I've got good news, and...

We're coming up on our first event of the season, which is very exciting and I'll share more news on that within the next few days. But in the mean time, I wanted to let everyone know that we've got some good news ... and some bad news.

The bad news is that we have to adjust some of our prices, particularly on our body butters. Supply costs have risen tremendously over the past few years. We've maintained our prices as best we can, but it just isn't feasible any more.

The good news is that we've added a 4 ounce size to our body butters! This special size is only available on our website. It's perfect for those who love to indulge their whole body in these moisturizing and wonderfully decadent butters.

We're going to continue to add some new items over the next month or so. And we will continue to give you exciting, skin loving, magically inspired and wonderful products with reasonable prices.

A Dandy of a National Dandelion Day!

Spring is here, and with it the glory of those early blooming herbs and flowers. And what looks as cheery as the amazing little yellow flowers popping up every where - the lovely little dandelion!

There are many who look at this versatile and nutrition packed little herb as the bane of their existence. Not me - I love them! There is a plethora of information out there about the hardy dandelion, but here are a few of my favorite things to do with them:

• Feed them to my cat. Yep, that's right. My one cat, Sinbad (actually my daughters cat, but that's another story) LOVES dandelions. Any time he sees us go outside, he'll sit in the window and meow rather loudly until we bring some tender greens in for him. We think he learned about them when he used to share a nibble with our rabbit, Nibbles, when we used to bring them in for him. (Nibbles was my daughters, too). Dandelion is a great addition to your cat or dogs food. Just occasionally chop up some dandelion greens to toss in to their food. It will help keep their coats nice and shiny.
• In salads and recipes - replace some spinache with dandelion greens. Younger leaves are as bitter as the large, later season leaves (although I'll occasionally use them, too). They work very nicely in Quinoa Salad or lightly sauteed in a little oil, then tossed with cranberries and walnuts. Yum!
• I like taking the flowers and flower petals and tossing them in with scrambled eggs or omelets.
• Infusing apple cider vinegar with dandelion flowers, leaves and roots make a very nourishing addition to salads, seltzer spritzers, and a refreshing toner for your skin!

For more scoop on this prolific herbal wonder, try check the Herb Companion articles like this, the Herb Quarterly, Learning Herbs - or go on your own dandelion hunt! It's a dandy thing to do on a spring day!

Spring Specials for a Special Spring

This has been a very warm spring - heck a very warm winter! All this lovely weather in the east is putting us in mind of getting out to the garden and celebrate this special spring. Well, we've decided that we want to celebrate as well. To do that, we're offering you some great specials for the month of March.


For the rest of the month of March, there's free shipping! Why not take advantage of that with one of our special offer gift sets.

Gardeners Gift Pack

The greening of the trees and plants calls us out to the garden. There's nothing as soothing as digging down in the dirt or smelling freshly blooming flowers. But it takes it's toll on your skin. This gift pack helps keep your skin at its natural best.

• 1 oz Gardeners Salve - great for those nick's, scratches and work worn hands.
• .75 oz Muscle Rub - Gardening puts your muscles to some extra work. This salve is powered with Arnica and capsicum from hot peppers. Soothes muscles and smells fabulous. Choose from 4 scents.
• 8 oz Dó Gréine Spray - Don't let the spring sun fool you - you can still get burned. This all natural spray ease the pain of burns (sun or otherwise) as well as itchiness and bug bites. Even helps repel some bugs (does not work well for gnats though).
• Sweetest Kisses Lip Balm - Honey makes this lip balm extra soothing and softening for wind and sun damaged lips.

Sale Price: $21.00

(If purchased separately - $23.50)

The gift pack comes in a nice little spring bucket and gets you ready to get out and play in the dirt. Perfect for a nice gift or for yourself. Our newsletter also has a Mela Tae gift set special. You don't get our emailed newsletter? You can sign up for it in the box in the right column here. Or you can see it in our archive here.

Enjoy!

Playing with Your Food

We all have little traits and habits that we've picked up during our life. Sometimes they are easy to track back and find, sometimes the lines are fuzzy.

My father is a fabulous amateur chef. He can create meals that would rival the finest restaurants. He's taken classes with Jacques Pepin as well as other renown chefs. He finds recipes that intrigue him and follows them at least once. Then he may doctor, adjust, or tweak to his liking. 99.9% of the time it is a wonderful and delectable improvement. I think that's where I got this habit of playing with my food.

It's a running joke in our house that if you like some thing I've made for dinner enjoy it, because it will never happen exactly that way again. My intent is to follow the recipe - but I just can't help myself. I wonder what will happen if I add a pinch of this, or some of that instead of this. Usually, it's a win. Sometimes, it's at least edible and won't kill anyone. Always - without question - it is fun and educational for everyone.

One of my recent forays into food play was with cupcakes. My lovely daughter has moved out to California. We had a very festive party to send her on her way. Somehow, we went from me making a traditional family cake to baking over 120 cupcakes. And on those cupcakes we wrote our well wishes. I couldn't, I just couldn't bake simple and plain cupcakes from a mix. Oh no, not I. The mix might be used - but only as a base for my baking madness. That's how we wound up with this interesting selection:

• Funfetti with Chocolate or Vanilla Frosting (OK, these were the one exception to the rule, but only because it was requested.)
• Chocolate Stout with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Cappuccino Stout with Mocha Cream Cheese Frosting
• Red Velvet (from scratch using mashed beets and beet juice)with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Aztec Fire Chocolate with Whipped & Zipped Frosting
• Apple Butter with Cinnamon Maple Frosting

What's particularly scary is I had about 6 other recipes waiting in the wings - but I ran out of time, and cupcake liners.

How did I play? Well, the Funfetti, as I said, was made as a special request for a guests birthday, so there was no playing there.

The Chocolate Stout Cupcake recipe I found here at the FoodNetwork site. I used Vanilla infused sugar and added a touch of chocolate extract. For the Cream Cheese Frosting, I took about 1/2 cup of Guinness and reduced it down to about 1/2 cup. Then I whipped that into the frosting.

The Cappuccino Stout Cupcakes use the same basic recipe, but I used Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout and blended some instant cappuccino mix into the heavy cream before making the frosting.

I have a recipe for Red Velvet cake from scratch. Admittedly, I don't know where I got it from, but most scratch recipes are similar. Instead of oil, I used boiled and mashed beets. I use powdered buttermilk - you add the powder to the dry components and the liquid to the wet components to make the buttermilk. So I used the beet juice instead of plain water.

The Azteca Fire Chocolate was interesting to create. It was simply a box of devil's food cake mix. But instead of just adding water, I made a strong tea using Teavana's Azteca Fire Tea, which uses chocolate and chili's (this is also a great tea to blend in with chai). I added an additional pinch of cayenne pepper (just a little pinch). For the frosting, I warmed the cream with some Azteca Fire Tea and added some powdered chocolate chai mix before whipping.

These were all BIG hits. But the surprising star of the evening was a last minute addition. I had thought I picked up a box of store brand yellow cake mix, but it was actually a butter flavor cake mix. Hmmm, what to do? Well, I chopped up some lovely dried apple slices I'd picked up at Target and tossed them with some cinnamon and sugar and added them to the packaged mix. Then I found a recipe for Maple Frosting and added a dash of cinnamon to that as well.

Next time you're baking or cooking, take a look at the recipe. Does it include water? What juice or tea can you use instead? Are there any dried fruits or even veggies you can add? Maybe some herbs or spices? Go ahead! It really is OK to play with your food!

Welcome 2012! The Year of the Rose

The New Year has now swept. Hopefully, you have all welcomed it in merrily, safely and soundly.

After the whirlwind of the holidays - shopping, visiting, wrapping, baking and making gifts - I'm finally catching up on some reading and emails. I was reading an email from the International Herb Association and was absolutely delighted to discover that the Herb of The Year is a top favorite of mine - The Rose! 

In my younger days, I merely thought of roses as OK. My parents had some growing, as did my grandmothers, and they smelled nice but didn't really move me. 

Much later (I'm not fessing up to the number of years), I was in Island Beach State Park and became entranced by the beautiful abundance of the lovely and vigorous roses growing throughout the park. Yep, I'd fallen in love with the hearty Rosa Rugosa. I never realized they grew in such abundance along the shore line. The scent was full and entrancing, they had huge rose hips that made wonderful teas and jellies, and - this is the best part - they are pretty darn easy to grow! 

I'll be exploring the many wonders of the rose all year, and sharing my discoveries and ideas. Please feel free to share any ideas or discoveries of your own? Do you have a favorite rose?  Do you cook with roses? Let's see where this adventure can take us!