe at work so I can pick up the ingredients on my way home.

What if you could save an online cookbook of all your favorite recipes, sorted the way you want it?  Well, you can do just that and it’s super duper easy!  Are you using Delicious bookmarks?  If you are, then you can tweak it to organize your online recipes, and if you’re not, then think about getting on board!

Delicious is awesome because you just sign up for a free account, and then you use it to bookmark your favorite pages.  It doesn’t matter which computer you’re on.  Your bookmarks are on Delicious, not on one particular computer.  The other cool thing is that you can choose to share your bookmarks and your personalized cookbook with other people that you specify.

So, let’s set up your online cookbook!

• First, access your account at http://delicious.com or set up a new account.

• In the right sidebar, click on Tag Options and choose Manage Tag Bundles.

• A new window opens. Click on Create to make a new tag bundle.

• In #1, enter the Tag Bundle Name, something like “Emma’s Cookbook”.  In #2, enter the tags that you want to use to sort your cookbook.  Separate your tags with spaces.  You could use broad categories like appetizers, vegetables, meat, and dessert, or you could use more specific tags like cookies, chocolate, soup, potatoes, quiche, candy, fruit, etc.  You get the idea.  It’s totally up to you and how you want to organize your recipes.

• Click on the green Save button, and you’re done!  Voila!

Now, when you go back to your Delicious home page, you’ll see your tag bundle listed on the right sidebar under Tag Bundles.  To place a recipe into your cookbook, just add your tags to it before you save the bookmark.  Delicious will sort it into your cookbook bundle, and you just have to click on the tags in your cookbook to show all of the recipes with that tag.

If you decide later that you want to add more tags to your cookbook, just choose Tag Options and Manage Tag Bundles again. Then click on Edit next to your Tag Bundle’s name.  Add, change or delete your tags as you wish, then Save.

That’s it!  You have your own online cookbook, wherever you are!  I hope that you give this a try and enjoy it as much as I do!

~BigSis

September 19, 2009

Are you going to BlogWorld Expo?  We hope so!  We’re going and are SO excited about it.  It’s just 4 weeks away now…October 15-17.

If you want to go, the discounted registration pricing has been extended to September 21st.  That’s Monday, so you don’t have long.  Go to the BlogWorld Expo registration page and get yourself signed up asap.  The discounted weekend pass for Friday and Saturday sessions is $395, and will go up to $495 once the discount expires.

There are also some discounted $69 rooms left at the Hilton, but that pricing is only good til October 1st, if the rooms last that long.

Not sold on the value of BlogWorld Expo?  Check out the agenda for this year’s sessions.  There are some pretty heavy hitters scheduled to speak:  Darren Rowse, Chris Brogan, John Chow, and Cali Lewis, just for starters!  And the Keynote Speakers haven’t even been named yet, so who knows!

For more info, get yourselves over to the BlogWorld site.  You can also check out twitter #bwe09 and flickr tag blogworld09.

If you make plans to attend, please let us know!

~BigSis

September 17, 2009

I can’t start my day without my morning fruit smoothie.  I’ve never been a milk drinker because of the lactose, and I’m not a fan of soy milk.  That leaves a bunch of great nut milks to choose my smoothie base from, and my favorite is Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla.  I add a splash of juice to it, plus frozen berries, vitamin powder, coconut oil and flax seeds.  Whiz it all up in my pink Kitchenaid blender, and away I go to work with all kinds of nutrients zipping around in my bloodstream.

So, I go through a lot of almond milk, and it’s not terribly expensive but if I make it at home, I can choose  the ingredients that go into it and save a little money too.  How difficult is it?  Not difficult at all, in fact, it’s pretty darn easy:

1. Buy raw almonds from the bulk section of your local store.
2. Soak a cup of them in water for 8 hours, or less if you don’t have that long. I think the milk is creamier with longer soaking.
3. Rinse and drain the soaked almonds.
4. Blend them with 4 cups of water.
5. Drain the pulp out.  I use a couple of coffee filters in a strainer over a tall bowl.
6. Add flavorings and sweetener as desired:  vanilla extract, cinnamon, maple syrup, agave nectar, honey, or anything else.
7. Chill and enjoy within 3 or 4 days.

Voila!  That’s all there is to it!  You could use macadamia nuts or cashews instead of almonds.  I don’t know if you could use pecans or walnuts successfully, but it’s an intriguing idea.  I like to add the flavorings after I strain the pulp out so that I can use the pulp in a savory way if I choose.  Adding lemon, olive oil, garlic, salt and dill to it makes an awesome spread for crackers.

Remember this milk is dairy-free, but it’s not just for vegans.  It’s great for anyone who is allergic to milk or lactose-intolerant, or who just wants a healthy tasty beverage.

If you’d like to see photos of the process or learn more, go check out Gina’s awesome blog at Choosing Raw.  That’s where I learned to do it, and I’m glad I did!

~BigSis

September 15, 2009

Are you fanatic about hand cream like I am?  In the summer my hands just feel crunchy, and in the winter they feel parched, irritated and sometimes get red and crack between my fingers.  Not a very lovely image, right?

So I put on hand cream several times a day and have tried lots of different ones over the years.  I like the classic Neutrogena Norwegian Formula but it’s strictly a nighttime treatment because of its’ greasy nature.  I also love the traditional Jergens with the cherry vanilla scent because it reminds me of my grandmother.  But it’s not really moisturizing enough for me; just nostalgic.

My current 3 favorites are excellent hand creams that you may have never heard of.  Here are my nominees for the 3 best hand creams:

Neutrogena Deep Moisture Hand Cream, Butter Cream –  I just picked this up over the weekend at Ulta.  I’ve never seen it before, but the Butter Cream label grabbed my attention.  This cream smells like the Birthday Cake scented candles, and it leaves that delicious scent on your hands for a while.  It contains shea butter, cocoa seed butter, and mango seed butter.  Surprisingly, with all of those rich ingredients, it does melt into your hands without being greasy.  LOVE it!  They also have a body cream and body wash in this line, and in my future!  $21.78 for 4 tubes (2 oz each) from Amazon

L’Occitane Hand Cream with 20% Shea Butter –  Rich, rich, rich!  I’ve been buying this cream for a while from L’Occitane in the small travel sizes, but LilSis bought me a big tube last year on my birthday and I’m just now finishing it up.  You need very little of this cream, so it goes a very long way.

It’s just a touch greasy, but I can still use it in the morning on my way to work.  Besides shea butter, this cream also has vitamin E and extracts of honey and sweet almond.  The jasmine and ylang ylang scent is fabulous!  There are lots of other shea butter products in this line…try the foot cream too!  $25 for a 5.2 oz tube from Amazon

Medline Remedy Skin Repair Cream –  I can almost guarantee that you haven’t heard of this cream!  I certainly hadn’t, until last year when I was in the hospital with the Nasty Virus and asked the nurse for some cream.  She brought me this, and I went nuts for it!  Medline apparently makes all kinds of medical products.  They’ve formulated this cream with a trademarked ingredient called Olivamine which contains antioxidants, amino acids, and vitamins which supposedly play a role in basic cellular construction and protection.

I don’t know about all of that, but I know it soaks into the skin quickly and leaves it feeling very hydrated.  Plus the scent has an awesome orangey creamsicle kind of a thing going on.  I’ve never seen this cream in a retail store, so I’ll be ordering online now that I’ve used up the whole tube.  It’s amazing.  $7.79 for a 4 oz tube from Amazon

There you have it…my best 3 hand creams you didn’t know about til now!  Please let me know if you try any of these, or if you have another fabulous hand cream I should try!

~BigSis

September 13, 2009

Banana Snickerdoodles

What to do with overripe bananas?  That’s the age-old question, isn’t it?  And it seems like I ask it every time I buy a few, since bananas go from green to overripe in about 2 days here in our Texas summer.  I can’t stand to eat them after they get the first freckles, and I’m not a big fan of banana bread.

So, where does that leave me? Looking for new recipes, and I think I found a good one!  Lisa is Cooking recently posted on Noble Pig’s Banana Snickerdoodle recipe that was adapted from Going Berserk.  Get all that?  No worries; all you need to know is that these cookies are fabulous!  Just follow the links to the recipes.

I only changed one little thing.  The recipe called for baking the doodles at 400 degrees for 9 minutes.  I did that for the first batch but they were a touch too toasty for me.  I  lowered the temp down to 375 and the cooking time to 8 minutes for the rest of the batches, and they were perfect.  This recipe made a whopping delicious 4 dozen Banana Snickerdoodles.

Stack o' Snickerdoodles

~BigSis

September 11, 2009

Yesterday, LilSis talked about healthy breakfast choices.  I think we all agree that breakfast is SO important!   The next most important meal of the day in my opinion is lunch, since it sets the tone and gives us energy (or not) for the second half of our day.

What would you pack into your briefcase or your child’s lunch box if you wanted a meat-free, dairy-free (vegan) lunch that was healthful and tasty, but you didn’t have access to a microwave?  Here are some great easy ideas that fit the bill and don’t taste like cardboard or styrofoam!  They also have a good amount of fiber and should keep you full and energy-filled til dinnertime.

• Almond Butter and Banana Sandwich with a sprinkle of Cinnamon

• Almond Butter and Jelly Sandwich

• Apple slices with Almond Butter

• Chickpea Salad (with lemon, olive oil, and herbs)

• Hummus with Veggies (asparagus and grape tomatoes are especially good)

• Pasta Salad (any leftover variety you have)

• Refried Beans (lard-free) in a Whole Grain Tortilla with Salsa

• Tofu Pup Hot Dogs on a Wheat Bun with Mustard

• Tomato, Avocado and Lettuce Sandwich on Wheat Bread

• Veggie Wraps (whole-grain tortilla with your favorite veggies; add your dressing at the last minute)

~BigSis