Happy Holidays 2013

I just returned from a week at Mom and Dad's and am exhausted.  I got to see lots of friends and family and had a wonderful Christmas.  I also took the week off keto and proceeded to stuff myself with tons of goodies.  Topping my list of goodies were fudge, chocolate crack, and Grandma's red cake.  Recipes to come!

Next up, 2014.  Hoping for a happy, healthy, wonderful new year for all!

Adventures in Deep Fried Food: Part 2

Last week I talked about Jeff's experimentation with batters when frying onions and cheese sticks.  This week he decided to make keto "potstickers" since we both really miss Asian dumplings.  To do this, he simply made the filling for his normal dumplings then battered and deep fried it with pork rinds.  Read on to see how he did it.

Adventures in Deep Fried Food

Jeff has decided to take up deep frying food.  I, of course, am totally in support of this because what's not to like about fried food?  He recently decided to do an experiment with keto friendly batters.  The first batter that we tried was crushed up pork rinds.  This is a pretty great standby for lots of things we've already fried in a pan on the stove like chicken or pork.  He also recently bought some coconut flour to use in keto friendly muffins, so he decided to try that out as a batter too.  He tested each on onion "not-rings" and cheese sticks.

We found the onions were slightly better with the coconut batter than the pork rinds, but both were tasty.  The cheese sticks, on the other hand, were downright gross with the pork rind batter, but quite delicious with the coconut flour batter.  We never expected pork rinds and cheese to go so horribly together.  It makes us wonder how the pork rind nachos that we keep seeing on Pinterest will turn out.  We're almost afraid to try them.  Stay tuned for more adventures in deep fried food.

Thanksgiving 2013

I just wanted to pop in and say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  We had another wonderful "Seattle transplants" Thanksgiving potluck with our friends.  We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, bacon wrapped asparagus bunches, sous vide carrots, dressing, cheesy broccoli casserole, Brussels sprouts made in bacon fat, and a can of cranberry sauce.  It was a magnificent meal with some of our favorite people(followed by board games, of course).  Hope you enjoyed your holiday as well!

Wedding Dress Shopping

My parents made the trip to Seattle to accompany me wedding dress shopping last week.  I went a little overboard and scheduled six appointments at boutiques in the greater Seattle area.  I guess I was scared I would have another situation like dress shopping for senior prom where I visited a zillion stores and found nothing(happy ending:  I ended up falling in love with and ordering a dress Mom forced me to try on that I had seen in magazines and hated on the model).  Luckily, that didn't happen this time and I'm proud to say my dress is ordered.  I thought it'd be nice to write a little about my dress shopping experience, so here goes(sans pictures... I don't want to spoil the surprise).

Appointment 1:  Pearls and Lace in Burien
I lied about having an appointment here because they're awesome and don't require appointments.  Yelp said the store was pretty busy on weekends, so we headed south towards the airport around 3:30 on a Thursday.  The (huge) store was nearly empty when we arrived and I thought that was wonderful since this was my first bridal gown experience.  They had a fairly large selection of Maggie Sottero and Allure dresses at reasonable prices.  The ladies working in the shop were helpful and nice.  Unfortunately, nothing really spoke to me here(my repetitive complaint while bridal gown shopping "too much lace" started here).

Appointment 2:  The Wedding Suite at Nordstrom in Seattle
Mom and Dad met me downtown after work late on Friday afternoon.  We headed up to the 2nd floor where we found the Wedding Suite and met our consultants Chloe and Sarah(for Mom since she was doing a Mother of the Bride appointment at the same time).  These ladies asked us all the right questions so they could pull dresses for us.  Mom and I were both impressed with the dresses they chose for us and how much fun they made the appointment.  We both found dresses we considered "contenders" here.

Appointment 3:  I Do Bridal in Seattle
We arrived here around 10am on Saturday and the shop wasn't as busy as Yelp led me to believe it would be.  The store was quite small, but there were a ton of pretty dresses by Maggie Sottero, Mori Lee, and others on the racks.  I filled out some paperwork, had a quick discussion with my consultant, and we started pulling dresses.  The appointment went decently and I tried on quite a few pretty dresses, but none of them screamed "me."  Again, I just couldn't handle all the lace.  I also wasn't pleased about the no pictures policy.

Appointment 4:  Calla Bridal in Seattle
I scheduled an appointment at this higher end boutique for later Saturday afternoon.  We had to wait a bit as there were two appointments running over before us.  There was not as big a selection of dresses here, though I would say they were all prettier and more unique than those at my earlier Saturday appointment.  I ended up trying on several gorgeous gowns that could've been contenders had they been within my price range.  Unfortunately, the consultant never asked my budget and I didn't speak up like I should've so I suppose that's my own fault.

Appointment 5:  Bellevue Bridal in Bellevue
This was my Sunday morning appointment.  There were a few other appointments at the same time as mine, but thankfully the space was large enough and I didn't feel rushed or crowded.  They had a large selection of dresses and my consultant was very sweet and really listened to my feedback.  I tried on several different styles here that were definitely pretty, but nothing struck a chord with me(somewhat too much lace).

Appointment 6:  La Belle Elaine in Seattle
This was my final appointment and I was nervous that it would be plain and full of lace.  I walked in, filled out some paperwork, and was greeted by my consultant, Geneva.  She showed me around the store so I could get the layout of how the dresses were arranged on the racks and we talked about what I liked.  She was so excited to hear I consider myself a "beady" person and proceeded to pull some wonderful dresses.  All I can say is I wish I would've visited this store earlier.  The dresses were so much more my style(less lace, more bling), the space was borderline huge, and they even had a cool runway to show off the gowns as you tried them on.  I loved every single gown I tried on here, but managed to whittle it down to one official contender.

In the end, I had a very hard decision to make.  Should I go with the Kelly Faetanini from Nordstrom or the Kenneth Winston from La Belle Elaine?  After a few days of deliberation and probably pretty unnecessary stress, I chose the Kenneth Winston from La Belle Elaine.  I can't wait to see my dress when it comes in!

Engagement Pictures

Jeff and I met with our wonderful photographer JennyGG for an engagement photo shoot on a Tuesday afternoon in October.  As is usual in Seattle, the weather couldn't figure out whether it wanted to be dreary and rainy or let a little sunshine through.  We decided to play it by ear and make a last minute call if it was too gross out.  We decided to go through with it and it turns out that was a great decision.  Read on to hear about our experience and see some of Jenny's photos of us!

Keto Pumpkin Smoothie

I discovered something magical on the keto recipes section of reddit:  pumpkin smoothies!  I finally got around to making them this weekend and oh my were they good.  If you're in a pumpkin-y mood like me, I suggest giving them a try.

BBQ Pork Buns Class

Jeff and I attended a cooking class at The Pantry at Delancey two Mondays ago to learn how to make Asian pork buns.  Since Jeff is the cook in our relationship, I was really nervous about going.  I don't have a lot of kitchen skills and was afraid I'd need to perform some task that I wasn't capable of performing.  Lucky for me, it wasn't like that at all.

Pumpkins!!!

As I've said before, I started a yearly pumpkin carving tradition when we moved to Seattle.  This year's pumpkins are Mike and Sulley from Monsters, Inc and a minion from Despicable Me.  I couldn't carve such wonderful designs without Zombie Pumpkins, so make sure to check them out!

A Tasty Adventure in Los Angeles

Last weekend we headed down to Los Angeles with some friends to see the sights, go to Disneyland, and eat a bunch of food.  We did a hop on hop off bus tour and ate at all kinds of great restaurants like In N Out Burger, Umami Burger, and the Queen Mary.  My favorite part of the whole trip was, of course, our food tour given by my friend's cousin.  Here's a recap of our day.  Enjoy!

Stop 1:  Ricky's Tacos

We got the best fried fish and shrimp tacos from a little tent set up in a parking lot.  Everything was so fresh and flavorful.  Definitely not what I would expect from such a little set up.

Keto Chai Latte

Here I go with another post about "I miss ____ since I started keto" and this time it's all about chai lattes!  I used to drink one every day and am honestly doing fine without them, but I wish I could have one once in a while.  Luckily, I've found an alternative to my beloved Big Train vanilla chai latte.

You need:

• Sugar free Oregon Chai Latte concentrate
• Unsweetened almond milk (I use Trader Joe's or Almond Breeze)

Pour equal amounts of each into a mug and heat in the microwave.  Stir and enjoy!

The Washington State Fair

Last weekend we finally made it down to the Washington State Fair (formerly Puyallup fair).  I've been wanting to go for at least the last 3 years and we never made it for one reason or another.  It was fun to go to a big fair because it reminded me of the one I miss every August in Illinois.  We saw fun things like a guy carving statues out of tree trunks with only a chainsaw and the 4-H dog exhibition.  We could've seen Carly Rae Jepson and Hot Chelle Rae in concert if we had tickets.  There were a ton of hot tub/fireplace/grill dealers set up on site, which seemed odd.  I guess we could've brought home some pretty large and expensive goodies.  There probably would have been more to see if it wasn't rainy and cold. 

We had a totally off keto night and devoured everything in sight.  We had corn fritters with honey butter, fried butter with raspberry sauce, fried clams and fries, roasted corn on the cob, an elephant ear, and a fried Twinkie.  It was glorious, though there was quite a bit of guilt afterwards.  I would love to check this fair out again next year when it's less rainy and possibly during the day when there is potential for sunshine because fairs are fun!

Boots

This is a fairly random post topic, but I had to share.  I think Seattle's constant overcast skies and drizzle made me a boot person.  I don't recall ever wanting/owning a pair of boots in the past, but I bought two pairs now thanks to Zappos(the best shoe store for wide feet people like me)!

I got tired of my feet being wet on my walk to work, so I purchased the Bogs linen rainboot in plum.  I can't get over how cute they are in person.  I love the pattern and that they have a little cutout to help pull them on.

These Gabriella Rocha Deke boots are my new favorite pair of shoes.  They keep my feet dry, look nice, and are comfy too!  I love them so much that I broke my own rule of not buying skinny jeans just so I wouldn't have to tuck my usual bootcut jeans into them.  If I could marry a pair of shoes, these would be a front runner for my heart.

Making a Crochet Pattern

 

I've crocheted several amigurumi from patterns for friends so I thought making an African Grey parrot for a friend would be no big deal.  Unfortunately, there are only a handful of free parrot patterns available on Ravelry and most were too cartoony for my liking.  I decided to make my own pattern after studying a few other bird patterns thinking it would be a piece of cake.  Wrong.  I'm currently on iteration number three of the body and not even close to having a sample I'm happy with.  The first body was about as long as my pointer finger and was way too small.  The second body was about 1.5 times as big as the first body and shaped kind of like a zucchini, but still all wrong.  I went crazy and tried starting at the "butt end" of the bird this time and it's working out a little better, but not a ton.  I've been working on this since the end of June and have had to take several extended breaks out of sheer frustration.  I can't imagine what's going to happen when it's time to work on the tail and the wings since those are the parts I thought would be complicated(not the body).  I guess the point is I wasn't expecting this to be so difficult and frustrating, but at the same time that's to be expected with trial and error.  Hopefully one day you'll see my completed bird here.  Until then, here's uncompleted body #3.

Jalapeno Poppers

Sometimes I think the older I get the more my tastes change.  I'm not a fan of spicy food, but Jeff has slowly introduced me to more and more of it that I like.  His most recent introduction is homemade jalapeno poppers.  I'm happy to say my taste buds are in love with them(as long as they're not burning off).

You  need:

• 15 - 20 jalapenos(cut in half and cleaned)
• 1 package cream cheese
• 1 package bacon(cut in half)

Wash, cut in half, and clean out each jalapeno.  Stuff each half with a spoonful of cream cheese.  Wrap each in bacon and secure with a toothpick or two.  Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until bacon crisps.  Remove from oven, let cool, and enjoy.

Keto Margarita Drink

Sometimes doing keto is tough.  Lately I've been struggling with cravings for sugar packed "girly drinks" I shouldn't have.  After scouring xxketo and Pinterest, I found a margarita recipe that sounded pretty good.  I ended up making my own version for lazy people who don't like messing with a blender and/or strawberry lemonade.  I think it is wonderful even though it's fairly plain.

You need:

• Crystal Light margarita flavor
• Vodka or other alcohol of your choice

Prepare the pitcher of Crystal Light according to the directions and refrigerate in advance.  Pour a glass and add vodka or the alcohol of your choice.

Chicago Trip

Jeff and I headed to Chicago to meet up with a few of our college friends to see Lord of the Rings in concert at Ravinia last weekend.  While we were there, we also did a food tour of Wicker Park and Bucktown and headed up to Milwaukee for Irishfest.  It was an amazing weekend with little sleep had by all, but totally worth it.  I thought I'd share a recap of our food tour by Chicago Food Planet.

Stop 1:  George's Hot Dogs

Hot dogs are a big deal in Chicago.  This is a Chicago dog, but it wasn't exactly how I expected it to be.  There's no neon green relish!  As a non-hot dog-eater, this was a decent dog.

Jeff's Birthday Dinner

Jeff had his birthday dinner at The Barking Frog in Woodinville this week.  He'd been wanting to go for quite a while, so we figured there wasn't a much better time than his birthday.  The atmosphere was lodge-y, but not so over the top to be a turn off.  We really liked that the menu had a lot of options that would work for keto even though we were taking a night off.

Leavenworth!

Last weekend we (over) loaded the Mazda with 3 of our friends and headed east to a little Bavarian town called Leavenworth, WA.  Many of our friends had been and said great things, so we decided a sunny Saturday was the day to go.  The trip over was about 2 hours, but the scenery was great. 

DC Trip

Last weekend Jeff and I hopped a plane to DC to visit his parents.  As usual, we spent a lot of time seeing the sites and finding good things to eat.  We especially enjoyed the Capitol Hill food tour we booked through DC Metro Food tours.  I figured a recap was in order, so read on to hear about it!

(Belated) Happy 4th!

Hoping everyone had a fantastic 4th of July!  Jeff and I spent the day at a local celebration complete with fireworks and fair food... it doesn't get much better than that.

Amigurumi Raichu

One of my friends was pretty impressed with my crocheted Totoro so we searched Ravelry for something I could make for him.  We settled on this Raichu pattern by Linda Potts.

Blow torched steak!!!

My birthday was this past week and Jeffrey made me a very special birthday dinner... blow torched steak. 

Miss Monkey

My BFF is having a baby in August and her family is hosting a baby shower for her in June.  I can't attend due to living so far away, but I wanted to make her something really special.  Her nursery theme is monkeys so I found a great pattern by Chimu Hamada on Ravelry and crocheted up this monkey.

Wedding Vendor Selection

We're still in the early stages of planning the wedding since we're over a year out, but I decided I wanted to get all the important vendors booked early so it'd be out of the way.  I was thinking officiant, DJ, and photographer.  After boatloads of research online and also checking out preferred vendors from our venue, I narrowed each category to one or two.  We met with each potential vendor to see their work and see how we meshed with them.  It was also the perfect time to ask all the questions we had built up in regards to prices, policies, and etc.  I was kind of sad that I liked them all since I knew we would only choose one from each category.

When it came down to making choices all I could do was drag my feet in indecision.  Why?  I think most brides dream of their wedding day being a perfect day... or at least as close to perfect as reality gets.  I was scared of choosing the wrong vendors for the big day and being unhappy if something went wrong.  I went on being indecisive for a few weeks until I absolutely had to choose and let the vendors know if we were booking.  After lots of reading WeddingBee posts and talking to Jeff about it, I realized I shouldn't worry about picking a "wrong" vendor.  I had screened them all on every review site known to man before we met in person and no red flags popped up.  It's all about going with your gut in regards to their work and how you mesh with them.  I am very excited to say I calmed my inner nervous Nelly/control freak and we have booked all three!  Hooray for checking things off the wedding to do list!

But I am le tired...

It's time for another cat post!  This time I'm featuring Georgie, my giant fluffy boy.  Jeff recently caught this adorable picture of him yawning and I couldn't resist sharing.

Happy Caturday, everyone. :)

Eating our way through San Francisco

Last week we met some friends in San Francisco/Sonoma for a little vacation.  I'd say we spent most of our time walking and eating.  Here's a (long) recap of our food adventure!

Day 1

Our first day was mainly spent traveling, but that evening we got in some good food.  We visited The Stinking Rose for dinner.  I like that their tag line is "We Season Our Garlic With Food."

We started out with the bagna calda or "garlic soaking in a hot tub."  It had been cooked to a soft texture and was genuinely delicious when mushed on some of the provided bread.

 

Jeff decided on the meatloaf for his entrée.  He thought it had a good garlic flavor and was a good meatloaf.

I chose the garlic braised boneless short ribs for my entrée.  They were just the right amount of garlic for my taste and they were cooked to the point I didn't need anything but a fork.  The mashed potatoes were also a great texture and I enjoyed eating them since we were off keto for the week.










After dinner we wandered around Nob Hill to find dessert.  I ended up with a tiramisu gelato from Alimento and Jeff had a cream horn from the bakery next door.  Both hit the post-dinner sweet spot superbly.

More Paintings

I think my girlfriends and I enjoy our local paint and sip studio, Palettes & Pairings, way too much.  Here are two of our most recent paintings:

Red Peacock

Rainbow Branch

Sweet Sandals

As a person with a wide foot, I hate shoe shopping.  This is especially true for sandals because all the cute strappy ones never come in a wide width and I always end up wanting to chop off my little toe so my foot could be average width.  Not a pretty or a good idea, I know.  I'm happy to say my wide width sandal troubles have come to an end because of a wonderful company I discovered on Pinterest called Mohop.  They make vegan shoes from sustainably sourced materials, but that's not the best part.  These sandals lace up with ribbon, so you can wear them any way you want.  I initially wanted the moped flat slide and the moped low slide, but chose to go with the low slide in cherry wood.

Amigurumi Totoro

I'm proud to announce my amigurumi Totoro is complete!  He took forever to crochet and was hard to put together since I had no idea what I was doing, but he's done and Jeff loves him so that's all that matters.  I'm really surprised he turned out so well, but I think it's because the pattern(free download from Lucy Ravenscar on Ravelry) gave great instructions and I had plenty of other Totoros to look at on the project page.  Here he is:

More Totoro photo shoot after the break...

Any horrible people out there? Who wants to play a game?

My group of friends is really into board and card games.  Last New Year's Eve I was introduced to a card game "for horrible people" called Cards Against Humanity.  It's like Apple to Apples, but for adults only.  I'm in love with this game... so much so that my friends' copy lived at my house for 3 months since it was sold out online.  Well, it finally came back in stock on Amazon so I got a copy and three expansion packs!  My friends are going to hate me because I'm probably going to insist we play it every time we get together.  If you're as horrible as me, check it out... you won't be disappointed.

Typical blurry cam "look what came in the mail today" pic :)

Wedding Venue Selection

We started wedding planning this week... hooray!  We started viewing venues Wednesday and finished up this afternoon.  The five we looked into are the Rainier Club, the Woodmark Hotel, Willows Lodge, Novelty Hill - Januik winery, and the Edgewater Hotel.  Here are a few pictures:

The HUGE fireplace at the Rainier Club.  They even set up food stations in it!

Olympic Terrace tent at the Woodmark Hotel right off Lake Washington.  So pretty!

The outdoor space at Willows Lodge was just amazing.  And there were potbelly piggys!

Photosynthed pic of the Tasting Room at Novelty Hill - Januik winery.  Love the modern feel of this place.

Olympic Ballroom at the Edgewater Hotel.  Stunning view of Elliott Bay.

It looks like we have a pretty big decision on our hands.  I think we have it narrowed down to two so there will be a lot of comparing going on in the next few days.  More wedding stuff to come... stay tuned!

Pizza in a Bowl

Since I started keto, I've been a little nervous when we go out to eat.  It was hard enough to find something to eat before(picky eater here), but now it's even worse since I can't eat bread, pasta, or rice!  We recently went to a local Italian restaurant which offers a low carb menu.  I was surprised when I found a bowl pizza.  It's literally what it sounds like... pizza in a bowl without the carby crust.  I decided to try it because, hey, who doesn't like a big bowl of cheese and pepperoni?  It wasn't as pretty as normal pizza when it arrived, but it definitely fixed my longing for it.  Jeff later decided to try making it at home and here's what we ended up with:

Again, it might not be the prettiest bowl of cheese and toppings, but it sure hits the spot!  He basically layered a little tomato sauce(caution: carby) and toppings then covered that in cheese.  He baked it in a pyrex dish at 450 until it started to brown as a pizza would.  Then he took it out and let it cool.  Then, obviously, we chowed down.  I'm really starting to see that you can make any meal keto friendly. :)

Ravelry

Random post alert.  I decided I wanted to learn to crochet a while back, but didn't really decide to do it until I signed up for Ravelry.  It might be my new favorite website.  There are zillions of amazing patterns for just about every interest and I think it's what pushed me to actually learn.  I'm in the process of making an amigurumi Totoro right now and I have a ton of others on my "to do" list for later.  Here's a pic of some of his parts so far:

Totoro's tummy, eyes, and part of his unfinished body

My absolute favorite part of the site is the "projects" area that's shown for each pattern so you can see how the pattern turned out for other Ravelry members.  Not only is it neat to see all the variations, but it can also be helpful since some users leave little notes when instructions are vague or other useful tidbits.

Ravelry also helps you keep track of your "to do" projects, stash of yarn, and even offers help selecting yarn for individual projects.  I can't even begin to describe how helpful this has been as a beginner crocheter.

If you knit or crochet and haven't signed up yet, go do it now.  You won't regret it.  Feel free to look me up there(sarahlizette).  Happy crocheting(or knitting)!

"I can't believe you."

We all know I love Palettes & Pairings and will make/take any excuse to visit.  Lucky for me, my friend, H, got a P&P party from her husband, P, as a gift.  I was so excited and kept asking P what we were painting, but he would only tell me it was a surprise.  When we arrived at P&P, each guest drew a letter from a box to paint.  Ok, now I know what we're painting, but what does it mean?  I had a theory that it was H's full name or maybe even an announcement of their new baby's name.  I pondered this off and on all evening, but in the mean time we all painted and had a great time.  Finally, it was time to take the group shot (the owners do this at the end of every class).  We all lined up and they took a picture, but then started to rearrange us so the colors would work out better.  One of the owners pointed at me and asked if I could hand my painting to the person beside me and come to the front.  I was confused.  As I was walking, he pointed to someone else and told them to come forward too.  I turned around and here's what the paintings spelled:

Screen grab of the video the owner was taking.  "Sarah marry me" (with a few extra letters thrown in on the left meant to throw me off in the beginning)

Jeff was down on one knee in front of me holding out the ring.  I was shocked.  I didn't know what to say or do.  He eventually stood up and had to flat out ask me if I was going to give him an answer.  I, of course, said yes.  I think I've repeated, "I can't believe you," more times than I can count this week because of Jeff and his sneakiness and H and P's "fibs" to keep the wool pulled over my eyes.  Not at all what I expected, but I have to say this was my best P&P experience ever!

Fried Cheese

Thank goodness for all the keto forums over on reddit.  Jeffrey discovered a substitute for grilled cheese:  fried queso fresco.  It's super easy to make and is just what a cheese lover like me craves!

More after the break...

Spider Plant Babies

Sometime in spring/summer 2011 I decided I wanted a house plant.  A spider plant seemed a good fit for me since I never killed the one I had as a teenager.  I almost bought one from a home improvement store, but Jeff said to wait.  It turns out that one of his coworkers is an amazing spider plant grower and offered me a medium sized "baby" from his "parent" plant.  I named the plant ZP because I'm a weirdo who names plants.  ZP lived on the deck until it got chilly, in the kitchen window until the cats started eating it, then moved to its current home in the guest bedroom window.  ZP has produced 6 babies which are now medium sized.  For this post, I'm going to root/plant the babies from "adult babies" as well as ZP.

Repost: Broccoli Cauliflower Casserole

Somebody got a little lazy this week.  Yeah, I'm pointing at myself.  I'm going to have to stop with the reposts soon because I'm going to run out of old posts!  Anyway, this casserole looked like something tasty to put up even though I can't eat it right now.  Thankfully, the recipe for this casserole hasn't changed since this February 2009 post.  Enjoy!


Okay, maybe not too many people say "Mmm... veggies," but I challenge you to dislike veggies in the following dish: a casserole. It's one of my favorite ways to eat vegetables. I admit, most casseroles are far from being healthy and probably negate the effects of eating vegetables in the first place, but they sure do taste great! My favorite casserole is one that my mom has made from as far back as I remember: broccoli cauliflower casserole. It's made with what I consider to be one of the greatest tasting ingredients that couldn't be worse for you: Velveeta. Read on to delight your taste buds(and possibly clog your arteries).

Keto Pizza

Well, I'm still going strong with keto.  At this point, I'm almost a month in and around 10 pounds down.  I'm really struggling with pizza cravings right now.  I feel like every other commercial on TV is Pizza Hut, Domino's, or a local pizza place.  I realize the first two don't sound so great to a lot of people, but I am by no means a pizza snob.  As long as it has some sauce, cheese, and pepperoni on it, I'll give it a shot.  I decided to see if I could track down any keto pizza recipes on Pinterest.  There were quite a few listed, but I decided to try the one that uses cheese and almond meal for the crust.  Let's just say it went extremely well.

 



Read on...

Paper Heart Window Hangings

I think it's obvious by now that I like to decorate for holidays, particularly with deco polymesh wreaths.  Unfortunately, I don't have room to store a wreath for every holiday and had to find some other way to decorate for Valentine's Day.  Luckily, Pinterest delivered as usual.  I fell in love with this paper heart garland and decided to adapt it to what I wanted.

Want to know how I did it?  Read on.

Heat Seeking Calico

I promised myself I wasn't going to start posting a thousand pictures of my crazy cats on here since this blog was meant for crafts and food and other neat things.  Well, I can't resist anymore.  My crazy calico has an obsession with the heat register in the bathroom.  Every time I come upstairs in the morning or home from work, she's lounging on top of it.  I can't imagine this is comfortable, but she's like a heat seeking reptile and apparently doesn't mind.

I thought it would be hilarious to make Cali a "house" on top of the vent.  We always get a box at Costco to carry our stuff and they make the perfect cat house/play area when you get home.  I turned one of these boxes upside down over the vent (it even has a little cutout for a "door").  I also folded up one of our cheap fleece "cat blankets" and put it on top for insulation.  Needless to say, Cali loves it.  In fact, it's hard to get her to come out and socialize with us because all she wants to do is hang out in her "house."

Need to make your cat happy?  Try a box.