Coconut Oil

 

 My new best friend! The cookbook, you say? No. Coconut oil.

This is 31 ounces or less than $10. Way less at WalMart. So? Doesn't sound cheap when you consider the price of other cooking oils? Maybe not, but I didn't buy it to cook with, although, I made some delectable Chex Mix for  He Who complains that we have no snacks. Better for him than butter and it was really good. I used up all the left over Chex cereal and some unsalted peanuts.

Back to my unauthorized product endorsement ....
I am plagued with dry skin and for many years I have kept a bottle of generic baby oil in the shower. After showering, while still wet, I would baste myself with this baby oil. Rub it into my skin and I would hardly need a towel to dry. One little problem. I would be oily for awhile after my shower. Likes hours. If I went outside to mow, the clipped grass would stick to my legs like a bizarre garnish. But, my skin was hydrated and not dry and itchy. Baby oil smells good, too.

Not long ago, my friend, Insomnia, and I discovered coconut oil and it's many uses on Pinterest. Not only is it good in your body, but, also on your body. It will help erase age spots, wrinkles and is a great eye cream when combined with vitamin E. "Hmmmm," my friend, Insomnia, said to me, "perhaps we should purchase this miracle of anti-aging on our next excursion to the mecca of all necessities." So, on my very next adventure to WalMart, while in need of socks and drugs (prescription, of course) I added the coconut oil to the conveyor belt at the check out stand.

It says "oil", so I was expecting a liquid. But it isn't. It is in a solid form. Not like Crisco. Doesn't smell like coconut, either. It will turn liquid at 77 degrees, so if you dig out a spoonful and put it in your hand it will melt ........ unless your hands are very cold.

So, this is fine in the kitchen where I have a spoon to dig with, but what shall I do in the shower? I was out out of baby oil and my skin was itching. I pondered the problem as I washed the dishes and prepared a meal in the solitude of my kitchen.

I decided I needed a container to keep in the bathroom. A container I could sit in the tub while showering. The heat from the water would liquefy the coconut oil while I showered. But, what container? It would need to be waterproof. A ziploc would work, but I'm pretty sure I would spill it and then probably slip on the spillage and break something, like a hip. Same thing would apply with the open mouth jar-like container it was packaged in.

I was making honey beer bread and used all the honey remaining in the bottle. I left it on the counter and as I was cleaning up I had an epiphany! The honey bottle in question was plastic, held 8 oz. and had a fairly big opening and the lid was made for squeezing a stream out. I had considered the baby oil container, but unless I liquefied the big container I could think of no way to get the coconut oil into the small mouth of the bottle.

The honey bottle was perfect. It works just like I had hoped and liquefies while I shower. But the very best part? It goes on just like the baby oil, but it soaks in with-in 15 minutes or so and I don't look like a turkey basted and ready to cook. My skin is so happy! Soft as a baby's butt. I can't tell yet if my age spots are actually fading, but that would just be an added bonus.

It is certainly more expensive that the baby oil I was using, but that is made up for in the eye cream I am no longer buying. In my next adventure I will be popping corn with coconut oil .......