Carrot facial

A friend of mine just sent me this and said it reminded him of me. I feel mixed, but mostly awesome. Enjoy.

 

Saffron smoothie for Grampie

My grandfather wasn't Middle Eastern (his last name was Scott!), and I'm guessing he's probably never tried saffron, but this smoothie is still dedicated to him. I served it in a Home Hardware cup, as that's where he worked for years. Grampie passed into the Great Beyond this morning, and he will be missed by many. If I'd had beer (he enjoyed it in small amounts in his younger years), I'd've put a splash of that in too. And turnips. And garden peas. These are the things that remind me of Grampie. RIP, John Burris Reid Scott.

The Burris

1 c. almond milk
3 medjool dates
2 tsp tahini
2 or 3 strands of saffron*
1/8 tsp cardamom, ground
1/3 c. pumpkin puree

*Saffron has shown to have significant cognitive effect on mild to moderate Alzheimer's patients. I just heard this last week. My grampie was suffering from severe Alzheimer's at the time of his death. I'm a new lover of good, real saffron, which I'll talk more about later. 

Now I've gotta go be with my family. 


Be well and have an awesome weekend! 

I've got tea and Jager in every crevice!

My computer sucks. My AA batteries are all toast. My online presence has suffered. Anyway, I managed to squeeze enough juice out of my batteries to document some of the goodness I've been up to lately. This summer has been super fun and awesome so far, and I hope yours has too.

It was pretty chilly this morning which reminded me of shirking all my other duties, throwing on some wool socks, blasting some awesome 70s rock, and baking. So I did. I took a huge bunch of kale and made it into chips. Kind of morbidly, I photographed the kale chips beside my kale that's growing. THIS IS WHAT YOU WILL BECOME, KALE!

Meanwhile, I made a blueberry smoothie with coffee and peanut butter, then baked up a variation on Matthew Kadley's Maple Pumpkin Tea Loaf.  I kept it pretty similar to Matthew's recipe except I used flax seeds (1T. ground flax+ 3 T. war, water per egg) in lieu of eggs, light spelt flour, instead of wheaty business, I added pumpkin seeds rather than walnuts, Jagermeister-soaked raisins (YES, JAGER-SOAKED RAISINS! SOAKED FOR A DAY in magical German cough medicine!!) in lieu of dried cherrries, and I topped the loaf with Maple Omega Crunch shelled flax! Pretty delicious. I enjoyed the loaf with the iced tea (served in the mini New Brunswick stein I got at PEDVAC, the awesome thrift store close to my parents' cottage)  I made yesterday. No recipe-- just strong black tea, lemon juice and raw sugar. I don't like any bottled iced tea I've ever had-- why would you? Pretty much the only drink I like that comes in a bottle also has the power to get me drunk. Alcohol is supposed to agecfor a while. Everything else should be made fresh. So there. 

Also, in case you were wondering, I haven't stopped making Indian food. Man, it's fantastic with fresh summer vegetables. This dish translates as "Nine Jewels." The jewels are vegetables, obv. 

I also scored a good deal on a mandolin slicer o cut vegetables all fancy-like. Stay tuned to see if I actually use it! 

HOPE YOU ARE WELL! 

XXOO