Never get tired of salads, or cupcakes

My Little Cupcake

Who doesn’t like those cake pops and balls that look like miniature, sugary art works? I know of two people in the “never again” category. They once loved them so much they tried to make them. After hours of investment, they threw their burned hands up in frustration over gooey product and messy kitchens. Now there’s something so easy I did it. Visit mylittlecucpcakepop.com for an eye full of crazy-simple gadgets to launch your creativity. Colorful snap-shut little molds let you fill and chill, decorate and pop on a stick. The best part is the easy recipe: Ground up Oreo-type cookies and cream cheese. I tried a variation with graham crackers and Neufchatel cheese, with almond extract. My mom wants to borrow my molds and have a party for her classmates. Shape up your treats into the cupcake, heart, ball and party hat mold. If I can do it …..

Something new for salads

I could eat my own recipe for vinaigrette every day, but sometimes you want to mix it up a bit with your tossed greens. Bolthouse Farms has something for those who realize you aren’t eating as healthy as you thought if your dressing has hidden calories. Yogurt is once again to the rescue. They have a line of dressings that are 45 calories or less per serving – meaning they contain at least 55% fewer calories and 75% less fat than the leading mayonnaise-based brand. My husband loves the blue cheese version and I’m all about the ranch. We’re using both of these as both dips and dressings. They do a light vinaigrette, too.

Asian twist to barbecue

Sometimes kids have issues with vegetables. It was a sweet and sour Chinese sauce that got me to ask for more. As an adult, I can douse a little San-J on any vegetable I want. The line, headquartered in Richmond, Va., features amazing Japanese-inspired sauces, dressings, brown rice crackers and more to make it easy to travel across the globe for dinner.

Now makers are encouraging cooks to extend the barbecue season by marinating meats in San-J’s Asian BBQ, Teriyaki, Orange, or Sweet & Tangy Sauce. “You won’t find any questionable ingredients on their labels. Plus, all San-J sauces are gluten free and certified kosher,” the company reports. Look for recipes such as Szechuan Guacamole to Polynesian Kabobs and Asian Country-Style Ribs at: http://www.san-j.com/summer.asp

They’re making it easy to go gourmet, but I’ve done something easier still. I cooked up a big batch of Jasmine rice and simply have a stir fry flavor of the night. Polynesian Glazing and Dipping Sauce gave my carrots personality. These are great to keep on hand.

Ddoiron@panews.com

Want fries with that?

If you want more out of life, try asking for it.

Apparently there was a time where people walked up to fast food counters and ordered what they thought they wanted. When McDonald’s trained employees to ask if they’d like fries, too, then sales went up, up, up. “The Power of Focus” is about how to apply this attitude to your own business opportunities. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen are “Chicken Soup for the Soul” creators and Les Hewitt is “The Focus Coach.” With anecdotes and worksheets, these guys can make you believe in just about anything, even yourself. Pages are full of great tips, and the one I’m leaving you with is, if you want more business, just ask for it.

Cool weather crops are hot this fall

Everything fun about gardening is good in the fall, plus you avoid blazing heat. I haven’t yet built the keyhole garden I’ve been longing for, but www.bonnieplants.com has some tips to grow my fantasy.

July through August is the optimum time for planting cool crops, they say, so crops can mature before a freeze. If you haven’t tried this season, do this:

Tidy up: Remove spent plants, like early planted beans, cucumbers or lettuce, since they’re pretty much done for the season and can harbor pests. Clear away holes left from pulling plants, and get rid of weeds before they go to seed. Throw away anything distressed and compost the rest.

Discard any fallen fruits, rotting produce can attract pests. Take note of where everything was planted so you can be sure to rotate crops.

Set up the soil: Freshen garden soil by removing the existing layer of mulch and replace it. Straw makes an excellent cover because it’s easily scattered, it’s also a favorite home for spiders that will help control insect pests in your garden. You can also use a layer of shredded leaves for mulch.

Loosen compacted soil and fluff it up with a garden fork. Major tilling isn’t necessary; just move soil enough to allow new plant roots to settle in and let water get through.

Pick your plants: Starting with transplants will buy you lots of time. Since plants are six weeks or older when you put them in the ground, you’ll harvest sooner than if you start from seed.

Here are some of the company’s top crops for fall planting:

* Top Bunch Collards – This hybrid is heavy yielding, early maturing, and more uniform than traditional varieties. They grow best in full sun, tolerate partial shade, are rich in vitamins and sweetened by frost.

*Spinach – A cool-weather vegetable related to beets and Swiss chard, Bonnie’s Spinach is a fast-growing plant, yielding many leaves in a short time in fall. Although spinach prefers full sun, it’s one of the few vegetables that produce a respectable harvest in partial shade.

* Early Dividend broccoli - Popular, productive and easy to grow, this broccoli is high in fiber and calcium.

* Mustard greens – Offering spicy hot leaves, this is a very fast-growing, nutritious vegetable, and always tastes sweeter when nipped by frost.

Bug Band

Bug Band isn’t exactly a flea collar for the kids, but the band you can loop a round your wrist, ankle or belt is designed to repel fleas, gnats, mosquitos, flies and “no-see-ums. I got a sample of the bands, spray lotion and towelette after I ran into the whole pest menagerie while doing yard work. I wish I’d had the Bug Band.

ddoiron@panews.com

Tingly in the legs, runway feet and eyes have it

When is it okay for a lady to wear tight clothing? How about for medical reasons, or when she just wants to feel all tingly and look amazing? RejuvaHealth has put the sexy into compression garments, which I am learning women of all ages have felt “sentenced” to for a variety of painful swelling issues. I know someone my own youthful age who will have to wear these indefinitely. Patients who are tired of the beige hospital look of most offerings can thank Kelsley thought diamond, dot and floral patterns, of knee and thigh highs would add some zing in her day. Pantyhose cost a pretty penny, but the emphasis is on the pretty, if you doc says you have to wear them, anyway. The models in lush leopard and purple paisley look like they could be wearing Victoria’s Secret selections instead of what our grandmas referred to as sup hose. Features in the line include graduated compression, a microfiber blend, homeycomb waistband, and the tummy tamer top. I tried knee highs with a fitted heel and did not want to take them off. I felt cradled with support, but also full of energy. Visit online or call 1-877-7-REJUVA.

Now down to the feet

Something old and something new is in Runway Ready Luxury Foot Treatment. As much as Iove herbs, I’d never heard of Butcher’s Broom, which combines with argan oil and shea butter. Makers add some high tech ingredients and peptide infused technology for a restorataive, exfoliating and conditioning cream that means business on your heels.

Dermelect Cosmeceuticals, distributed in Great Neck, N.Y. and London, England, puts out tubes of this good stuff.

Yellow carrots

Colorful Harvest has a great story as to why their foods have so many hues. Jewel-like red kernels on sweet corn is from naturally high levels of the antioxidant anthocyanins. But there’s more than that. Doug Ranno was into taste, color and nutrition even before his second child was born with severe food allergies. Then he went to town with heirloom seeds and a passion for produce that both kids and chefs would like. I’m somewhere between, a home cook who considers that sweet corn like a flavorful, aromatic memory of every fall of my youth. The yellow carrots were “meaty,” not some artificial little cube that epitomizes packaged food. Visit their website to get the goods.

Ddoiron@panews.com

Yellow Jacket found and Olympic toasts

Yellow Jacket found and Olympic toasts

Thomas Jefferson High School alumni should be interested to know that Shawn Bruno has the Yellow Jacket mascot. It’s not a school prank, he owns it fair and square and it’s at his place, Bruno & George Winery in Sour Lake. If you take a tasting tour, you’ll see for yourself.

Use his wine to toast the Olympic victories that have been playing out for the home viewers. He makes a Yellow Jacket Raspberry and a Cardinal Cranberry, which appears to be a nod to another hall of education he loves.

Bruno’s wines are based on his grandfather’s Italian methods. Other Than Standard Raisin Wine and Cardinal Cranberry won recent awards in San Francisco, and Bruno invites Southeast Texans to make an appointment for a tour and tasting. He says no one leaves his winery unhappy. Other blends include Candlelight Strawberry, Holiday Blueberry, White Orchard Pear, Signature Peach and Arapaho. Call Bruno at (409) 963-8235 for your appointment.

More toasting

How about some energy drinks for an Olympic toast? They’re making them different these days, and nothing seems as different as SLAP FROZEN Energy. It’s a pouch you freeze, then defrost for a bit, then squeeze like you mean it. What comes right into your mouth is a slushy, fruity refresher that’s unique. Your team will love it.

Scheckter’s Organic Energy is a smooth can of bubbly without synthetic caffeine and other artificial stuff. UK’s Great Taste Awards gave it a gold award, and you might, too. Makers have included a comparison to similar drinks, and this is one I’d pick for both taste and health. It will appeal to discriminating adults.

ddoiron@panews.com

Brush up with the Bad Breath Bible author

The same week I’ve been cleaning out ancient products from my mother’s bathroom closet, Dr. Harold Katz’ TheraBreath products came into my life. Orange, green and white packaging looks as old-fashioned as the stuff I’m weeding out of the closet, but the doctor’s products and their claims are reassuring. Makers say that today we are more careful about artificial stuff in our kids’ peanut butter than we are in what is in their toothpaste. 
Dentist and national oral health care expert Harold Katz, author of “The Bad Breath Bible,” (www.therabreath.com) invites us to avoid

FD&C blue dye No. 2, Sodium lauryl sulfate, Triclosan and Saccharin and aspartame.

He advocates that buyers should look for natural ingredients, such as aloe vera juice, which cleans and soothes teeth and gums and helps fight cavities. Aloe vera tooth gel is said to kill disease-causing bacteria in the mouth, Katz says.

His naturally oxygenating Fresh Breath toothpaste comes out of a tube looking like petroleum jelly. It’s simple, basic and has no flavor. The aloe vera concoction is “24-hour guaranteed. The gum in this line is tasty, and I love the powerful lozenge. They’re designed to wet the mouth, as is the rinse that feels like you haven’t used anything. By that, I mean there’s no sting or “medicine breath.” The Perio Therapy line for gum care offers a gel toothpaste with sodium fluoride. It has an old-fashioned blue and silver look. Give the doc a try.

Tara Walker’s Dream

Little tubes of Tara Walker’s dream have a winged look. It’s all part of the design to keep products bacteria-free. Products arrive packaged in hermetically sealed tubes with less than three ounces per tube in a sleek metal tin. Don’t worry about any unseemly ingredients in the plastic, or cross-contamination from your germy fingers. Tara is keeping it fresh. What’s inside is worth keeping in good condition, like Rejuvenating Dream Serum® +100 Concentrate, with 109 antioxidant-rich bioactive botanicals. This little dose of elixir packs essences of flowers, leaves, fruits, seeds and stems of plants sourced from every continent. Look for marine ingredients, too. I’m sampling a cleanser, that reminds me of a good oil cleansing, plus day and night treatments that are just-right for feeling great while traveling. Keep it clean with Tara.

Polish me

I’m not exaggerating when I tell you Zo’s polish is a highlight of my day. It’s one thing I’ve tried in the ZO® Skin Health line, created by renowned dermatologist Dr. Zein Obagi M.D., and designed to restore skin to “bright, beautiful and youthful glory.” I feel a luxurious heat when I apply ZO Skin Health Offects® Exfoliating Polish. It’s a super-fine paste with magnesium crystals to immediately remove dead surface cells and offers vitamin A to improve cell turnover. Antioxidant vitamins C and E fight free radicals and repair damaged skin cells. That’s the facts, but I just have to say, it feels good going on and I’m better for it having been there.

Other stuff from ZO:

ZO Skin Health Ossential Daily Power Defense with time-released retinol, antioxidants, and DNA-repairing enzymes is a disguiser for dark spots, blotches and discolorations to minimize UV damage that causes uneven pigmentation:

ZO Skin Health Olluminate Intense Eye Repair deals with that stuff you don’t want around your eyes: wrinkles, uffiness and dark circles.

ddoiron@panews.com

Road trips make summer memories

Have you hit the road yet this season? Here are some of my highlights:

Bryan and College Station

I snapped the larger-than-life class ring sculpture at Texas A&M and toured the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum. That was a full day, right there. I loved a brochure that pointed out a city ordinance boosting Aggie maroon and minimizing Texas University orange in the area. Apparently businesses such as What-a-Burger and Home Depot which have the rival’s color as a main design are required to add some maroon to the structure.

Baton Rouge

Of all the great meals I had in New Orleans, I’m keeping Tony’s Seafood Market & Deli in Baton Rouge, La., on my tops list. It’s a big warehouse of a place with catfish swimming in a concrete basin on one end, and catfish being fried on the other. There’s no place to sit down, so after patiently waiting in a long line with people in their church clothes, we took our sandwiches to the car and ate under the partial shade of a tree. The toasted, pressed muffuletta was so good. I shared half of that an an oyster po-boy with my husband. I can’t even tell you how or why that oyster sandwich was so amazing. We are still talking about it.

Fort Worth

You can walk right by the Fort Worth Water Gardens without realizing the sublevel wonder is right beside you. At street level, near the convention center, you can barely hear the roar of water falling down crazy banks of steps built at unusual angles. You may not realize there are families, couples and perhaps quinceanera girls getting photographed. I found it and my jaw dropped. Then, I realized you could walk down into it, so I did. After dinner, I was again impressed to see it at night, all lighted. I posed for a News is Everywhere photo, which Roger will maybe run. I had been to Fort Worth within the year and walked through part of this complex without discovering the water gardens. After I posed this on Facebook, someone noted that a scene from “Logan’s Run,” a 1976 science fiction movie, was filmed there. I Googled that a bit and decided it’s one I want to catch.

Another Fort Worth highlight: Spotting a nacho truck that looked like the bed was filled with giant tortilla chips draped in cheese and jalapeno slices.

ddoiron@panews.com

Tattoo a Banana

Tattooing a banana, burning with pride and making scents

I started small with a paper clip point and tattooed my first banana with my husband’s name. Just poke holes in the skin and wait a bit for them to darken. You clearly get an outline. Quick success convinced me to try the template and create the statue of David, or perhaps poke “The Last Supper” onto my banana.

Am I nuts? As nuts as Phil Hansen, who wrote “Tattoo a Banana and Other Ways to Turn Everything into Art.” It’s a perfect kids, parents and summer book, though I think a girls’ night out planner could have some fun with Phil’s ideas, too. He’ll get you playing with food to make art and secret messages from potato peels, marshmallows and toast. Make a Pastafarian with uncooked macaroni. Some ideas are so simple that you can’t wait to try them. Have the kids rake a big picture or word from fall leaves, take a picture, then finish the fun that used to be a chore. Carve a phrase on the sole of your shoe, walk through water and leave your message behind. Follow a flamingo’s shadow. Phil is a fun guy, and now I’m more fun. Visit Philinthecircle.com to learn his “shocking stories.”

All-American candles

Here are some new finds to brighten your summer:

If you are burning with patriotism, consider that Bridgewater Candles are made in Spartanburg, S.C., where makers believe in “supporting American jobs while sharing our blessings with the world.” I’ve got a red one warming my thoughts with the knowledge that the Light a Candle, Feed a Child program supports a Rice Bowls non-profit donation to feed a child for a day. Sweet Grace is that fragrance. Bridgewater offers a well-made candle in an attractive jar with a vintage-styled lid. Even in the middle of summer, these candles made me jump the calendar envision a warm, cozy Thanksgiving scenario.

TasselAire

I wonder if the court of King Louis XIV had the same idea as TasselAire. Now our tassels can look good and serve another purpose, holding in a scent. I’ve always tried to anchor a liquid scent by dropping it onto a wine cork in a bowl of potpourri. Tht’s the idea for TasselAire’s success. There’s a fabric “carrot” under the fringe of my silky green tassel that I can drop lemon verbena scent onto. Hang it on the doorknob and a waft of scent rewards everyone who opens and closes the door. I think I’ll try it on a closet hook, too. I’m just going to say, it’s degrees more stylish than the plastic cones of air freshener from my youth.

ddoiron@panews.com