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Visit
http://www.joyfuldesignsinsoy.com
today
Upcoming Craft
Show Schedule
None for March
Locally I have candles in a store in Sedro Woolley
called Somwhere in Thyme, on Metcalf St, next to Courier Times
Note about web orders:
If you place an order and your shopping cart comes
up with a cost of over $8.10 to ship, please email me before you place
the order. Most likely, I can fit it into a flat rate priority
mail box and save you some money on that shipping. Of
course, Skagit County residents are welcome to either email or call to
arrange free delivery.
Free 8 oz candle for Jan.
February's free winner was lettinitride, please contact me to redeem.
Consider hosting an online candle party or
book party to earn some free
candles
for yourself! If
you'd like more details on how this works, please email me at:
valerie.garner@joyfuldesignsinsoy.com
Western Wash. residents:
I can do fundraisers for groups. Email me for details if
interested! |
Scent of the
Month Sale
Mediterranean Fig- Soft earthy scent in pale
green color. Slightly sweet, but not too much. Very
beautiful spa type scent!
Buy 1 candle at regular price, get a candle of
month scent in the equal size for 40% off! (Does not count on the sets
of candles as those are already discounted).
Please email me if you order the special so I
can tabulate the correct total for you.
Seasonal scent
suggestions:
Irish
Cream
Irish
Mocha
Apple Blossom
Violet & Birch
Daffodil
Lilac
Grapefruit Lily & Lime
Blackberry Basil
Cucumber Aloe
Angel Wings
Homestyle Thai Cooking
I'm no Thai chef, but I sure have made my share of Thai green and red
curry in this life! To me, there's nothing like the taste of these
curries, with their rich exotic flavors of coconut, lemongrass, ginger
and chilis.
Many of the ingredients that give Thai food its distinct flavors can
be purchased here in the West, and not just in the Asian markets either.
True, the really good stuff you'll be able to find only at the Asian
stores or online, but decent substitutes for those of us who do not want
to drive all over town can be found at natural foods stores and even
some conventional stores around the US.
If you can't get (or if you just don't want to get) the fresh
ingredients for Thai food at home, sometimes all it takes is to purchase
a good jar of curry paste, which contains many of the exotic flavors,
like galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and chilis, that give a
Thai dish its authentic taste (see recommendation below).
To make it easy for a fast and flavorful lunch or dinner, I created a
simple Thai Formula that can be used for a number of coconut and curry
based dishes. Once you remember the basics of the Thai Formula, you
can't really go wrong. Along with brown jasmine rice with a stick of
ginger in the rice cooker, your meal is ready in 30 minutes. And the
flavors only get better through time - your left-overs tomorrow will be
richer and creamier than your dinner today.
Here's a few of the mandatory pantry ingredients needed for authentic
Thai cooking at home:
Thai Fish Sauce - This distinctive sauce is a must-have for
Thai at home - it adds just the right flavor to take your so-so curry
and make it authentic. Have you ever wondered, "why doesn't my coconut
curry taste like the ones I get in the restaurants?" This is why. Fish
sauce has concentrated flavors so only 1-3 tablespoons are needed for
most dishes. It can be found at most natural foods stores, specialty
stores and of course Asian markets.
Thai Curry Paste - Good Thai curry paste should give the dish
a rich, pungent flavor without taking over. Not-so-good curry paste will
be over stimulating (i.e. your mouth and lips will burn) but the curry
ends up lacking depth and overall flavor. Kasma Loha-unchit, Thai chef
and cooking instructor from the Bay Area, recommends Mae Ploy brand
curry pastes that come in plastic tubs rather than jars or cans. Red,
green and yellow curry pastes are the most popular.
Coconut Milk - Coconut milk is a blend of the meat from the
coconut with the coconut water (or sometimes plain water). It imparts a
very rich, sweet succulently exotic flavor and a creamy texture to Thai
and Indonesian food. Choakoh is the milk of choice of many Thai chefs
and Cook's Illustrated. Find coconut milk on sale and stock up, you'll
need it if you want to start experimenting with Thai cooking.
Sign up for Alison's
Natural Cooking
eLetter - Culinary inspiration, healthy recipes and more! Once a
month FREE!
By Alison Anton - I am a Certified Nutritional Chef, food writer and
culinary instructor through Bauman College of Holistic Nutrition and
Culinary Arts in Northern California. I teach cooking and nutrition
classes through the Whole Foods Market Salud Cooking School and write a
monthly eLetter, also entitled Whole Gourmet Natural Cooking, to a wide
audience.
Candle Tips
To extinguish your wick in a truly smoke free way, take a small piece of
wire (end of a coat hanger works well) and use it to push your
burning wick into the burn pool, thus drowning it. Then use that
wire to put the wick back in it's original position.
Be sure to trim your wick to ? or ?” before every
burn and keep the lit candle out of a draft to ensure a clean burn.
Toenail clippers work great to trim the wick as it burns down deeper
into the jar.
Burn your candle 1 hour for every inch of
diameter. For the 12 oz oval hexagon candles, burn a minimum of 3
hours, and the jelly jars and minimum of 2 hours for best results. This
helps to ensure a full melt pool.
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