I started using coconut oil not too long ago on my hair, and putting it into my coffee in the morning. yes, it floats on the top of the coffee, but surprisingly, it doesn't leave a greasy taste in your mouth when you drink it. My hair has never been so soft! I don't even use conditioner anymore. I just put a dab on my hands (not much, you may have to experiment) and rub it on and let it sit for a few minutes to soak in, then comb it through really well. Even blow drying my hair doesn't make it frizzy with the coconut oil on. Once a week, I put it on and let my hair dry naturally, so it can soak it all up. It makes your skin so smooth! I tried using it on my face, but I have adult acne, and it broke it out. But I did add a couple of drops to my moisturizer at night, and it didn't break me out that way. Anyway, my skin is much smoother, on my face and everywhere else I use it.

I'm back...I made the plain yogurt cake on The Kitchn blog...made it exactly as she said and only added the grated rind of a lemon. Baked it 50 min. Used EEVO as that is all I had...not just plain OO. It was WONDERFUL. LIght and tasty and no oily taste at all. We had it last night and again this AM with sliced strawberries. I will be making it often. I will link to a piece on Livestrong about palm oil . And here is part of an article about coconut oil : "According to Dr. Barry Sears, who is an expert in lipids (fats), holds a doctorate in biochemistry and does extensive research in the field, coconut oil does have some advantages over other types of saturated fat in that it is rich in tocotrienols (vitamin E, an antioxidant), and because of the high amounts of saturated fat, it is stable for cooking. (Note that the tocotrienols degrade during cooking so this benefit is lost if you use coconut oil for cooking.) All in all, coconut oil may not be as unhealthy as many animal-derived saturated fats (butter, meat), but until more research is done, especially looking at the impact on heart disease risk, it is better to limit your intake to less than 10% of total calories per day and make sure that it replaces less healthy foods such as refined carbohydrates, sugar and high fat animal proteins instead of adding to them. And I agree with Sears that for controlling inflammation and obtaining optimal health, extra virgin olive oil is unquestionably your best choice." Certainly a lot of info. The bottom line is , if you take in too many calories vs how many you burn you will gain weight and potentially be unhealthy. Moderation in ALL things is best. You can't leave out any food group without suffering consequences. If you leave out meat you have to make up the difference with the proper amino acids in complementary proteins. It is not easy being a human with good nutrition these days :) c Here is a link that might be useful: Palm fruit/palm seed oil...the difference

1. When the recipe calls for butter, do you use butter, a reduced amount, a substitute, just leave it out or not use the recipe at all? A-I use butter where it's called for. 2. Do you have certain recipes where you absolutely, positively would never leave the butter out such as pies, alfredo sauce or whatever? A-Not really. I use butter when it's called for. 3. If you're using butter, what is your favorite brand? Do you use salted or unsalted? A-I buy the store brand butter...or whichever is cheaper/on sale. Unsalted only. 4. If you're using a substitute, what do you use? A-I don't use substitutes in general. Unnsalted butter is what I buy and use 99% of the time. I will use margarine for some cookie recipes...only if I want to keep the cookie softer. That's the only thing I'll use margarine for. 5. Add any comments you like regarding your use of butter in cooking. A- Not really. See #4 for my exception. Otherwise, it's unsalted butter.

Caramel Cheetos® - Linda C 2 cups light brown sugar 1 cup margarine - yes, for this one you must use margarine 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 - 21 oz. pkg. Cheetos® - crunchy kind Mix sugar, margarine and corn syrup in pan. Bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes no longer, stirring often. Remove from heat and add soda. Stir until light in color and foamy. Spray a roasting pan (deep 10 x 14) with Pam. Put Cheetos® in pan. Pour the mixture over Cheetos® and stir, coating each piece. Place in oven at 250 degrees. Bake for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes. Immediately, pour onto wax paper, or cookie sheets, sprayed with Pam. (This is the hard part.) VERY QUICKLY spread out as thin as possible. If not quick and spread out as thin as possible, you will get a big hard glob. After about 5 minutes, pull/break these apart even more and loosen them from the wax paper. If you don't, you'll have wax paper stuck to them when you go to eat them. You will regret it if you don't double the batch as guests are going to demand MORE! You can bake batches together and add an extra 20 minutes to bake time. I do them separately because of having to work so quickly to keep them apart at the end. The one batch can almost get too hard while working with the other batch.