Day by Day with Camille

 I made blueberry lemon bread with lemon glaze this morning.  Next, I bagged two pans of dried, candied citrus peel(mostly clementine, but with a little lime and tangerine added).  I went to the Thomasville USPS for Global and First Class holiday stamps. Then, I stopped by the Thomasville Public Library for the souvenir book sale that they are having during November. Bought two had back books for 50 cents each. I picked up a Bookpage magazine, an Avon holiday catalog, and an events calendar for November and December.  Now, I am enjoying a cup of warm jasmine green tea with citrus sugar water that I saved from making the candied citrus peel. 

 Yesterday I made my own version of spiced sugar. I started with one cup of white sugar; the spices were added to suit my own taste. To the sugar, I added the following ground spices: cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger. I stirred them until they were thoroughly mixed, and sealed them in a glass jar. They will be wonderful for cooking/baking with, as well as to add to a cup of warm black tea. Enjoy! 

 I have been reading a lot recently about fire cider, and yesterday evening, I decided to make my own version of it. It was an ideal time, as there was a full moon last night, and a good time for such concoctions. I chose a glass jar as a container for it to ripen in, and it is now residing on my kitchen counter, along with fermenting bottles of homemade blackberry and blueberry wine. I filled the jar about half full of apple cider vinegar to begin with, then I began adding the other ingredients. Fresh key lime (whole, but cut in half), whole cloves, a cinnamon stick, a few garlic cloves. fresh ginger root, dried chives, dried parsley, dried thyme, dried rosemary, a sprig of fresh rosemary, ground nutmeg, ground allspice, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, dried lavender buds, ground tumeric, and a dried bay leaf. I shook the jar slightly, then finished filling it up with apple cider vinegar, then closed the jar. I will now allow it to ripen. 

  I have a story to share with you about Total by Verizon and CVS. Yesterday afternoon, I purchased a cell phone at the Thomasville NC CVS on Randolph St. I also purchased a prepaid Verizon card with $30 on it, for service. Earlier today, 4 separate times, I tried to activate the phone, and was told it could not be activated. So.....I returned the phone to the CVS, and received a refund for the phone itself. Unfortunately, the $30 card was not refundable, nor was I allowed even CVS store credit for the money that I paid. I left the card with the cashier who refunded my money with the instructions to please give it to the next person who bought a phone, as I now had no use for the card. I have contacted Total by Verizon online, and all I got was some silly automated reply. #customerservice #TotalbyVerizon #CVS #thomasville # #NorthCarolina #payitforward All reactions: 1 Loretta Green

Yesterday afternoon, I made some Star Jasmine water. I learned about the benefits of jasmine online, so I decided to make my own version of a Jasmine water. I picked Star Jasmine at my patio, added a small amount of vodka, then water.  You can make water without the vodka stabilizer, but you will not have as aromatic flower water. 

This morning, I made a small amount of wintergreen sugar lip scrub, and then some peppermint-wintergreen mouthwash. In the lip scrub, I used common household items that I already had on hand; the same for the mouthwash. Olive oil, granulated sugar, and wintergreen oil make up the lip scrub.  The mouthwash is simply peppermint and wintergreen oils, and water. I added the amount of essential oils that suited my personal taste.  I chose not to add any color to either of them, but if you do, food coloring used in cooking/baking would work fine. A few dried herbs or rose petals would be a nice extra, as well, if you choose. 

Recently, I have made a few extracts and oil blends. I blended olive oil with lavender salt. Next I made vanilla extract using vanilla beans and light rum. Next I made lemon extract using lemon peel, a tiny bit of fresh lemon juice, and vodka. Blood orange extract was next, using the peel and vodka again. Next was almond extract, which used crushed almond pieces and vodka. Just today I started mint extract using fresh mint leaves and vodka. Time to ripen!