Thursday, February 11, 2016

Sandal Weather!!! (PHFR#7)

Happy/Pretty

Part of the fun of living in Texas is that it means sandal weather tends to come early.  The days have been nice enough these last few days that I've worn my sandals a couple of days in a row.  Once it is sandal weather, I tend to wear sandals non-stop until it is no longer sandal weather, so this makes me incredibly happy.

I'm not sure they match my outfit, but I love being able to wear sandals!!! It is probably time for me to paint the toe-nails so they aren't naked.
Another pleasant surprise this week was that some flowers started blooming in front of my house.  I didn't even know that the bulbs were there, so when they started sprouting and blooming, it was a huge surprise.  My first impulse is to say that these are daffodils, but the petals seem thicker than what I envision for daffodils.  If you know what kind of flower it is, telling me would be great.

I'm a "live and let live" gardener, so the fact that these showed up without me doing anything makes me incredibly happy!
One of the hardest things about being on the GAPS diet and also being dairy free is that finding things to eat when sweet cravings hit are difficult.  I've been mostly good (I will admit to one last Breve Latte from Starbucks on Monday--my nod to the coming of Lent), although the siren song of ice cream has been rather loud of late. I'm amazed that I have been able to ignore it's pull to date, but I've also been on the lookout for some sort of substitute. This is why I was so incredibly happy when I found this recipe, as it seems to fulfill my craving for creamy/cold.  The only tweaks were to use honey rather than maple syrup and substituting unsweetened bakers chocolate for the dark chocolate mentioned. This made it fully GAPS legal, but you can't cut the honey in half--you need to make a one to one substitution on the sweetener.

I doubled the recipe and used my food processor to mix it all together (why did I resist getting such a wonderful invention for so long, again???).  It really is incredibly dark and rich for a chocolate mousse--I could probably eat about 1/2 of one of the 4 oz. servings I dished out, and still take care of my cravings. I may see if I can make it a little less chocolatey, the next time I make it, although part of the reason for all the chocolate is to mask the taste of the avocado--it might not be possible. 

Supposedly, the recipe makes 8 servings when doubled--I got 10  4-oz. jars worth.

Who needs a cookbook when you have the internet?

MMMM, Good.  I've found it is best when I cut the chocolate with berries or other fruit. Because it has Avocado, it makes for a healthy breakfast, right? ;-)

Funny/Real

So, I used part of my tax return to replace my dishwasher.  While my old one was standard size, and my new one was too, it ended up being about 1/8 of an inch too tall for the cabinet space.  
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make it fit...
 After quite a bit of hemming and hawing, I realized that most of the issue was the lip on the countertop made by the tile facing.  A trip to Lowes for a chisel, and about 30 minutes later, I was able to fit it into the space just fine.  I kept the tiles, in case I can figure out a way to cut them without breaking them to pieces.  Otherwise, I will probably be replacing my counter-tops sooner rather than later.  I'd really like to get either granite, quartz, or solid surface counter-tops, but don't know if they come in lighter colors that I'd like.  I really don't want dark counters, as it will suck all of the light out of the area.  I've thought some about getting butcher block counters as well, but I'm probably too clumsy for them to stay nice looking.
The finished product. Not pretty, but functional.  I need to figure out a way to make this gap in the tile facing less jarring until I can replace the counters.
I also have to say that I love my new dishwasher.  It is so quiet that you can hardly tell that it is running!  This is such a change, since my old dishwasher made so much noise that you couldn't have a decent conversation anywhere near it.

 Now that it is sandal weather, I'm probably going to transition to more fizzy water and less tea, although it will still be my go-to drink first thing in the morning.  I'm not sure it is normal to have a whole desk drawer dedicated to various types of tea...
This is probably a sign that I should eventually make giving up tea a Lenten discipline...
And, it is very obvious that the main part of the semester has started...My desk is a mess, and it is beginning to annoy me.  I suspect that I will be using part of Friday afternoon to put it to rights so that I can begin using it to its best advantage again.  
Snoopy and purple--this has quickly become my favorite mug, and it makes grading much more enjoyable!
In the mean time, I think I will make myself another cup of tea. :-)

Go look at other Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real posts over at Like Mother, Like Daughter 

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