Lavender

Well lavender is one of the most beautiful flowers with a very delightful smell. I have found this article. Hope you learn a lot from the article

Lavender garden beds not only smell gorgeous, the herb helps repel mosquitoes. Learn how to propagate lavender in your garden…
Propagating lavender plants from one lavender bush is a great way to start a lavender line pathway or full garden bed of lavender without spending a cent!
Simply snip a few green lavender cuttings and either plant the cuttings in a pot of potting soil, watering daily for two weeks, or pop the cuttings ins glasses of water and wait for roots to sprout.
If you decide to place lavender cuttings in water, avoid bunching too many cuttings into one glass as they may become tangled when the roots grow. Place the glasses of cuttings on a sunny windowsill, top up with water whenever necessary and change the water before it becomes murky.
Each cutting should start sprouting roots in a few weeks. Once the cuttings have established root networks, plant the cuttings in pots and allow them to grow for a few more weeks before planting them in the garden.
Once a lavender plant is established, water once or twice a week. Lavender plants enjoy the sun and don't like to be over-watered, making them the ideal addition to a eco-friendly, water-wise garden!

Cupcake

So the weekend that passed I did a cupcake design class. Was so fun and learned a lot on cupcake decorating. I have thought long about giving out my cupcake recipe and well here it is =) hope you enjoy moist cupcakes as much as I do.

Ingredients:
125g unsalted white butter, softened
1 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and a half cups of flour (plain)
1 teaspoon baking powder
185ml Milk (full cream)

Icing:
50g unsalted white butter
3-4 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
colouring if you like.

Method:
Preheat oven: 180 degrees
Place muffin papers in muffin tray
In an electric mixer (hand mixer) beat butter, sugar and eggs together
Add vanilla extract and beat untill combined
Sift flour and baking powder and add half of the butter mix, mix untill well combined.
Repeat with remaining flour and butter

Fill cupcake papers 3/4 full
Bake for 20-25 min
Transfer to wire rack and then let it cool

Icing cream:
Cream butter until pale and smooth
Add the milk and half the sifted icing sugar
Beat untill well combined
add the remaining icing sugar and beat untill mixture is light and fluffy
If it is to dry add milk, if to wet add more icing sugar

By Using a piping pag and icing nozzle you can decorate your cupcakes when they have cooled down
and decorate
Enjoy :)

Onion: True or False

As I read my emails today I was sent this email from my brother and I have heard that onions do help cure sickness.

Enjoy reading this.



-Believe it or not!

ONIONS! I had never heard this!!! PLEASE READ TO THE END: IMPORTANT In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people there was this Doctor that visited the many farmers to see if he could help them combat the flu... Many of the farmers and their families had contracted it and many died. The doctor came upon this one farmer and to his surprise, everyone was veryhealthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was differentthe wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in therooms of the home, (probably only two rooms back then). The doctor couldn'tbelieve it and asked if he could have one of the onions and place it underthe microscope. She gave him one and when he did this, he did find the fluvirus in the onion. It obviously absorbed the bacteria, therefore, keeping the family healthy. Now, I heard this story from my hairdresser. She said that several years ago, many of her employees were coming down with the flu, and so weremany of her customers. The next year she placed several bowls with onionsaround in her shop. To her surprise, none of her staff got sick. It mustwork. Try it and see what happens. We did it last year and we never got the flu. Now there is a P. S. to this for I sent it to a friend in Oregon who regularly contributes material to me on health issues. She replied with this most interesting experience about onions: Thanks for the reminder. I don't know about the farmer's story...but, I do know that I contacted pneumonia, and, needless to say, I was very ill... I cameacross an article that said to cut both ends off an onion put it into an empty jar, and place the jar next to the sick patient at night. It said the onion would be black in the morning from the germs...sure enough it happenedjust like that...the onion was a mess and I began to feel better. Another thing I read in the article was that onions and garlic placed around the room saved many from the black plague years ago. They have powerful antibacterial, antiseptic properties. This is the other note. Lots of times when we have stomach problems we don't know what to blame. Maybe it's the onions that are to blame. Onions absorb bacteria is thereason they are so good at preventing us from getting colds and flu and isthe very reason we shouldn't eat an onion that has been sitting for a timeafter it has been cut open. LEFT OVER ONIONS ARE POISONOUS I had the wonderful privilege of touring Mullins Food Products, Makers of mayonnaise. Questions about food poisoning came up, and I wanted to sharewhat I learned from a chemist. Ed, who was our tour guide, is a food chemistry whiz. During the tour, someoneasked if we really needed to worry about mayonnaise. People are alwaysworried that mayonnaise will spoil. Ed's answer will surprise you. Ed saidthat all commercially-made Mayo is completely safe. "It doesn't even have to be refrigerated. No harm in refrigerating it, but it's not really necessary." He explained that the pH in mayonnaise is set at a point that bacteria could not survive in that environment. He then talked about the summer picnic, with the bowl of potato salad sitting onthe table, and how everyone blames the mayonnaise when someone gets sick. Ed says that, when food poisoning is reported, the first thing the officials look for is when the 'victim' last ate ONIONS and where those onions came from (in the potato salad?). Ed says it's not the mayonnaise (as long as it's not homemade Mayo) that spoils in the outdoors. It's probably the ONIONS, and if not the onions, it's the POTATOES. He explained onions are a huge magnet for bacteria, especially uncooked onions. You should never plan to keep a portion of a sliced onion.. He says it's not even safe if you put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in your refrigerator. It's already contaminated enough just by being cut open and out for a bit, that it can be a danger to you (and doubly watch out for those onions you put in your hotdogs at the baseball park!). Ed says if you take the leftover onion and cook it like crazy you'll probably be okay, but if you slice that leftover onion and put on your sandwich, you're asking for trouble. Both the onions and the moist potato in a potato salad, will attract and grow bacteria faster than any commercial mayonnaise will even begin to break down. Also, dogs should never eat onions. Their stomachs cannot metabolize onions. Please remember it is dangerous to cut an onion and try to use it to cook the next day, it becomes highly poisonous for even a single night and creates toxic bacteria which may cause adverse stomach infections because of excess bile secretions and even food poisoning. Please pass this on to all you love and care about.

Wine: Good for you

While reading my normal daily emails I came across this article. So many people believe that wine will help you live longer and have a better sex life but does it really works, drinking one or two glasses a day.

All4woman.
According to leading global health and research institutions, drinking a glass or two of wine every day will improve your physical and mental health, help you lose weight and contribute greatly to an enhanced sex life.
“People who have a glass or two of wine per day are likely to live longer, and have better sex lives”
This is according to Ryan Sowray, owner of internet based wine and gourmet retailer Salewine.co.za, who has collected data supporting the merits of drinking wine for over four years.

“Ever so often, we read about the negative effects of drinking. Not all alcohol is the same so, in order to dispel rumours and myths about wine once and for all, I went on a journey to find evidence that shows that wine has strong medicinal and lifestyle benefits when consumed in the right quantities,” says Sowray.

Women who drink one or two glasses of wine per day have a better sex life
One such study, conducted on 800 women between the ages of 18 and 50 by researchers from the University of Florence in Italy, claim that women who drink one or two glasses of wine per day have a better sex life than those who don’t drink at all.

The results of the survey, called the Female Sexual Function Index, are used by doctors to assess women’s sexual health. What’s more, according to the survey, women who drank two glasses of wine per day achieved the highest score on the overall sexual satisfaction scale; proof that drinking a couple of glasses of wine every day can impact favourably on relationships and marriage.

“The global research shows clearly that people who have a glass or two of wine per day are likely to live longer and have better sex lives. While there are hundreds of reasons why South Africans should be able to enjoy a glass of wine daily, those, for me, top the list,” he says.

Women who drink wine are less likely to gain weight
In addition to benefits found in between the sheets, results of a study by Brigham Women’s Hospital in Boston, on 19 000 respondents over 13 years, found that women who drink wine are less likely to gain weight than those who don’t. According to the report, calories from alcohol are broken down by the liver using a different metabolic pathway that creates heat rather than fat.
Ability to reduce breast cancer
“Research also shows that wine has the ability to reduce breast cancer,” says Sowray.

According to researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in California, women who drank a glass of red wine or chardonnay daily found that their estrogen levels decreased while the testosterone levels increased. This, according to Dr Chrisandra Shufelt, the study’s author, impacts the risk factors for breast cancer.
Benefits of wine are not limited to women
“The benefits of wine are not limited to women,” says Sowray. According to the Harvard Men’s Health Watch, researchers found that men who drink an average of four to seven glasses of red wine per week are only 52% as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who do not drink red wine. In addition, red wine appears particularly protective against advanced or aggressive cancers.

“Doctors believe that compounds found in wine, specifically flavonoids and resveratrol, have antioxidant properties which appear to counterbalance androgens, the male hormones that stimulate the prostate,” says Sowray.
And finally, one for the festive table...
Health experts have long known that drinking red wine can have a positive impact on reducing blood vessel damage, lowering the risk of heart attack, and preventing harmful LDL cholesterol from forming.

According to researchers at the Northwestern University Department of Preventive Medicine in Chicago, people who consume four to six glasses of red wine were more likely to be honest with friends and family.

During routine trials, subjects who consumed five glasses or more of wine showed a remarkable increase in specific mental functions, such as the ability to recall every time their mothers had been unsupportive of their boyfriends or husbands.

Hope you enjoy this little bit of wondering. I know I did ;)