Almond Tea Cakes

Wow, only 13 days until Christmas!! In case you are wondering where I have been, I am just now coming out of a fog that began five weeks ago. I'm not sure if time flies by or drags along when you are forced to lay low. That's not the way I live my regular life but life has been far from regular these past weeks. For now I will explain it in a few well-chosen words:

AFib - 911 -  ambulance-fire department - near-death - revived - ER -  near death - revived - battered+bruised - over-drugged - blood-work - black-out - attached to heart monitor 24/7 -  "they are trying to kill me" - heart stop - heart reset - over-drugged -  can't drive, need to be driven - "they are trying to kill me" - fainting - vertigo - house-bound - nausea+vertigo - downloading heart monitor - fainting+vertigo -  that repeated day in and day out, plus 11 trips to ER and urgent care explain our last few weeks. It is a long story and I am looking forward right now and spend very little time looking backwards! I might share more sometime next year. That's not a promise!

I was given a new cookbook "Good Food Great Medicine" a while back. It is very interesting and has tons of great looking recipes. I decided to make the almond tea cakes. Someone shared their last bite with me, otherwise I would have missed out. One bite wasn't much to write a review on but the rate in which they were devoured tells the real story! I heard "these are so good" "what are these, a cookie or a muffin" "are there any more" so I will base my review on those comments. They are super easy to make and I would make them again. They are gluten free and technically sugar free but they do have a half cup of honey. Even so, they aren't overly sweet from what I tasted. I place of flour you use ground almonds. I buy mine at Trader Joe's for under $5.00. This recipe did use up the remainder of our delicious Blackberry Honey so we will need more very soon!

So... here is the recipe...

Enjoy!

Gingerbread Scones

I have not had much appetite lately but I have been craving anything spicy like ginger, cinnamon and cloves. The holiday spices. I love the wonderful smell they bring to the kitchen while they are baking. I searched out some gingerbread recipes and what a surprise, I decided to make some gingerbread scones. I combined a few recipes and then used a few healthier ingredients. I used white whole wheat flour from Trader Joe's and I used coconut sugar in place of brown sugar. I wasn't disappointed with the smells that filled the whole house. Oh wow, it almost made me want to take a bite of one warm from the oven, but I passed. As soon as dear hubby opened the door into the house, I heard him say, "Oh Wow!" Yep, I did it! I succeed in my quest to fill the house with the smells of Christmas.

As you can see from the picture, I drizzled half of them with the lemon icing.

P.S. I ended up drizzling all of them with the lemon icing. They taste good!



Enjoy!

Happy Anniversary to Us ~ 42 years...

...and they have been the best 42 years of my life!

I was 14, he was 16 way back in the day... 1969

(No we didn't get married at 14 & 16)

Since that day, he has been the bright spot in every day!

He is always kind and compassionate

He keeps God first in all things

He is honest and true

He is my very best friend

He is always there for me, no matter what comes our way 

He is the best companion and partner a wife could hope for

 

He supports me in every way

His warm hands warm my cold hands

He loves me with his whole heart

He always respects my opinion

He gets better with age, not worse

November 25, 1972

In 1975, our amazing son arrived

In 1977, our beautiful daughter joined our family

So cute

Hon, there has not been a day that I have not felt and seen your unconditional love for me and our family!

San Francisco, CA 2014

Now we are older, both in the "60's" 

We don't look like teenagers any more

But your heart has not changed nor mine for you

I still love you more every day!

 I thank God for you and our family everyday!

Thank you isn't a big enough word!

I'm looking forward to many more years with you!

 You are my one and only true love!

Flashback Friday

Back in the day...

Squeaky clean

Blackberry Honey

A couple months ago, a Portland morning show, AM Northwest, featured a lady that knows everything you ever wanted to know about honey. One of the things she said that I kept thinking about was regarding flavored honeys. I have never been a lover of honey, but what she said about honey intrigued me. She said that orange blossom honey does not taste like orange, naturally. Same goes for all other "flavored" honeys, with one exception, blackberry honey! Who knew! You probably did but I didn't! I was intrigued by this and started looking for pure "Blackberry" honey. Let me just say, It wasn't easy to find. We finally found blackberry honey in McMinnville, Oregon, of course! We have found many good things in that beautiful city.

Don't judge us! We are aware that we have used almost half a bottle!

Of course we wanted to try it so as soon as we arrived back home. We had to do a taste test. Oh my, I knew instantly that I love "Blackberry" honey! We decided this honey needed some  Buttermilk Cornbread so we could really try it out. I can tell you it is very good on cornbread. It would also be good on a scone, a piece of toast, or with a spoon! There is a new honey fan in town, as long as it is "Blackberry" honey. If you are interested in more information about all things honey from an Oregonian, you got it! Click here and you will find all you need to know about honey. Marie Simmons also has a cookbook "Taste of Honey."

If I didn't make you want to drop everything and go on the hunt for Blackberry Honey, I haven't done my job. Go find yourself some "Blackberry" honey and...

Enjoy!



P.S. Did you notice the little bee above the label? Until I just saw the bottle this big, I though the honey bottle had a blemish. It makes me happy that it's actually a little bee!

If You Rest, You RUST

This is my omage to Kaiser Permanente for trying to keep us active and healthy throughout the fall and winter seasons. It would be easy to stay inside and "rest" while it is raining or snowing outside. Resist that urge and head to a mall and walk if that's your only option.

Just keep moving! 

Your body will thank you later!

Kaiser Permanente SUV

Our Favorite Chili with Buttermilk Cornbread

One day last week, we were told we could expect freezing temps and 4-6 inches of snow overnight. Wow, that's a lot of snow in the Willamette Valley considering we are still in the middle of November. We live on a mountain so we get even more snow up here. We decided with the cold weather and snow that chili would be a great choice. I started paging through my 3-ring binders, where I keep with recipes I have made. I found this recipe back in 2002 and made it several times. It has been several years since I made it and it looked like the perfect chili for a super cold day and evening to come. We were leaving the house for the afternoon so we decided to put it in the slow cooker so it would be ready when we got home. Between the two of us, we had the chili put together in about 30 minutes. Most things take less time when there are four hands instead of two! Plus, my dear hubby insists on doing all the clean up. Yes....!!!

This recipe is certainly not hard to make but it does have 19 ingredients so it does take a little time for one person. I pull all the ingredients and line them up in order on my counter and add them one at a time when needed. This speeds up the process and it also gives me a chance to double check that I haven't left out any ingredients.

Since we were leaving the house, we warmed the chili to a simmer and then poured it into the warm slow cooker. We waited until the bubbles started appearing along the edges and then turned it down to low until we got home, about 3 hours. I had never finished it off in the slow cooker before but it worked out just fine and I will do it again! Here is the recipe:

What's better with chili than cornbread! I had made this cornbread recipe for the first time a few weeks ago. It was the best we remembered ever making. It seemed like the perfect match for this chili. Here is the recipe:

Some of our favorite chili toppings are fresh avocado, fresh chopped tomatoes, green onions, grated cheese, sour cream and crumbled corn chips for a little crunch.

For the cornbread, nothing makes it better than a pat of butter and a drizzle of blackberry honey. Yum!

That was more than a drizzle of honey. That was more like a river of honey! The honey container doesn't have a pour spout so it is a little tricky to "drizzle!" I will tell you what I learned about honey another time.

Since there's only the two of us, we like to put half of a recipe in the freezer for another meal or two another time. 


Enjoy!

P.S. My pictures aren't the best right now. My camera needs a tune-up so all my blog pictures are coming from my iPhone.