Heath Bar Cake

Photo: Alcove

If you like English toffee, you'll love a Heath Bar Cake! This one begins with flour and leavening agent, not a box of cake mix, but it’s as easy to make as emptying a box of cake mix. This cake, made from scratch, is simple, moist and fluffy.

Heath Bar Cake 

Ingredients:

4 ounces butter

2 cups dark brown sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 eggs
1 cup of buttermilk
½ cup of nuts, chopped (I use walnuts or pecans.)
Either an 8 ounce bag of Heath candy bar bits or you could crush 6 - 8 health bars to get 1 1/3 cups.

Directions:

1) Using a fork, mix the first 9 ingredients together in the listed order. 

2) Spread the batter in a buttered 9’’ by 13'' cake pan, or I prefer using 2 buttered 9" round cake pans to stack them.

3) Sprinkle 1 cup of heath candy bits (or the crushed health bars) evenly over the batter. Save the rest for garnish.

4) Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, until the center is done.

If you use crushed chocolate heath bars into the batter, icing the cake may be too much of a good thing -- unless you savor rich and very sweet cake, but if you use the bag of English toffee bits, you could melt chocolate chips on top of the cake for a ganache topping, then garnish the top and sides with the remaining toffee bits. Enjoy!🎂🎈🎉🍫

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Ground Beef and Cabbage

We’re all familiar with the dish stuffed cabbage, but the only person I know who makes it is my friend, Norma, who learned how from her grandmother. I’m too lazy of a cook to make it.

So when I stumbled across the following recipe from Zestplate, I, the Queen of one-pan dinners, said this dish is for me. A lazy cook need not be a bad or unhealthy cook! It means finding an easier way~

Cabbage and Ground Beef 

Ingredients 

ground beef, 1 lb

onions, 1 cup, chopped 

2 garlic cloves, minced 

1 large bouillon, any flavor

½ teaspoon cumin

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

cabbage small head, chopped 

diced tomatoes, 15 oz can

I add soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, chopped red bell peppers, chopped celery, smoked paprika and substitute 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes instead of using cayenne pepper.

Directions: 

1) In a skillet brown the ground beef, onion and after a beat, garlic. Drain if needed.

2) Toss in chopped cabbage, any vegetables you’re adding, a can of diced tomatoes and spices. 

3) Simmer on your stove top, middle heat, for 15 - 20 minutes until the cabbage is tender and the liquid evaporates to the right amount. Eyeball it. Adding 1-2 tablespoons of flour to the liquid makes gravy if you wish to serve the dish over cooked noodles, rice or with a dollop of mashed potatoes. Delish!

You can make this one-pot meal your own by adding or subtracting vegetables and spices to your taste. Eat it spicy or not, plain or with a carbohydrate. When out of cabbage, I’ve used Brussels sprat and diced potatoes with 2 cans of diced tomatoes. 

All the goodness of stuffed cabbage without boiling, stuffing or rolling it. Bon Appetite!

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Savvy Shoppers Know That Size Matters

It takes a surprising amount of commodities to maintain ourselves! Doesn’t it?! Even a minimalist has to agree. From household germicides to skincare to haircare to personal care, we certainly need to buy a slew of solutions, soaps, lotions, and potions to clean, groom, and perfume our homes and physiques until the day we die!😳 Today and everyday, I mean, stop and what’s next? Germs? Bad smells? Dishevelment? Surely people in their right minds would never just let themselves go!

A reason I love T.J Maxx is the many botanical and organic finds including liquid soaps, moisturizing lotions, shampoos and hair conditioners that are also sold in huge 1 liter or 33 oz sizes for less. My practice is to buy one, plus one to keep on deck for when the first bottle turns into an empty.

I do the exact same thing when buying household cleaners like gallon sizes of distilled white vinegar, a 4 lb box of baking soda, Pinalen (pine oil), ammonia, and bleach from Walmart, Target, Key Food, or C-Town. (I’ve decided not to replace the ammonia because the others do the same jobs. I hardly reach for it anymore. Before switching to white vinegar to clean my floors and counters, I used ammonia to keep from ruining colored rugs with splatters while cleaning.)

Neither overbuying nor underbuying saves you money. Learn which products keep and which lose potency with the passage of time. Then the trick is to figure out what you need and will continue using. We might make a few mistakes before we figure it out, but eventually we do figure it out. 

After we figure it out, buying staples in big ole sizes not only saves time and money, but simplifies our lives. You make fewer trips to the store to restock and instead can do other tasks or pleasures.

Buying huge sizes of non-perishable household and personal care products is always the Savvy Shopper way to go. It’s well worth creating space for them!

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Charts: Apples From Tart to Sweet

The Bell Tree Forums

Recently I stood in the supermarket ready to buy a bag of apples for snacking. I prefer tart over sweet apples, so usually I know to grab Granny Smith or McIntash apples. But what’s on a supermarket shelf can change every time you go to buy them. Pink Lady apples were on sale the week I went so I pulled out my trusty phone to see where on the apple spectrum they fell. Tart! So into my shopping cart they went. 

Photo: go here

Unless you can buy the same apples time and again, it’s beneficial to have a chart to check. Each time you look at the charts, you might be able to keep the varieties straight, but probably not, and produce tends to change at the supermarket. Next time you go you’ll likely see a new unfamiliar variety. 

Although red delicious -- sweet apples -- are not my favorite, I will eat one if offered. Still when buying a bag of apples, I’d rather buy what I most enjoy snacking.

Apples are kind of fascinating because ancient, as well as, modern people ate them; they grow all over the planet; and there are 7,500 varieties of apples. I wrote all about apples in an earlier blog if you want to know more facts about them.

Photo: go here

A note about charts: I link them back to the source where I find them, however often they are posted on multiple websites so their true origins may be unknown. I’m prepared to relink or remove a photo if requested, and I don’t claim ownership which is why I link them to my source. Blogging is a hobby to share and exchange thoughts, tips and information with others, not to earn revenue. When I know better -- how to share -- I do better.

Back to apples ... there are many varieties I’ve never tasted! I’d like to try a Pacific Rose, a Jazz, and a Lady apple, which isn’t the same as Pink Lady. Which apples would you like to try?

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The Earth Is a Magical Place

I wait for it all year long! The first day of summer known as the summer solstice. It’s the start of my favorite season: Summer!!! I especially love summers in New York City. It’s so easy to get out and about, enjoying Happy Hours with good friends, good bar food, and good wine. Outside dinners under a canopy or sitting under the fountain at Lincoln Center before the ballet, or open air concerts and theater. 

How wondrous is the above image showing us the position of the Earth when the Western Hemisphere enters the summer solstice. 

Photo: Indian Times - go here

According to NASA the 2025 summer solstice falls on Friday, June 20th, at 10:42 p.m. ET. It marks the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere when the Earth’s tilt is closest to the Sun. Imagine if you were spacewalking gazing at the tilted Earth and the Sun from space yet at a safe distance!

Did you know the Earth’s axis is always tilted -- 23.5 degrees relative to its orbital plane around the sun? The tilt causes different hemispheres to get varying hits of direct sunlight throughout the year. The tilt is called obliquity and without it, there would be no seasons as we know them. When a hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun it experiences summer, while the opposite hemisphere experiences winter.

🌍🌎🌏 🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏

Have you heard of Pangaea? About 300 million years ago the Earth assembled into one supercontinent, Pangaea (from the Greek word pan meaning all, whole, or entire and gaea (meaning land, Earth, or Mother Earth). As Pangaea formed it became surrounded by a single gigantic ocean called Panthalassa, which means all the sea in Greek. While Panthalassa was the only ocean there was a smaller sea called the Tethys Ocean, an embayment within the coastline of Pangaea.

 

Photo: earth how - go here

Tectonic plate movement caused Pangaea to form, break up and is the reason continents continue to shift positions today. As the plates move, they cause landmasses to inch together, break apart, and transform. The plates are massive slabs of solid rock that are always moving and glide over the Earth’s mantle (the rocky middle layer above the Earth’s core). Fault lines are fractures or cracks within those plates or at their boundaries. Fault lines can exist on one plate or over two plates.

Animation here

Some 200 million years ago Pangaea the supercontinent comprising all the continental crust of the earth broke into pieces named Laurasia and Gondwana. 

There were 3 major phases in the breakup of Pangaea: 1) The opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean caused by the rifting (a major fault separating blocks of the earth's surface) between North America and northwestern Africa. 2) The breakup of Gondwana into Africa, South America, India, Antarctica, and Australia. 3) The opening of the Norwegian Sea. Australia and Antarctica broke up. Laurasia split into North America and Eurasia.

Evidence for the existence of Pangaea remains with us today: Like puzzle pieces: The eastern coast of South America closely fits the western coast of Africa. One of Australia’s coastlines fits a coastline of Antarctica, and certain coastlines of North and South America match up with certain coastlines of Europe and Africa. The Appalachian Mountain chain extends from the southeastern United States to the Scandinavian Caledonides of Europe. They are believed to have formed a single chain, the Central Pangaea Mountains. Moreover, fossils of identical species are present on continents that are now very far apart.

Today we have 7 continents. Isn’t it fascinating? What if when humans came along, geology had not separated us?

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At Land’s End The Classics Are Trending

Wow! Such winning style and comfort at Lands’ End. My picks for the summer are the silky soft Supima© cotton polos and shorts that are the perfect length to be classy and versatile. 

The breezy linen barrel leg trousers and linen peplum tops are a polished outfit for a summer evening out. Many people still spruce up a bit to go out to a restaurant or a shopping area. These would work very well!

The super cute boucle Johnny collar textured sweater with ribbed cuffs is 100% soft cotton. Great for breezy summer evenings in San Francisco and on beaches, and it will take you into the early fall. Pair the textured sweater with so many things, from skirts to jeans to longer shorts. 

Uh-Oh, I’ve done it again! My bias for 100% natural fabrics is showing. In summer clothes, cotton and linen rock. Lands’ End makes cotton and linen pieces that are machine washable. Usually I’d line dry the garments, but in a pinch you can toss them into the dryer too. Frequent machine drying tends to wear clothing out faster. So if there’s time, I machine wash then hang cotton and linen garments on a hanger to dry in the bathroom.

At Land’s End the classics are trending! Not only are they well made and well-priced but you can wear them for years to come.

✐✎✏✐✎✏✐✎✏✐✎✏✐✎✏✐✎✏✐✎✏✐✎✏✐✎✏✐✎✏

I’ll also review a linen tunic from the brand Bodhi that was promoted on The Today Show as a product deal. Here goes: I can’t imagine wearing yards of material in the summer. In hot boiling July or August, yikes! The sleeves have enough fabric to fit a monkey -- too bulky and long for human arms. The tunic's body shallows up the wearer. There’s no front zipper to step into the dress, so you have to ball it up to pull it over your head. High side slits can be problematic requiring an underneath layer. It’s also baggy and not versatile enough to step off a beach to have drinks or dinner with friends. IMHO, this one would be a regret purchase that you’d find too limiting to wear after you buy it even at its advertised bargain price. The linen fabric is spectacular, if only the cut of the tunic flattered a woman's silhouette. Contrast this frumpy tunic with Lands’ End's many stylish summer offerings at much better starting price points. Cute and bouncy routs baggy every time!

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5 of the Most Gorgeous Sapphires In the World

Photo: loupiosity: The Bell of Asia Sapphire

Top sapphires (rubies and emeralds) cost more than diamonds. The reason: Colored gemstones are rarer in nature than diamonds. A combination of characteristics set their value including their beauty, rarity and durability. Carat weight, cut, clarity and country of origin can also drive their prices up. Vibrant blue sapphires are the most sought after in jewelry. Heat treated sapphires are accepted as long as the seller discloses it, and the price should also reflect the treatment. Without heat treatment, there would be few gemstone quality sapphires on the market to buy. Beautiful, natural, unheated sapphires are more expensive than heated, or lab grown sapphires due to their rarity and demand. Go here to learn more about sapphires.

Today let’s look at 5 of the most gorgeous sapphires in the world. It’s such fun seeing top of the line! All except for one (which is a smaller wearable size) sold for multi-millions of dollars. Don’t we, ordinary people, wish we could afford the grade of sapphires just like them?

1) In 2021, an 11.9 carat Kashmir Sapphire sold at auction at Fellows in Birmingham, England for £175,980 (or $238,184) after a bidding war. It is a rich, natural, velvety blue untreated sapphire of spectacular clarity. While large indeed, the next 4 sapphires are huge gemstone-quality-sapphires raising their value to more zeros!

2) The Belle of Asia Sapphire is a cushion cut 392.52 carat sapphire pendent, surrounded by diamonds as a necklace. It was discovered in Sir Lanka in 1926. Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors, bought it in 1937. Sapphires of its size, color, and clarity are extremely rare. The Bell of Asia Sapphire disappeared into private hands for the next 40+ years, then surfaced in 2014 to be sold at Christie’s for $ 17.7 million to an anonymous buyer who most likely lives in the Middle East.

3. The 35.09 carat antique cushion-shaped  Regent Kashmir Sapphire ring is the world’s most expensive sapphire per carat. It broke the record for price in 2025 at Christie’s in Hong Kong. The cost was $12.1 million. As you may have guessed, it’s a natural, unheated, rare, vivid blue sapphire from the storied Kashmir mines. It is set in platinum flanked by round diamonds.

4) The Richelieu Sapphire Earrings, a pair of cushion-cut natural Kasmir earrings weigh 26.66 and 20.88 carats respectively. Owned by Odile de Richelieu (1879 - 1974), they were sold in Geneva at Sothebys for $8.4 million in 2013. The earrings are suspended by a star of cushion and pear shaped diamonds. According to the Swiss Gemological Institute, the pair of sapphires match perfectly in size and shape. The hue is velvety blue and the clarity excellent "with only microscopic inclusions. A matching pair of natural sapphires from Kashmir of this size and quality is very rare and exceptional.”

5) The Logan Sapphire is the most accessible to us common folk, as it resides in the Smithsonian Institution. It was donated by Rebecca Pollard Guggenheim Logan in 1960. The Sri Lanka gemstone, at 422.98 carats, which is the size of a large chicken egg, is one of the largest velvety blue sapphires in the world. The mixed cushion cut sapphire is set in gold and silver as a brooch and surrounded by 20 round brilliant cut diamonds. Multiple sources list its value as $2.5 million.

With colored gemstones (sapphires, rubies and emeralds), color is the most important of the 4 “Cs” (color, cut, carat and clarity) in determining their value. Seeing Kashmir and Sir Lanka sapphires always makes a jewelry lover want one, doesn’t it? Commercial grade sapphires are never as velvety blue. Today the Kashmir and Sir Lanka mines are closed, making these sapphires all the more rare and valuable!💰💸🤑

Which of the 5 is your favorite?

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How To Make A Senior Feel At Home

Drive Medical accessories. We own all this stuff.

My senior Mom was an independent woman while my Dad was alive and I lived at home. Living alone in her senior years, she really held out for a very long time before she and I realized she needed my help to care for her. Up until 4 years ago, she cooked, cleaned, paid her own bills, and went out daily. She was a mover, a worker, an ever-ready bunny. She went somewhere every single day even if it was just to shop for groceries, or stock up on toiletries, or take mail to the post office. Then for her, it changed.

I am quite sensitive to how difficult it is when an independently-minded person can’t engage in her normal activities due to her physical and mental limitations. It can be very frustrating despite the Ward’s awareness that it is no longer mind over matter, and she is slowing down because, well, she got old. It’s not easy to depend on someone else to do the things you at one time did so effortlessly. She gets bored.

I don’t try to solve all my Mom’s issues as I can’t reverse time, nor entertain her every minute of the day. My magic power is to focus on what I can do which is to keep her sqeaky clean, safe and well-fed. My friends are also very kind. They visit and spend time with us. As much as possible, we include my Mom when we have coffee, lunches or dinners. We sit around and chat, and she mostly listens, yet feels included.

When the weather is balmy we take her to a park, or for a drive. Sure she falls asleep, but she loves to go places to see people. It’s how she lived her life when she was young.

In Manhattan I wheel her to the Steuben Day celebrations where there are lots of people dressed in dirndls and lederhosen who bend down to speak German with her. This makes the Party Girl very happy. Sometimes we buy a bratwurst or pretzel. Frankly, I never went before I began caring for my German Mother.

Every so often I tell her, “We’re family, or it’s Mama and Debra” -- a phrase I borrow from her. She would hate living in a nursing home, and I think from time to time, it’s good she hears me say, "I don't mind taking care of you.” Lightheartedly, nothing dramatic

After Mom wakes in the mornings, I let her linger in bed until she’s ready to rise. This also gives me a chance to drink my coffee alone before we get busy with grooming, dressing and breakfast. She is a late breakfast eater, so I plan accordingly. It’s the benefit of living at home, and not in a senior facility.

So far, so good. If my Mother were in a nursing home, I’d dislike making trips to the nursing home as much as she’d hate living in one. The two choices have different challenges, and you will be involved either way. Fortunately she doesn’t need skilled nursing care at the present time. Old age is her only pre-existing condition. 

Caring for my Mother makes me think about old age. Certainly, the USA needs a healthcare system overhaul so more seniors who wish it, could live at home. It would benefit our country to establish more at home support for the elderly and caregivers before we -- who are headed in the same direction -- become seniors. Who would favor spending your last days in a facility if you had the resources to stay at home? Seniors on Social Security and Medicare should have the choice. Unless tragedy strives, the day will come when that senior is you!

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Korean Beauty: Meditherapy

I’m a big fan of Korean Beauty. Its skincare contains good clean ingredients based on science that works, and it's great value for the money. Generous sizes for less!

Meditherapy is a skincare brand to put on your radar. It’s potent anti-aging serums and creams are formulated to be moisturizing, quick absorbing, non-greasy, non-sticky, suitable for sensitive skin and most importantly, affordable. I mean what more do we want? 

If you only try one product, the top image Retinal Skin Booster Serum is it! (Before tariffs, it sold for $11!) So what makes it so good? The serum contains non-irritating retinaldehyde, which is a nonprescription derivative of retin-A. (Retin-A is the prescription strength.) Retinal is another name for Retinaldhyde. Another non-perscription strength of retinol-A is the more familiar retinol. All 3 strengths are highly effective, but the non-presciption strengths require conversions after their application on the skin to become retinoic acid (i.e. retin-A), often called the holy grail in anti-aging serums. 

2 Conversions: Retinol --> Retinaldehyde --> Retinoic Acid 

As you can see the Meditherapy Retinal Skin Booster only needs one conversion to become retinoic acid, not retinol’s two. But remember all 3 strengths are excellent anti-aging ingredients as all 3 work. Think of it like eating carrots to get your vitamin A. Carrots contain beta carotene which you body converts to vitamin A.

If you have the budget to try more products in the Meditheraphy line, below are a few others worth considering:

Collagen Peptide Boosting Serum - Fights wrinkles and fine lines by boosting collagen production. It hydrates the skin and helps with elasticity and firming the skin.

Yuja Vitamin C 20 Glow Serum - Contains 20% pure vitamin C and yuca oil to soften and hydrate the skin. Vitamin C also brightens the skin. Vitamin B5 and E are added to calm the skin.

Cactus Mucin Hyaluronic Serum - Hyaluronic acid is the main ingredient. It's used to deeply moisturize the face. Like the excellent drugstore brand CeraVe, it has ceramides (a family of waxy lipids found in cells in high concentrations) to strengthen the skin barrier.

Wild Rose Capsule Plumping Serum - This one is a splurge because you don’t need it if using the others. The Wild Rose Serum moisturizes and softens the skin to make your face feel nice! It has oasis rose oil (a hydrator) enriched with vitamin C to promote elasticity, smooth wrinkles and restore a youthful glow. Like all the serums in the line, it’s non-greasy and non-sticky and absorbs right into the skin.

There’s no way around the tariffs imposed on South Korea by you know who.🙂 Tariffs are taxes on foreign goods paid when the goods enter the USA and then get passed onto consumers. So now we are paying $2 - $4 more on each beauty item. Amazon scrapped its plan to list the additional cost for consumers created by the tariffs. Despite this tax, Korean Beauty remains good quality and quantity for the money, and when the tariffs are removed, Korean Beauty will return to costing even less.

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Shorts: Daily Habits That Will Change Your Life

These types of charts are circulating all over Facebook and Instagram, so much so, I don’t know who produced the one I’ve selected to share, and (look→) who should be credited?

I share the above as great, solid advice that is also sustainable to do. Some of the 9 activities are challenging (#1, #2, and #3) and do require committing to them, but others (#6, #7 and #9) are enjoyable. It’s a balanced list and what we should be doing to live a long healthy life! What an excellent reminder for you to check off daily! If you are wondering about #3: Tea is loaded with anti-oxidants. Studies support its health benefits.

I promised you a post this week on Korean Beauty, which I’ve written but will hold until next Monday. Instead, I'm ending the week with the above Savvy Shopper Short. Why? Because it’s end-of-the-week Friday and sunny. Start by sleeping those 8 hours tonight! 🛏

Enjoy your weekend my lovies!🏖🌞

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