Phew (and still going)

 zucchini egg bake.

 nimono.

 poppyseed-almond crackers.

 tamari almonds.

 meatballs.

banana muffins.

The coconut macaroon "batter" is in the fridge.  I will bake those before we go to common meal.  Cap is making a tuna pasta salad and salmon patty cakes tonight while I pack.  We leave tomorrow after breakfast.

Phew.

Yum

More yum from the kitchen.

I fried up some of Anthony's pork sausage for the first time and...ooh la la. They are delectable and not for the faint of heart.  Very hearty.

Thankfully, my head has cleared up enough that I realized in time I could sauté my mushrooms in the sausage pan.  I dropped in a big pat of grass-fed butter and as the fungi sizzled I scraped up the good brown stuff (sausage crusties and olive oil).

My jaw dropped in amazed pleasure.  These 'shrooms reminded me of a tv episode I watched long ago...Jamie Oliver and his trusted sous chef Gennaro tromping around in the woods, picking mushrooms and hunkering down to the ground and cooking them right up.  I'd never seen mushrooms look so good.

Till now.  (The image is a bit overexposed.  In real life, the mushrooms are a much richer color.)

Peace and love.

Crossing the schism

I took a bite and thought: take a picture!

pastured eggs, sun-dried toms, pine nuts, Parm, grass-fed butter

I'm back.  I'm feeling better.  I'm my (other) self again.  I like to think of this as my true self.  But my thoughts of yesterday have me thinking.  If I am to be honest and fair, when I feel crappy and the thought of cooking anything is anathema, that's me too.

I don't know if it's because I'm sensitive...or kinesthetic...or just mental...but when I am any of my selves, it is as if I have jumped a chasm, entered a separate and different world.  Schismatic, yes.

All my aches are gone and I fell asleep much easier last night.  When I made dinner for myself (Cap's doing dinners for him and the kids this week), there was none of the angst about what to eat, what I could eat, what I shouldn't eat.  I sautéed some zucchini half-moons in grass-fed butter with a handful of walnuts, Kosher salt, some grinds of black and white pepper, and red pepper flakes.  Yum.

This morning, one of my new favorite ingredients, sun-dried tomatoes, sang out to me.  I made the scramble above and was delighted.

Peace and good nosh to you.

My honey, my chef

Cap made us a lovely birthday dinner.  Sugar-, casein- and grain-free, of course.

 turkey kebabs.

 salmon patty cakes.

 roasted broccoli and bacon.

 coconut custard and dark chocolate truffles.

you rock, Cap.  thank you ♥

Like the weather

What a dreary morning!

My morning plate provided a splash of color.  Two pastured eggs scrambled with scallion, shredded cheddar and Sunny Paris in evoo.  Sunny Paris...a hug of happy.  The scallion, cheddar and cherry toms were all leftover from common meal.

I'll be working with the kids this morning and then chauffeuring this afternoon.  (Playdate for one, Robotics class for the other.)  In between...I don't know.  The drag of this kind of weather is strong.  It may be all I can do to start my book #2 of 2012.

And a lovely time it was

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I hosted a Minecraft homeschoolers gathering.  Seven kids with their laptops and my guys on our desktop.  It was fun!

The introvert in me wipes out after an event like this.  I was tired last night and feel a bit more tired this morning.  But, it was totally worth it.  We met brand new folks and got to know people we've only caught glimpses of here and there.  All of us were pretty stoked.  This game is truly something.

This morning I fortified with a heaping plate of protein.  The last of the pot roast and kick ass pastured eggs showered with Parmesan.

I am moving slowly towards getting our room ready for weekend guests.  Jay, Amy and the kids are coming!  Our holiday cards are in the house and I jotted a nice little "highlights" note last night.  I'd really rather do those than clean, but what can I say, I am less governed by my impulses these days and so off I go to tidy up.

Here's a shot from our late night Photo Booth shoot two nights ago (we almost used this one but decided Sag's face was just a touch too tucked behind Gem's melon of a head):

Peace and love y'all.

Name day

One way we honor and celebrate the Finnish aspect of our family is by celebrating name days.  Cap and I decided to integrate this cultural tradition into our home when the kids were born.

Both boys have names which are names in Finnish and Japanese.  Cap's name is also a name in Finnish.  Mine is not.  So I dusted off and used my confirmation name to find my name day.

(I was lucky enough to be baptized at age 12, of my own choice.  At the time it was a very meaningful experience.  I was confirmed the following year and was delighted to be able to choose a name for myself, having already developed a deep interest in the origins and meanings of names.  I chose Anne...Bernadette was a very close second.)

My name day was two days ago, but we celebrated this morning.  I was presented with a lovely breakfast.  Instead of his usual GFCF Nisu (Finnish cardamon bread), Cap made me Primal-friendly sweet and savory crepes using almond and coconut flours and sweetened with stevia.

They were so good.  I am one lucky woman.

 my Sacramento skirt.

 happy name day!

 floral arrangement by Gem strawberry blossom and hydrangea.

 stevia sweetened strawberry crepes dusted with cinnamon.

 garlic scrambled egg crepes topped with tomato and showered with Parmesan.

on my 2012 book list...love this cover!

This is why

...I am happy eating sugar- and grain-free.  I present to you my breakfast, leftover lamb stew and two pastured eggs fried over easy in grass-fed butter.

My oldest friends can attest to this: I've always been happy to have non-breakfast food for breakfast...perhaps especially of the protein type.

A warm and satisfying start to the day.

Plop

Dropping in.

 seen while running errands around town with Sag.

at Vinny's.

I have Indian lamb stew (Rogan Josh) in the oven and it smells heavenly.  

Vinny noticed my upper back actually has some give now.  It hurt in new and different ways when he worked on it.  Progress.  Good news.

I am being outvoted on the tree.  I wanted to try a live one this year.

Started Shiver (a Julie pick) yesterday and picked up a Paleo book at the library today.  I'm concocting a reading challenge for myself in 2012.  Have you ever done something like that?

Almost went to the yarn store today...but thought better of it.  I may have yarn in the stash perfect for whatever it is I may knit for Moms.

Have dropped 30lbs. since going sugar- and grain-free in August.

Peace and love.

Primal definitive guide

Dropping in for a quickie...of something that's been on my mind for awhile.

This morning, I hopped on the scale before my shower fully expecting weight gain. 

Between an increase in stress, not getting enough sleep, hardly ever practicing Qigong, and my falling off the grain/sugar wagon Monday night (fish tacos that were so satisfying) and Wednesday night (key lime pie that was light and tasty), I have been relatively bloated and spacey.

I blinked in surprise as I saw that I had broken the 150 barrier...where I'd been for a few weeks.

Very interesting.  For me/my body, the sloughing off of weight seems, for now, to be closely tied to the chemistry of being sugar- and grain-free.  'Cause I ain't doing much else to help myself.

Here is a link to a guideline for being Primal.  I haven't read the whole piece word-for-word, but have read enough to know there's some interesting info there.

I was going to taper off dairy in order to boost my veggie intake, but it's the wrong time of the cycle for that (the second half).  I am burning through animal protein and fat something fierce.  I am setting my sights on more veggies, while noshing also on my meat and dairy.

It's been a full day of meal planning, farmer's marketing, food shopping, play dating, cooking, and now, back to the paper working.

Peace and love.