Okay, I know this is supposed to be the post for my guilty pleasure of the weekend... but it's officially the holidays, so I've made this the guilty pleasure of the month. I vow to have at least one cup of hot cocoa every day until Christmas. I think it's a worthy goal. What about you? What pleasures are you indulging in during the holidays?
(photo credit: chocokat)
We have soup, pizelles, and rosettes. And those are really the only recipes that made the trip across the Atlantic to be passed down to me from my French great-grandparents. My dad is the rosette making king, and so we let him make them, and I sugar them. Someday I will learn how to make rosettes on my own, but for now, I will just enjoy the light and tasty crunch and the bonding experience with Pops. Oh, and the pleasant choking sensation that occurs when attempting laughing whilst eating the powdered sugar covered deliciousness.
Everyone should have a few go-to-staples for when a girlfriend pops in to visit. Coffee or tea? I think you could serve either plus something delicious to eat if you had these items from my Etsy favorites.
(dinner plate, orange dessert plates/saucers, walnut snack tray, orange blossom teapot, pink napkins, calligraphic trays)
Okay, this might make you giggle, or it might not. In any case, I'm starting a new feature here on my blog where every Friday I'm posting my guilty pleasure of the weekend! I think everyone should indulge in guilty pleasures (and to be honest, they rarely make me feel guilty, so I suppose I should just cut to the chase and call them pleasures...), and Friday's are a good time for them to help get the weekend started.
This weekend's pleasure is Peanut Butter cream pie. But the guilty part of it is that I bought it from a bakery and stuck it on a pie plate as if it came from my kitchen! I went into Amish country for this pie, so it wasn't completely effortless. And Phil doesn't need to know where it came from, right...?
Any guilty pleasures in mind for your weekend?
Before I do anything else today, I want to announce the winner of the $15 Hambly gift certificate!
congratulations, Renee! Hambly will be in contact with you, so make sure you check your e-mail.
We had the loveliest picka nicka last Saturday! It was seriously one of the best days of my life. Beautiful weather... beautiful husband (all to myself), in a historical setting on the highest hill of Canton looking down on the rest of the city. We ended up staying there for hours and then randomly stopping for ice cream on the way home. I guess the best way to describe the day is in pictures. So without further ado...
It was the kinda day you dream about. It was so good to be out in God's creation and just to act on any whim (that's what the ice cream was about!). Next time we're going hiking! :)
I don't want to go home.
I've been having such a fun and carefree week with friends.
Shopping....
My favorite vintage shops in Chicago. Store Be Vintage and Lenny and Me.
Eating Chicago pizza.
(I declared this week to be my non vegan week. Come on, people. It's Chicago. I must have soooooome cheese.).
I had a chance to practice shooting in verrrrry low light.
With my new camera.
Challenging.
Fun.
Exciting...
and dissapointing at times.
Off I go then...
P.S.
I'm loving Central Standard time.
And that will be the worst part of going home.
But oh man I can't wait to see Phil! :)
does not mean bloody meat and bacteria filled poultry. At least to me, it doesn't. :) Unless you've been following me on twitter, you probably don't know that I made a change a few weeks ago to a vegan (and mostly raw) lifestyle. It was totally a health based decision rather than a moral one. I mean, I do believe it is good morally to take care of your body. But I don't believe it is necessarily wrong to eat animal products. I'm just not going to be the one to put it in my body, for many health reasons which I have been researching.
I do a ton of juicing now, and eat a lot of fresh fruits, veggies, and some nuts, but the real challenge has been finding new meals and snacks that I could love. One of my new favorites is raw chili. It can be warmed (not in the microwave) up a bit, but I don't let it get above 107 degrees F, or else it will change the molecular structure and kill the living enzymes in the food. Which is the whole point of eating raw.
If you're wanting to make some healthy decisions for your body too, without giving up the things you love, you might want to try this recipe. You'll need:
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1-2 cloves of garlic (depending on your taste) minced
- 1 cup of sun dried tomatoes soaked in 1 C of water
- 4 small fresh tomatoes, diced
- 1 small green bell pepper, diced
- 1 yellow squash, diced
- 1 cup of chopped mushrooms of your choice
- cayenne pepper to taste
- chili powder to taste
- dash of sea salt
In a food processor or a blender, blend together the dried tomatoes as well as the water, half of the squash, half of the onion, half of the fresh tomatoes, and the garlic. Then mix together with the rest of the ingredients.
That's all! People say it's hard to eat raw, but this is so easy and delicious. And if you must have your food hot, you can warm this in a food dehydrator or oven (on low with the door open and stirring often) up to 107 degrees. You could also add sprouted beans, and serve the chili with crackers made in the dehydrator.
So what kind of decisions have you been making to your lifestyle in this new year?
**edit**
For those of you who don't know what a buckeye is, it is the state tree of Ohio which bears a specific looking nut (the Buckeye nut) which is The Ohio State University's mascot and is the namesake for the chocolate covered peanut butter candy which bears its resemblance.****
I've been letting everything slide... the house is a mess. Cookie sheets with buckeyes sitting on every surface. Shopping bags... popcorn bowls... Half Caf clothes. It's okay, our family has been understandably busy grieving and being with each other. But meanwhile, in the back of my mind is the knowledge that Christmas is a couple days away! I'm preparing for it to be very different this year, for lots of reasons besides just Grandpa. I really feel like Satan has been attacking our family with one thing after another. And I don't know where we'll be this year... if we'll even get to celebrate with one another. You can't really postpone Christmas. It just passes you by. And I'm worried that's what is becoming of this year.
So, I've been trying even more so to enjoy the little things that only happen once a year. Or once in a lifetime, for that matter. Tonight is my best friend's bridal shower. And I've been going out of my mind making favors and things for the party tonight. So, now that I'm done, I'm just going to step back. leave the dirty dishes in the sink. Leave the crumpled up (but clean) sheets in the basket. And just enjoy this special time.
I'm planning on wrapping all the presents tonight. Honestly, it's part of the holiday that I really love. I would never ask anyone else to wrap my gifts for me! :) It's always been my job, since I was a little kid, and I love it.
Speaking of gifts, I just snapped a picture of the favors I made for Marian's bridal shower tonight. It's at this place called the 356 Fighter Group, and the banquet room has a rather lodgey feel to it. I thought everyone would enjoy some peanut butter and chocolate buckeyes, so I made 185 of them, packaged them up, and decorated the bags with simple doilies, paper, and snowflake ornaments that will fit the overall scheme of the party.
A friend of mine who is a devout UK fan thinks it's ridiculous that we call these confectionary treats buckeyes. We call them chocolate covered peanut butter balls, he says ("we" meaning everyone not from Ohio). I tried to explain to him that calling this candy buckeyes is not limited to being an Ohian. He thought I was being ridiculous. So, I want to know, what do you guys call them? Buckeyes? Or chocolate covered peanut butter balls (which takes infinitely longer to say)? And why would you leave peanut butter showing at the top if they are just chocolate covered peanut butter balls? It would be a lot easier to just completely cover them in chocolate! It's my opinion that he's being argumentative and silly... what do you think?
