Zupas Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup

I've seen a recipe for Zupas famous Wisconsin Cauliflower soup floating around Pinterest for the last few months, and I finally had a rainy day that called for something exactly like it.  So I used this website and thought I'd give it a try.

First we gathered all the ingredients.  The problem with this recipe right off was I don't keep a lot of the ingredients on hand on most days.  I mean, who has 2 1/2 pounds of cauliflower just taking up space in their fridge?   If you do, I applaud you.  I also don't keep half and half around, or at least none that is to be used for things other than creaming up coffee in the mornings.

I also don't keep pounds of pepper jack and sharp cheddar cheese on hand.  But I was really excited to try this recipe, so I made a special trip to the store just for the ingredients.

It's a pretty straight forward recipe, and I had a lot of help from Gretta, my 7 year old, and from the wife, and honestly, it would have been a lot to do alone.

So we added the onions and butter and flour all in a dutch oven.  Side note, I love my dutch oven, and I substitute it in any time a recipe calls for a "large skillet".  This recipe calls for a large skillet.  My 6 quart dutch oven was barely big enough, so remember that.

Also, we doubled the recipe, because it didn't seem like it would have been enough to feed the 5 of us.  I'm glad we did.

We added in the chicken stock and half and half and milk.

And then we added the 2 1/2 pounds of cauliflower and brought it to a boil.  This says about 15 minutes on the recipe.  It took more like 40.  That's a lot of liquid to bring to a boil.

Then we pureed it in the blender.  This took 3 batches, but if you're lucky enough to have a Vitamix or a Ninja, you might be able to get this done in one batch.

Then we melted in the cheeses (yum!) and the mustard.   The mustard seemed like a weird addition, but it really did add that extra something this soup needs.

An hour later, dinner was ready.  We served it up with some bacon, because bacon makes everything better, and some Grands biscuits.

The kids loved it, I loved it, and the wife loved it.  So I think it was a success.  It tastes pretty darn close to Zupas, and with the doubled recipe, we had some left over for lunch tomorrow.  Yippee!

Is it worth it?  Yes, I think so.  A double batch of this soup cost about $12 - $15 dollars, depending on where you shop, which is a bargain when compared to buying soup for 5 people at Zupas, which can cost around $35 or so.

Is it worth the mess?  The cauliflower makes a mess when you cut it, but nothing major, so other than that, is is just regular cooking mess.  So yeah, it's worth the mess.

Would I recommend it?  Yep!  Do it, it's yummy, and a great comfort food for a rainy day.  Just don't blame me when your lactose intolerance shows up a couple of hours after.  (Take a Lactaid, they're life savers.)

Wrap Thingies

Have you guys heard of the It Works! Wraps?  They are supposed to shrink your fat and loose skin significantly over a course of a few wraps.  They're pretty cool, actually, and the before and after photos I've seen have intrigued me.

So I'm thinking about selling them.

But after talking to my distributor, and hearing that part of the process was to drink half your body weight in ounces of water, or it wouldn't work, I decided I better test this out.

So this morning I measured my middle.  (Insert shameful head drop here).  I marked it on a piece of string because Lord knows I don't want to know how many inches that is.  I also weighed myself, and came up with a certain number of ounces of water I need to drink.

So I will be drinking my ounces of water over this weekend, and then remeasuring to see if water alone will shrink the middle.  Then I'll do the wrap along with the water and see if it makes a difference.  If it does, then let the selling begin!  If not, well, at least we'll know, right?

Wish me luck!

Update:  After a weekend of drinking copious amounts of water, I remeasured myself, and I had lost maybe 1/4".  Basically nothing when it comes to seeing a difference.  

This afternoon I wrapped myself in the wrap.   Let me describe this for you.  The wraps are folded up, and they unfold to reveal what looks like a giant Icy Hot patch.  The directions state to use Saran Wrap or a compression garment or an Ace bandage to hold it in place.  I opted for the Saran Wrap.  If any of you have seen "Fried Green Tomatoes", think of Kathy Bates wrapped up in cellophane to meet her hubby at the door.  

I felt like that.  But more awkward.  It was a pain to get wrapped up (literally a pain because my joints have been so achy the last few days, it hurts to maneuver around all that tacky wrap).  I got it on finally, and the first thing I noticed is that is smells like an Icy Hot patch too.  

I'm left wondering, "am I wearing an Icy Hot patch Saran Wrapped to my body for the rest of the afternoon?"  We shall see.  I plan on leaving it on until tonight, then I'll measure before bed, and when I wake up.  Hopefully there's more gone than 1/4".  Oh, and I'll still be drinking lots and lots of water.

2/11/14

And the results are in!  After leaving the wrap on for 6 hours, drinking half my body weight in water for days and days, and massaging in the excess lotion, I remeasured last night before bed and this morning.  Last night before bed, I was still at about 1/4" loss.  I wasn't surprised.  I really thought this morning I would see more of a difference.  

I didn't.  

I was still at about 1/4" loss.  

Now, I understand that a full treatment is 4 wraps, and I only did the one, but it makes me wonder if just drinking water consistently over the course of those 4 wraps would show the same difference with or without the wrap itself.  

That, coupled with all the supplements they try and get you use, along with a "healthy lifestyle", of course you'll see a difference.  

For now, sadly, I'm saying no to the It Works! wraps.  I was really hopeful there would be more of a difference, but until I can test this with a full arsenal of wraps and supplements, I am basing my opinion on the small sample size I did attain, and it didn't work.  Any time you change to a "healthy lifestyle", you will see a difference in your size and measurements.

I was really looking forward to more of a difference because I was considering becoming a distributor for this company.  But now, I don't think I could sell them in good conscience.  

Permanent Marker

This is another test request from Shauna.  Have I mentioned I love requests?  I do.  It makes my Pinterest searching so much easier.

This one comes from this adorable website, so go check her out.

Anyway, this one is near and dear to my heart, both as a mother, and a wood floor owner.  Luckily, knock on wood, I've never had to deal with this particular problem.  Yet.  I'm sure my day will come.

Taking permanent marker off anything sounds impossible at worst and scary at best.  I thought I better try this one just to make sure it didn't make it worse before it got better.  

First I found a part of some wood that I knew I would never see

And then I grabbed a Sharpie out of the junk drawer

Then I (gulp) drew a heart on the wood.

Insert heart stopping moment right here.

Then I grabbed me some white toothpaste because that's what it says on the website

And applied that toothpaste directly to the heart.  Please note that I let the Sharpie dry completely between these steps, even if it went against my better judgement.

Then I started to rub vigorously.  And by vigorously, I mean I didn't have on a bra, so there was some serious breast reverb action going on.  I know, too much info, but it was funny to me.

And you can see the toothpaste is turning blue, and the Sharpie is indeed coming off!  I was shocked!

I wiped it off with a paper towel, and all is well in the wood world once again.

So to sum it up,

Is it worth the money?  Yep, as long as you have white toothpaste on hand, and if you don't, go buy a trial size one for .59.  Also, depending on who put the Sharpie there, you may need to come up with bail money.

Is it worth the mess?  Yes. There is little to no mess, unless you have a full on Picasso on your hands, then get them into art classes, or find them a nice neighbors house to play at that has wood floors.

Would I recommend it?  Absolutely!  I can't believe this works.  I'm not sure about the science behind it, and I will find out, but it definitely works.

As a side note, there was no discernable damage to the wood after this test, so yay.

White Toenails!

I came across this little beauty of a picture and thought it deserved a try.  I love love love white toenails.  I had mine done white one summer when we lived in Chicago, and that whole summer I spent sunbathing next to the wave pool at Six Flags, and my legs and feet have never looked more tan.  I swear it was the white toenails in contrast to my sort-of tannish legs.

Anyway, this lovely picture makes you think you'll get these perfect white toenails, when in fact it links to this blog, and the toenails are clearly painted white.  Browse around her blog, it has some really cute stuff on it!  I'll try it out anyway, just to see what happens.

Here are my toenails before.  Unpainted for months now, don't judge me, but they were a perfect blank canvas.

So it says to start with a paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.  I used 2 tsp of each, and it is a runny paste, but it's a good consistency, I think.

Then you're supposed to scrub it onto your toenails for a few minutes with an old toothbrush.
I scrubbed.

It got a little messy here.  This solution reminds me of cornstarch and water, that kind of not-quite-liquid, not-quite-solid situation going on.  I scrubbed it for a few minutes, then it says to soak for 5-10 minutes in the solution.

I soaked for 10 minutes, I timed it.  My foot was freezing, btw.
I rinsed, per the instructions, and this is what came out:

They look exactly the same.  Well, in the after picture, I obviously have a hair of some sort on my toe, I apologize for that, but in a house with 3 dogs and 2 cats, that will happen.

So to sum it all up,

Is it worth the mess?  Really there is very little mess, unless your 14 year old decides she wants to try this on her fingernails, and then proceeds to cover the bathroom in that sticky mess.  But for me, there was no mess.

Is it worth the money?  I had both baking soda and hydrogen peroxide on hand, as I'm sure many of you do as well, so it cost me a few cents at the most.

Does it work?  Nope.  No 2 ways about it.  Your toes will NOT look like the ones in the picture on Pinterest.  Unless you break out the white paint, then of course it will.

Grease Stains

This next test comes from my childhood BFF Shauna.  She's a cool chick, and we go way back to our good old gymnastics days.

She must still know me pretty well, because she sent me this pin about getting grease stains out of clothes with chalk.  Shauna, how did you know I frequently stain my clothes with grease from a good batch of onion rings?  Or chicken fingers?  Or burritos?  Or whatever.  :)

So I have this cute dress, the dress I wore when I got married in December in fact, and somehow (I'm sure none of the above scenarios apply here), there is a grease stain right in the middle of the front of the dress.  Ugh.  So annoying.  So I decided to try this out and see if it works.

So I usurped one of Gretta's chalks from her super duper big craft box, and proceeded to lightly rub it on the grease stain.  I was nervous because I didn't want to press too hard and ruin the fabric.  Then I tossed it in the wash with all the other dark colors I was washing that day.

After a run through the washer and dryer, here's what came out:

The stain is still there.  Darn it. I was really hoping this would work.  There are a couple of factors you might want to consider when doing this.  My stain was a couple of washes old already, so it was set in.  If it's a new stain, it may work, and if I come across a fresh grease stain in the near future, which is a distinct possibility, I will try it.  Also, the fabric is 100% cotton, and other fabrics might do better.  But to sum it all up...

Is it worth it?  Sure, if you have some chalk on hand like I did, give it a try.

Is it worth the mess?  Pretty much mess-free, which I whole-heartedly endorse.

Would I recommend it?  In this case, no.  It didn't work.

So there you go folks.  Keep the suggestions coming!

Hairless Wonder

I received this tip from my lovely former "assistant" Kari.  She knows how much I hate body hair, and with my plethora of coffee grounds, she knew this was right up my alley!

The Pin says to mix 2 Tbs of coffee grounds with 1 tsp of baking soda and rub on the skin each day for 1 week, and your hair will be gone.

People, I had to grow out my arm hairs just for this test.  I don't think you realize how much of a sacrifice that is for me.  But this is all in the name of science, so I did it.

So I gathered my supplies

And mixed them together.  I made a double batch, just in case this works.  So that is 4 Tbs of coffee grounds and 2 tsp of baking soda. 

Now, there are no directions about how to apply this mixture, but in the picture it looks like it has some water added, so I tried doing it just dry and rubbing it on, and then using a different spot with a dab of water and massaging it in.  Here is the before:

You can see there are a lot of hairs there.  Gross. 

And here it is after the first applications.  I will see what happens both with and without water, in case there is a difference.  

Stay tuned for updates as the week goes on.

Update Day 2:  I reapplied the mixture to the same spots and massaged it in for a few minutes.  No remarkable hair removal has happened yet.  We'll see....

Update Day 6:  I have been applying the mixture every day, and well, there is no difference.  Don't bother trying this, it just plain doesn't work.  Now I'm off the shave this arm, it's driving me crazy!

Is it worth the money?  Sure, if you have the stuff around like I did.

Does it work?   Nope.  Not one hair was removed over the course of a week.

Would I recommend it?  Nope, don't bother.  

Kid Tested, Moms Approve

Tonight we're trying out these babies.  I hate to admit it, but I love corn dogs.  And funnel cakes.  And all other manner of fried fair-inspired foods.  Except cotton candy.  I hate that stuff.  As a mother, it is of the devil.  Kids end up sticky, wound up, and unable to control where their sticky hands land in the mini-van, thus causing permanent sticky areas on the once plush leather seats.  I may sound like I speak from experience, and sadly I do.  But I digress.

We made the muffin mix just as required and filled the muffin tins like so,

2 packages of Jiffy corn bread mix with a half package of hot dogs made 15 muffins.  We put cheese and hot dogs inside.  Double yum.

Baked at 400 for 21 minutes, and here is what you get:

Not exactly pretty, but still yummy-ish looking.  I let them sit for 5 minutes to cool, because that's how long it takes to make fry sauce, and that's as long as the kids could wait to eat them.  

Once we tore into them, this is what we got: 

I have to say, these are pretty dang good.  I like them better than regular corndogs, plus there's cheese!  Yay to cheese!  

So to sum it all up:

Is it worth it?  Yep, Jiffy cornbread mix is like .89, and hot dogs are about the same, and both can be nearly free if you're a couponer like I am.  

Is it worth the mess?  Yes, there is basically no mess, unless you're eating them at the computer and the crumbs fall into your keyboard.  (Don't judge me)

Would I recommend it?  Yes!  These are great!  The kids loved them, and the wife approved, so I would say use 3 or more boxes of Jiffy mix and a whole package of hot dogs and pack some up for tomorrows lunch.  

Waffle Love

Who doesn't like cinnamon rolls?  Who doesn't like waffles?  This seems like the perfect mix of sweet, easy, and delicious!

According to this website, all you need is Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, and a waffle iron, along with some non-stick spray.

We made these a few weeks ago for the girls when they were here for Christmas break.  I'm a couponer, and I was able to score the cinnamon rolls for almost free.  So I was pretty stoked to make yummy free waffles for my family.

Let me just say this right now, these make a huge mess of your waffle maker, even if you use non stick spray in between batches.  The sugar burns into the little cracks, and is nearly impossible to get out.  As each batch cooks, they become harder and harder to remove from the waffle iron, making them more of squished cinnamon rolls, not so much waffles.

I had to soak my waffle iron for a week to get the sugar to come off.

Does it work?  Yes, but it will possibly ruin your waffle maker, so be wary of that.

Is it worth the mess?  I say definitely no.  It was a huge pain to clean up.

Would I recommend it?  No.  I hate messes, and this made a huge mess.  Although they are delicious and the kids gobbled them up, I won't be suggesting we make these again.

More Coffee Please

Dried coffee grounds melt ice?  What?  I had to try this!

As I've mentioned before, we drink a lot of coffee around here.  It's the good stuff.  So for this test, it wasn't hard to come up with the grounds, though it did take some time.

I've been drying coffee grounds for about 4 days.  I put them on a cookie sheet and put them in the lazy susan to keep the pets off them.  They dry in about a day, but I just kept adding to them so I would have plenty around.  You can also get free coffee grounds from any coffee shop, from what I hear.

For this test, I used Caffe Ibis's Hawaiian Hazelnut coffee.  Oh my yum.  It's like liquid caffeine candy.

First, I started with dried coffee grounds.

You can see that's about 4 days worth of coffee grounds.   I put some in this container, and I also put regular ice melt in an identical container, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

I took this container outside and found a good spot to test the melting capabilities.  Our house faces North, so there are spots that never see the sun and never melt.  Perfect spot!

Here's the ice spot.  It has been here for like 10 months.  Okay, probably not that long, but winter is feeling endless around here.

I dumped the containers on two separate spots on this ice sheet.  One is the coffee, as seen here, and the other is the ice melt which you can't see.

I poured them both out at 11:10 AM, and I work until 8:00 tonight.  I don't expect it to get any sun in this spot, and the temps are right around 30, which should keep the ice from melting on its own.

I'm gonna say right now, I wouldn't go through and sprinkle my whole driveway or sidewalk with coffee grounds.  It would look like dirt, and if you had to walk through it and then into the house, I'm almost positive it would stain rugs and carpets.  But that's outside of the scope of this test, so let's just see how it melts first.  Stay tuned!

Edit:  Here is what I found at 8:30 this morning

You can see clearly the ice melt did exactly what it's meant to do, it melted the ice.  You can also see clearly the coffee grounds did nothing at all.

So to sum it all up,

Is it worth the mess?  Nope.  It's a pain to dry all the coffee grounds, and then they don't even work.  Not to mention the fact that if you spread this all over your sidewalk or driveway, then walked through it, it would make a mess of your rugs and carpets.

Does it work?  Nope.  Not at all.  'Nuff said.

Would I recommend it?  Nope.  Doesn't work, too mess, and it's a pain.

Just go buy a bag of ice melt and go about your day.

Blackheads Aren't Just For Teenagers, Right? Right?!?!

I found what appears to be a grammatically incorrect thrifty version of Biore blackhead remover strips, and thought I'd give it a try.  Not that I have that many blackheads, because I'm like, 30, or whatever, and women my age don't get blackheads.  Note the sarcasm.

I have plenty of eggs around these parts, so sparing one for a test isn't a big deal.

I should say first that I am using a very fresh egg, as in it was gathered this morning, and it is at room temperature.

I whisked until frothy

and applied a small amount to my nose and chin.  Then I applied the toilet paper strips over the top.  I ran into a problem here, because the toilet paper I used was 2-ply, and the top ply didn't absorb the mixture and just peeled off.

So note to self, use 1-ply toilet paper, or just peel your paper into 1-ply sections.

Then I let the mixture and paper sit for 15 minutes.  I timed it.

While I was waiting, I pondered on some things.  Mostly, I hate throwing away almost an entire egg white, so perhaps next time I'll have a party and have all my friends join me, or do my whole face and legs and arms.  What I'm getting at, is 1 egg white makes a LOT of remover.

After 15 minutes, the toilet paper is supposed to be "rock hard", according to the site.  It was definitely rock hard!

So I peeled it slooooowwwwwly of my chin, and to my suprise (because I really didn't think this would do a thing), I could see little pieces of stuff sticking to the toilet paper and coming out of my skin!  Upon closer inspection, I don't think they were blackheads, mostly just dead skin and loose hairs, but my chin feels smooth.

I repeated the removal process on my nose, and it made my eyes water like crazy, so be aware of that before you go putting this in sensitive places, and I saw the same result.

So to sum it all up:

Is it worth the mess?  Yes, the mess is minimal unless you're a hard core whisker.  Then just behave with that whisk.

Does it work?  I think it's more an exfoliation technique, not specifically for black heads.  I will try it again, and see if I see a reduction in blackheads over time.

Would I recommend it?  Yep!  It's cheap, natural, and heck, if it makes you feel like you had a day at the spa, then why not?

Are You A Soap Hoarder, Too?

Confession time.  I'm a soap hoarder.  I love soap and water more than any body wash (see previous post).  This means I usually end up with little itty bitty parts of soap that are too small to use (They get lost in the "curves", if you know what I mean), but too big to throw away without feeling guilty.  I came across this little hack, and thought I'd try it out.  This is what I ended up with:

Two bars of soap playing piggy back.  This is after 2 days of sitting in the shower, semi-wettish.  When I tried using them today, they fell apart back into 2 bars of soap.

Is it worth the mess?  Sure, theres really no mess per se, so it's worth a shot.  

Does it work?  Not for me.  I used Dove Pink, it's my fave, but it may work with other brands of soap.  

Would I recommend it?  Probably not.  I would think these would be a better idea to keep small soap pieces still usable.  

Coffee, Anyone?

Today I tested the coffee grounds body scrub.  Search it on Pinterest, and you will find numerous links to websites offering uses for coffee grounds.  I thought  this was a good place to start, since we drink a LOT of coffee in this house.

Here is the link to one of the pages I used for referencing how to use coffee grounds.  Of course I was most interested in getting rid of cellulite!

Here's how it went down.  I gathered a plastic container and put in some coffee grounds, a little salt, and some olive oil.  I proceeded to the shower.  Then I began to slather the mixture on my "problem areas", which is code for "everywhere".  Let me just say, it was a gross looking mess in the shower.  It dripped everywhere, and was on the shower curtain, and the walls, and it was running in puddles into the drain, and it looked a little like a horror scene.  But I continued to scrub.

Once I was done, I used the handheld shower head to rinse everything off, and down the drain.  However, even though I have a commercial coffee grinder, there are still a few beans that don't grind fine enough to go down the drain, so I had to fish those out.  This could be a problem if you have drains that are sensitive to debris.

I'll let you know, I still have cellulite.  Boo.  But I know it doesn't go away from any topical treatment, so I didn't expect anything.  I feel exfoliated and moisturized, as you would with any moisturizing exfoliating body wash or loofah.

Is it worth the mess?  Maybe, if you're thrifty and don't like throwing stuff away.  For me personally?  I'd rather buy a body wash so my shower doesn't look like it had diarrhea thrown in it.

Does it work?  For exfoliation and moisturizing, yes.  To get rid of cellulite, no.

Would I recommend it?  Not as a first resource, but if someone was adventurous, sure.