happy saturday

today I woke up to make a call which resulted in the delightful prospect of no work, and so I slept in and had lovely dreams in my warm, sunny room. When I woke up I turned on A Fine Frenzy music, "So softly, rain against the windows and the strong coffee warming up my fingers in this fisherman's house..." I made myself an omelette for breakfast; I read a cookbook by Jacques Pepin and Julia Child and learned how to make them right. I used to make them a lot and they would always end up like a thick pancake that usually wouldn't stay folded, but Mr. Pepin explained how to make them roll properly. This omelet was exquisite. I didn't take a picture because my camera batteries are dead and I was more interested in eating it. =) I've always wanted to be able to make good omelettes, and now I'm getting there. Here's a little video of Mr. Pepin sharing his secret. I didn't use all the same ingredients as he did, but the technique worked perfectly, and it wasn't hard, and I was so pleasantly surprised with the perfectly rolled omelet that landed on my plate. Here is the video link for you:

Jacques Pépin Shows You How to Create the Classic French Omelet

My skin has been super dry due to all the climate changes I've experienced while traveling over the break. This is what I do to fix that, and it works really well for me: I put about a cup of salt (or sugar when we're low on salt) in a plastic cup. I bought a little tub of solid shea butter at a health food store awhile ago. It wasn't that expensive, and I melt a couple tablespoons of that in the microwave and stir it into the salt with a plastic spoon (I heard that some oils react with metal, and I use plastic so I never have to find out whether or not what I'm using will do that), and then I add just a few drops of lavender oil to make it smell pretty. Lastly I put in just enough olive oil to barely moisten all the salt. There's a salt scrub, and if you use it in the bath or shower, the salt will slough away dead skin cells, while the shea butter and the olive oil moisturize and make your skin feel like silk.