Mimi – Page 8 – Unlikely Martha

Feature• Food• Recipes

How to Make Homemade Biscuits without Buttermilk

Ain’t nothing like a homemade biscuit. Yes, I said “ain’t.” Some things need improper english for extra emphasis… like homemade biscuits.

I love these biscuits cause you can whip them up with ingredients you likely have right at the house. Things like four, butter, baking powder, sugar, salt.

Don’t let this recipe taint your vision of your mama and grandma toiling away in the kitchen, brows sweating to give you those tasty homemade biscuits that you thought took hours to make but in essence could’ve easily only taken 30 minutes in the event they used this recipe.

These homemade biscuits are perfect for Saturday or Sunday morning breakfast/brunch. They would pair perfectly with my homemade potatoes, recipe is here.

These quarantine times make it easy to have a little extra time to whip up something special. I’m so over eating at home, so a homemade biscuit took me to one of my favorite brunch spots… in my head.

Homemade Biscuits without Buttermilk

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
1 TBSP baking powder
1 TBSP sugar
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 425°

Mix together all of your dry ingredients

Add in cold butter ( I cut mine in tiny cubes and mash them in with a fork, do what works best for you.)

Add in the milk slowly. Mix it in as you go until you get a dough-like consistency

Place the dough onto a floured surface. Then you will knead the dough and flatten it out as you go.

Cut the biscuits using a biscuit cutter, or whatever you have on hand. I find a small drinking glass or measurement cup works fine.

Place in baking pan, or cast iron skillet and bake for 12-15 minutes or until they start to brown.

These are perfect for brunch or breakfast, or whenever. When you’re done make sure to splash a little flour on your face, no one has to know how easy it was to make these biscuits!

If you prefer to watch me make these via video, here you go!

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Beauty• Feature

DIY Gel Manicure + How to and What You Need

A few months ago, I purchased a gel manicure light from Walmart so that I could start doing my own DIY gel manicure for a variety of reasons. One, I just didn’t have the time to get to my nail tech as often as I needed to, and two, nail appointments can start to get expensive… and now add in social distancing. I’ve been trying to be mindful of my spending, so this was an area that I recognized as one that I could make adjustments in.

Would you believe all of the essentials I needed cost less than one trip to the nail salon. Yes, I got the light, base coat, and top coat for less than one trip to the nail salon.

How to Paint Your Nails with Gel Polish

Painting your nails with gel polish is similar to regular nail polish with the exception that you have to make VERY thin coats. When I say thin, I mean thin. If you use too thick of a coat, the polish will chip. It is far better to make four thin coats than two thicker ones when dealing with gel polish.

Start with clean nails.
Soak your cuticles in warm water for about 10 minutes and lightly push back your cuticles. I don’t cut my cuticles I only push them back. Making sure to remove dry cuticles from the edges of your nails will make all the difference so please take time to do this step.
Once your cuticles are in order you will file, lightly buff and shape your nails.
After filing, you will put a very light coat of “base gel” on your nails and cure under the light for 30 seconds.
On top of the base coat, you will start to apply the nail color. Do as many light coats as needed to get the coverage you desire, curing for 60 seconds between coats.
Once you have the coverage you desire, it is time to apply the topcoat. When applying the topcoat, be sure to wipe the tips of your nails as well to help prevent chipping.

DIY Gel Manicure Essentials: (These are affiliate links. If you purchase I will make a little change)

Gel Polish Kit ($21.99): https://amzn.to/3aa5qkS

Base and Top Coats kit (12.99) : https://amzn.to/3afDZX1

Fall color Gel polish kit ($14.99): https://amzn.to/2xgi5US

Gel Light Starter Kit ($24.88) : https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sensationa…

If you learn better via video, I have also created a YouTube video showing my technique. Feel free to watch and make sure to subscribe to my channel!

Let me know if you have any questions. You can find me on Instagram everyday… hit me in my DMs!

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Living

What I Read in February

I kept the momentum going in February, I read nine books…however, we’re now in March and I’ve hit a wall. Stay tuned for next month’s post to see if I was able to catch up.

On to what I read. Last month I mentioned that I wasn’t feeling audio books, I stuck to my guns and didn’t listen to one book last month. I physically read them all.

Here they are:

Handcrafted: A Woodworker’s Story by Clint Harp
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Black Girl in Paris by Shay Youngblood
She Begat This: 20 Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Joan Morgan
The Silent Patient (book club read) by Alex Michaelides
Make Something Good Today: A Memoir by Erin Napier
Training School for Negro Girls by Camille Acker
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

As I mentioned last month, I won’t be giving in-depth reviews in these monthly wrap-ups. Head over to my Goodreads page if you are interested in my reviews.

My favorite book for the month was a tie between “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” and “The Silent Patient.” I’m leaning more towards the former. I couldn’t put that book down, but the latter was a definite page turner with an unexpected end. Both are must reads if you ask me. I’ve affiliate linked them if you want to head to Amazon and see for yourself.

My least favorite of the month was “Training School for Negro Girls.”

I read some really good books last month, if I had to recommend a few others they would be, “The Dutch House“, and “Handcrafted: A Woodworker’s Story” both were very good.

I’m not a fan of self-help books, I prefer memoirs that highlight an individual’s growth and success, which is why I loved “Handcrafted,” it fell in line with “The Magnolia Story” and “Capital Gaines,” which are all books that touch on the Chip and Joanna Gaines story. If you need a little inspiration to keep chasing your dreams, these three are a must-read.

That’s it for last month’s reads. Make sure you are subscribed to my newsletter so you don’t miss any of these monthly wrap-up book posts and all of the other content I post!

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Beauty• Feature

Self-Care: How to Pamper Yourself at Home

This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Philips.”

I love a good cliche, they are always so simplistic, yet tell a whole lot of truth. The one we’ll be discussing today is, “It’s the small things.”

As women, as beings who too often take it on ourselves to see that perfection is in place for everyone else, we owe it to ourselves to make the everything day things we use just a tad bit fancy. I mean, it’s just a small way of acknowledging that we too deserve nice things.

I won’t include y’all, I’ll speak for myself. I’m really good for just grabbing the things that will get the job done instead of splurging on them. It will always be, one day I’m going to get me an XYZ.

Spoiler alert: Very often, someday never comes.

Let’s take razors for example. I grab what I see, not taking into account how life changing shaving my underarms and legs with a fancy razor could be… until I got a Philips SatinShave Advanced. The product is in fact fancy AND convenient, you can pick one up at Amazon. If you do, use the promocode SATINSHAVE for 10% off.

Unlike the bootleg razors I was using before, this one didn’t give me any cuts or nicks, the hair was gone with one swipe, and the best part is it just made me feel a little grown-up! I’m telling you, it’s the small things, those small indulgences that we can do from the comfort of our homes that can make all the difference.

Pampering ourselves doesn’t have to be a big deal, it could be taking a weekend day to lay around and do nothing, hang out with a friend, or in my case treating yourself to an at-home day of pampering complete with a little fancy grooming with a Philips SatinShave Advanced razor.

Here are a few other ways you can pamper yourself at home:

Read a book
Paint your fingernails
Take a nap
Take a walk
Take time to indulge in a craft or hobby that you enjoy

How do you practice self-care at home?

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