Oat and Yogurt Facial Mask

It's September and I am now counting down the days until the start of the semester--six days (including today) to be exact. It's a strange time of year, this last week before a semester starts. Throughout this week I try to soak up as much free time as possible while making last minute preparations for the semester.

Part of soaking up free time includes the last few days of spending time with friends without the thought of homework I'm not doing hanging over my head. My friend Sarah came over again to watch the second season of Sanctuary (which is breaking my heart!) and to continue making our way through the only season of Moonlight.

Lately we've been doing "girly" things while watching our shows. We started with painting our finger and toenails and did our make-up during the next get-together. When we talked about not being completely happy with our pores I came up with a new idea: a pore reducing homemade facial mask.

So I searched this lovely thing called an internet and found a recipe for a homemade oat and yogurt facial mask.

Oat and Yogurt Facial Mask

You will need:
2 tablespoons oats or oatmeal (not the quick-cook kind)
2 tablespoons yogurt

This mask is so easy to make that I don't even need to write this out into steps. All you have to do is grind the oats and mix them with yogurt. Refrigerate the mask for a few hours before applying.

I don't think I ground the oats enough and if I had it might not have been quite so messy but let me tell you, it was an experience to apply this mask! We removed our make-up and applied the mask. It was falling over the place but eventually we were able to pack it onto our faces. Since we were watching TV I lost track of time, but we probably had the mask on for about twenty minutes before we took it off. And that was another experience!

Sarah noticed that overtime the yogurt hardens into it's own mask beneath the layer of oats. It was pretty cool. We could feel the effects of the mask immediately upon removing it. While we didn't notice a huge change in our pores, but the mask softens the skin. Like Sarah said, it makes your skin baby soft!

Here are some making-of photos and Sarah with the mask.

Crêpes

I've always enjoyed crêpes but it wasn't until I started learning the French language that I decided I wanted to make them. This is my favorite breakfast to prepare. When I have the time it's nice to start the day drinking coffee and listening to French music while making crêpes. I prefer to make them without the use of a crêpe maker. Yes, flipping them by hand can create a few tears from time to time and yes, flipping them by hand means that a few don't turn out, but I think that flipping them by hand is part of the fun of crêpe making.

My sister and her husband are nearing the end of their visit so I decided that I wanted to make them crêpes. This morning I woke up with the sun (all right, all right, a few hours after sunrise), started a CD of French music and prepared crêpes for breakfast.



You can find any number of crêpe recipes online. I chose one from the website Famous French Desserts. This recipe will make about 15 crêpes.

French Crêpes
You will need:
2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups whole milk
4 eggs
2 tbsp. butter (melted)
Pinch of salt
1/2 vanilla stalk or few drops vanilla extract (optional)
Vegetable oil (for pan)

To make the batter:
1. Sift flour and mix with salt in a bowl.
2. Make a well and pour in eggs. Stir well.
3. Slowly pour in milk while stirring. Keep stirring batter until small bubbles form on the surface.
4. Stir in butter.

To make the crêpes:
1. Pour a little vegetable oil on a folded paper towel, and wipe the pan evenly. Keep paper towel at hand while preparing crepes, in case you want to give it another wipe.
2. Pour in 2 - 3 tbsp. of batter and quickly move pan around, so that batter spreads evenly, covering the whole surface with a thin layer.
3. Let cook for about 1 minute. Then, flip with a metal spatula, and cook other side for about 30 seconds.

Fillings for crêpes can include, but are not limited to, fresh fruit, Nutella, powdered sugar and whipped cream.

You can always substitute olive oil for any other kind (unless you need it by the cup fulls) and I always do. If you'd like to use olive oil to cover the pan, go right ahead!

I'm not a fan of using whole milk (or heavy creams) in my cooking; to cut down on the fat content I usually use skim milk. However, my brother-in-law is lactose intolerant so this morning I used rice milk instead of dairy and margarine instead of butter. These substitutions didn't change the crêpe in any way. My nephew has a dairy sensitivity and one thing I've learned is that when cooking for someone with a dairy sensitivity or allergy rice milk is a good substitute, soy milk is not.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. It was early and I was wearing my glasses. It's not the best formula for picture-taking!


Preparing the batter.




I think this is some of the greatest stuff in the world! My dad doesn't like Nutella but said he'd like to try peanut butter on crêpes sometime. A lot of people will also put bananas with the Nutella on their crêpes but the bananas in my house weren't ripe enough today.


For a drink, I served a San Pellegrino and orange juice mixture.




I always eat two; one with fresh berries and one with Nutella.