Recipes that go on your face rather than in it

The recipes I'm linking to might not actually be for anything to eat, but they are all made with edibles. They are DIY natural beauty treatments, like masques, scrubs, and soaks. It's common knowledge that many foods help different parts of our bodies with antioxidants, vitamins, and other healing effects when we eat them, but slathering them on ourselves is apparently another effective use for them.

Recently, I've been moving, slowly but surely, away from beauty and personal care products laden with synthetic and, quite frankly, scary chemicals toward more natural skin care, and many of these products are full of foods (and plants and minerals) with different healing and fortifying properties. Conventional skin care tends to be filled with preservatives that extend shelf life at the cost of pumping a product full of chemicals. These chemicals are absorbed by our skin and thus into our bodies. And while it does seem too soon to tell what sorts of long-term effects these products might have on us, the very fact that they might even HAVE long-term effects on us that are undesirable is enough to make me think twice about using them for the rest of my life. So I'm gradually swapping out my traditional skin care products as I finish each for natural alternatives.

It's nice to know, though, that you can make cost-effective and easy pampering products at home, because skin care can get expensive. I've certainly tried a few of these, like using honey to moisturize or cucumber slices or cold used tea bags on puffy, tired eyes. But I'll probably whip up a few of these concoctions next time I feel dehydrated or in need of a boost. One thing I learned recently is that apparently lemon juice applied to a bug bite as soon as possible after you get it helps soothe the itchiness and irritation. Plus who doesn't love the smell of lemons?

Do you find yourself feeling the same way about skin care products, or does the use of chemicals not bother you? Have you ever tried any home remedies using common kitchen ingredients that you find to be highly effective? Dish!

El Bulli going on un sabbatical

This is what happens when you get a sinus infection: You feel miserable all the time because you can't breathe and the stuff clogging up your nose is too terrifying to even dwell upon, and you finally go to the doctor because your cold is getting worse by the hour. You start taking antibiotics that are the size of horse tranquilizers, which almost immediately clear up the horrors in your sinuses but which wreak havoc on your stomach and kill your taste buds, so that the only things that appeal to you in terms of food are soup, pasta, crackers, and cereal. Also, you can't drink for 10 days. And during that time, you don't put anything on your food blog because cooking consists of preparing a bowl of cereal and pouring ginger ale into a glass.

And now, friends, now I am finally off the antibiotics and getting back into the swing of enjoying, among other things, breathing through my nose and eating from all four major food groups. So here I am! Do excuse my absence; it's inexcusable, on one level, but on another, I feel like I owed myself a break while I was sick.

I am finally going to share the recipe for braised endive and ham that Jeremy and I tried and enjoyed so much, and I'll also include a recipe for a really tasty endive salad, but I don't have them in front of me at the moment so they will come later this week. Right now I wanted to share the news that El Bulli, Ferran Adrià's restaurant (possibly the most renonwned restaurant in the world right now), is closing, at least for two years for a "period of reflection."

Never mind that the restaurant is only currently open 6 months out of the year. Never mind that it is nearly impossible to get reservations to dine there because they only accept them during ONE DAY of the year. Now it will be even twice as impossible to get to eat there. I understand and appreciate that the restaurant is more than just an eatery, it's a place of food experimentation and learning, and this is why I want to go there so badly. Many great chefs have worked under Adrià's tutelage and have gone on to do amazing and creative things with food. But it just saddens me to think that in my lifetime, my chances of actually getting to eat there are extremely slim (while I am extremely not), and are probably going to be even slimmer thanks to this temporary closing. Because honestly, who knows if two years might not just slip into three, and then four, and then more?

We'll see. A girl can dream. Is it so lofty a goal to want to eat at the best restaurant in the world? Is it bad that I feel slightly more entitled to eat there because I happen to be Spanish? Sigh.

Leggo-ing of your Eggo

Apparently there is an Eggo Waffle shortage.

Yes, there is a limited supply of Eggo Waffles and will be until the middle of next year.

The thing is: why do people care THAT much? Why does it matter that there is a shortage of a random breakfast food like Eggos? It's sort of funny to read some of the quotes by people in this article talking about rationing their supply or putting them on E-bay. What's wrong with you people? Get some oatmeal! Buy a different brand of frozen waffles! Or (gasp!) make your own waffles! It's NOT difficult, and basic waffle irons are affordable.

I just find it ridiculous that people are worked up over a food that's not an essential or a dietary staple, like milk, vegetables, or whole grain. It's not even that healthy for you! Maybe these people should switch to oatmeal, fruit, or eggs (not Eggos) for breakfast. Yes, I understand that it can be upsetting not to have a certain comfort food available, but frozen waffles, to me, seem like they should be treated more as a luxury than an essential.

Cake Wrecks

Is it just me, or is the New York Times drastically behind on the news?

Okay... I don't think it is just me. Because they just ran an article on the popularity of the website Cake Wrecks.

I LOVE this website. I can spend a hearty half-hour taking a break from work guffawing as silently as possible at the edible monstrosities on this site. It's completely fabulous. I was alerted to the existence of this site last summer by a temp at my office who also thought it was hilarious. And I think that at that point, a year and a half ago, the website was already gaining a lot of popularity on the web. If you have not yet had the sheer, insanely hilarious joy of visiting this site, go there now. Please!

And yet it was just a couple of days ago that the Times just ran an article on the website. Now I'm not the most hip and with-it person around, especially when it comes to the internet, but I do at least have a pinky finger in the pool of popular culture. Unlike some prestigious news media. Thanks, New York Behind-the-Times.

Gourmet magazine going out of print

Condé Nast is shutting down Gourmet magazine.

I have to say that I've always been far more fond of Bon Appetit than Gourmet (I don't subscribe to any food magazines, so I just know them from browsing at magazine stands), as I find Bon Appetit a little more approachable and visually easier on the eyes, but it is rather shocking that they are getting rid of Gourmet. It's been in publication since 1941 and that makes it feel a bit like an institution. And where will Ruth Reichl go? I'm glad they are keeping Bon Appetit though. The whole world isn't going to hell in a handbasket at least.