Relaxing Day Trip #1: Brighton Beach!!

People love to leave the City for the weekend and escape to the beach. Beaches in NJ and Long Island are beautiful, but getting there can be a pain! Rushing to the train station and paying big bucks to fight for seats and sit on the train for hours sometimes just doesn't seem worth it.

Enter Brighton Beach.

A short subway or bike ride from central Brooklyn (and totally doable from Manhattan), Brighton Beach is where it's at! Russian delicacies along Brighton Beach Boulevard, plenty of space to set up shop on the beach, amazing people watching, shimmering water, and waves just high enough to jump over--what more could you ask for? There are also relatively clean bathrooms and changing areas and Coney Island amusements are just a short walk along the boardwalk away.

For those of you who have yet to experience Brighton Beach, I highly recommend taking advantage of the designated bike path (built in 1894 and the nation's first!) along Ocean Parkway, which will get you to the beach in less than 30 minutes without worrying about getting hit by a car of crazy hipsters or being stuck on a stalled F train.

Rainy Day Activity: Homemade Bath Salts

Lavender is my favorite bath addition and in addition to smelling amazing, has many medicinal and aromatherapeutic properties you might not know about. Lavender is natural antiseptic and is great for healing healing minor cuts, burns, and insect bites. Lavender is known for its soothing and relaxing properties and has been shown to relax muscles, ease headaches, and relieve stress. Even better, lavender is naturally soporific--perfect for a bath right before bed.

So the question is, how to get the lavender in the bathtub? If you have fresh or dried lavender, you can put it right into a mesh tea bag and drop it in the tub as it's filling up. Since for most of the year I don't have easy access to fresh lavender, I prefer the bath salt method. Easy, smells great, and they last forever. Also, combining lavender with epson or sea salts is especially good for muscle aches and pains, as salts are known for their healing properties.

Recipe for Lavender Bath Salts:

1 bag of Epson Salts (usually sold in a cardboard box at your local drug store)

*if you want to step it up a notch, try one of these high end fancy salts

1 small bottle of lavender essential oil
*you can actually use any essential oil for this. Grapefruit, jasmine, and rose are some other nice ones

Preparation:

Pour salts into large mixing bowl.

Mix salts with essential oil. The more salts you use, the more oil you need. At least 20 drops for a solid scent. Add more if you like a stronger scent.

Pour into plastic bags and tie with ribbon, or use these cute tins and affix your own labels!

These also make great party favors, bridal or baby shower gifts!

Heavenly Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Why you need an ice cream maker, Reason #1:

Today on my way home from work , I stopped at the supermarket, headed straight for the ice cream aisle, and walked away with nothing. Not only was I disappointed with the boring selection (namely the lack of peanut butter chocolate chip), but I just can't believe how expensive ice cream is! Not worth my $5. So, I made a beeline for the dairy aisle, picked up some half and half and whole milk, and headed home to make my own.

It's hard to find a good solid (i.e. easy) recipe for peanut butter chocolate chip ice cream. Especially one that doesn't use eggs. Not that I'm against eggs, but making ice cream with eggs usually involves cooking a custard on the stove and I generally don't have the energy (or the patience) for cooking when I'm making ice cream.

Yes, you will need an ice cream maker to make this. However, my $50 Cuisinart Ice Cream Machine has been well worth the investment. There is nothing like homemade ice cream and the independence you have to make any combination of flavors and use your favorite all natural ingredients.

I found this recipe for Peanut Butter Ice Cream here. Made a few adjustments to make it a bit healthier and added chocolate chips to get me right back to where I started. I eat a lot of ice cream so I try to cut back the fat a bit by using milk instead of cream. You'll be surprised how you can't tell the difference! The result is a creamy, crunchy, peanut butter infused dream. And it comes out perfect from the freezer, not icy like some non-custard recipes. Yum!

Ingredients:
1 cup all natural (peanuts only) crunchy peanut butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups whole milk
1/3 cup half & half (for creamier ice cream, use more half & half, less milk)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
half a bag of chocolate chips

Preparation:
Combine the peanut butter and sugar in a blender until smooth. Add the milk. Blend on low speed until smooth and the sugar is dissolved. Add the half & half and vanilla and pulse until blended. Pour into ice cream maker. When thick, mix in chocolate chips, scrape into freezer safe container or in small individually sized tupperware containers.