Monday, February 4, 2008

Lemon Oil to the Rescue!


This blog post was to be about my experience with trying to bring some positive food to a Super Bowl party. Then disaster struck. Just as the hopes and dreams of the New England Patriots were dashed...my dream of transporting Toasted Pecan Native American soup came literally crashing down.
A substantial amount of soup remained in the crock pot...probably because people found the soup "weird"! I found it delicious and fortunately ladled myself out several servings before going to the party.
Just as I am new to the idea of "cooking"...I am also new to the idea of "cleaning". In a panic I got home and ran for the hose. I sprayed the interior of my car with water creating a mini flood in the back seat. I then sopped up all the remaining water with several beach towels.
Now my car smells like Toasted Pecan Native American Soup.....hmmm.
I called up my good friend Rachel who is an essential oils provider and asked her how to rid myself of this "gravy like" smell. This was our conversation.
Rachel: What did you do to clean it up?
me: I sprayed the back of my car with a garden hose.
Rachel: (laughing)....you really are a funny guy, Matt, well you might want to roll down your windows and air your car out.
me: got it....what about the smell
Rachel: Citrus oils are very effective at cutting through odors. All you need to do is sprinkle some lemon oil over the carpet and cloth seats, rub it in with a scrub brush and let it dry.
me: I will do absolutely everything you said
Rachel: Good....just make sure you credit me in your blog when you write about this.
me: you read my blog.
Rachel: Matt.....Oprah reads your blog!
me: Oh yeah....forgot thanks!
If you would like to learn more about essential oils and lots of other cool natural stuff....please visit Rachel's site at
she is wicked cool!
Stay Positive,
matthew
PS: If you ever want to make Toasted Pecan Native American Soup here is the recipe
2 1/2 cups pecans
2 Tbs. Olive Oil
1 large Onion
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 Tbs Chili Powder
2 cloves garlic (minced)
3 cups vegetable broth
4 sprigs of fresh Thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup soy or cow milk
1/2 cup shredded carrots
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (Faranheit...if you had an oven that went to 300 celsius though that would be cool). spread pecans on baking sheet in place in oven for 7-10 mins. Chop them up after they cool down.
  2. Heat oil in large sauce pan and add chopped onion. Saute for five minutes then 2 cups pecans. Adsdd maple syrup, chili powder, garlic. Then add broth and 3 cups of water with thyme and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer. Go for a walk or do something positive for a couple hours.
  3. When you return place soup in blender in batches and blend until smooth. Place in Crock Pot and add remaining pecans and shredded carrots.

enjoy in your home if possible....saves the trickiness of transporting that way :)

3 comments:

Rachel Maeroff said...

Yes, yes it's all true. I was more than glad to help Matt out in his cleaning crisis. And while I'm sure the soup smelled great, even the best of smells get old quickly when in a small enclosed space.

And just to add to Matt's message, for oil info check out www.oilwisdom.com (hope you don't mind the plug Matt!).

And do let us know how the smell goes! (away I hope, hehehe)

Rachel

Anonymous said...

Ah!
I was wondering why it was so soaked in the back seat yesterday... I knew Matt had tried to "clean" the mess, but maybe I should have supervised!

The smell was aweful yesterday when I took the car to work... but today it was even better than before the spill. I thought it was because of something magical in the snow (Matt left the windows down and we had 2 inches of snow in the back seat this morning)... but I guess it was the oils that I wasn't aware he used!

THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH RACHEL!

Rachel Maeroff said...

LOL! I guess Matt missed the point I made about not leaving the windows down if it were going to precipitate! Of course who really knows what the weather might do....

Glad it helped!

Rachel