Lilacs & Lace

True story:  I made Colcannon Soup  for lunch.  I asked my daughter's opinion, and she said it was okay.  After a while she informed me that what it needed was more kale.  More KALE??!!  Hey, if adding more of a very nutritious green vegetable is what improves the dish, how can I complain? Basically, this is a potato soup with kale in it, and it tastes delicious.  At the very end, you add a cashew cream to provide that creamy texture and look. According to Wikipedia , colcannon means white headed cabbage, and is a traditional Irish dish of mashed potatoes and kale or cabbage.  There is also a song about the dish. While the recipe called for specific amounts of potatoes and kale, I was liberal with them.  I was concerned about getting too much kale (at this point I realize that was a silly concern!) so I didn't use the whole bunch, but I am thinking next time I will.  That should make things tidy, since I won't have left over kale to do something with.  Kale chi

In looking for a new planner for 2017, I started seeing the disc bound concept.  It interested me.  Then Michael's  had a sale on Happy Planners , and I was hooked.  They were pretty and functional.  In my research I was finding that people were actually decorating their planners -- like scrap booking.  There are blogs and Facebook pages dedicated to planner decorating. Source So, I anxiously waited for 2017 to start my Happy Planner and I jumped in, combining at least two things I enjoy - organization (though you couldn't tell by looking around my house) and artistic expression (my house wouldn't reflect that either 😃). It has taken me a while, but I have learned what makes me happy in my decorating.  I love checking my planner and seeing it looking lovely, and I love it when it is time to decorate my next week. Some things I enjoy about the disc bound concept: I can easily add things.  No clunky ring binders here.  Recently we went on a trip to take my d

Last week I wrote a little about tunnel vision.  Since then, I have been seeing other areas of my life that can be affected, like shopping (maybe a post for the future) and my state of mind. Today is when it hit me about my state of mind.  I was thinking over a situation and started feeling lonely.  Lonely?  I have a loving husband and a sweet daughter, not to mention the other precious people the Lord has put into my life.  Then it hit me, I had taken what I was thinking about and gone down a tunnel with it.  As a result I was feeling emotions based solely on my thoughts instead of reality. Source Have you ever dwelled on negative self talk, something someone said, or an occurance that bothers you and started focusing on that negativity?  After a while, maybe you don't feel as good about yourself or someone else, and the affect just snowballs?  That is tunnel vision too.  If we only think about what we don't have (or negativity, etc.) instead of realizing the blessing

A while back I was soaking raisins to make apple strudel ice cream.  I don't know that I had ever soaked raisins before.  The directions said if I wanted the ice cream batter to be sweeter, I could use some of the raisin water.  Well, I didn't need the batter to be sweeter, so I thought I would try sweetening my tea...and I dumped all the raisin water in. Source Okay, so a smarter thing would have been to use it cautiously, since I had not tried it before.  My unsweetened tea was surprisingly sweet, but because I poured so much in, it also tasted like raisins. I eventually gave up on my raisin tea because the raisin taste wasn't doing it for me, but it did get me to thinking about using raisin water as a sweetener. I pretty much avoid processed sugar and use date sugar instead.  But date sugar doesn't dissolve, so using it to sweeten drinks isn't my choice option.  So, I usually just drink my teas unsweetened.  But sometimes, I get a little craving for

We were on a road trip recently and stopped at a rest stop.  I stepped up to the sink in the bathroom and there were two buttons.  Hmmm, I wanted the water, but which button?  I pushed the first button, but no water came out.  I pushed the second button and voila, water appeared from the faucet.  Then I needed the soap and figured that must be the first button.  As I was getting my soap, I realized that soap had come out the first time and was now on the sink, but I was so focused on getting water I didn't see it come out.  It got me thinking about having tunnel vision, or how we can focus on one thing and not see the other things (or potentials) around us. For example, let's say your car breaks down.  You have at least 3 options -- fix it, replace it, or do without it.  So, you decide to, just for fun, go to a car dealership and look around.  You tell yourself, I am not going to buy, I am just looking.  The salesman offers you to sit in one of the cars, so you slide rig

You don't have to be plant based to appreciate a good bowl of non-dairy ice cream...or should I say Vice Cream ?  This cookbook, by Jeff Rogers, has over 70 dairy free recipes.  While I admit I have only tried three of the "ice cream" recipes so far, Chocolate, on page 19, Peanut Butter, on page 25, and Apple Strudel, on page 59, I have been happy with the results.                                                                            Source Full disclosure here, sometimes I alter ingredients to fit my needs.  One of my current needs is to avoid sugar in desserts -- it makes me want to keep eating sugary foods.  My solution is to use dates or date sugar (ground, dried dates). The Chocolate recipe I took to an ice cream social.  I replaced the maple syrup with dates and water.  It turned out well, and one friend marveled that it was so much like ice cream yet with healthier ingredients. The Peanut Butter recipe has a bit of a grainy texture to it, but the f

Hi everyone! My daughter encouraged me to start a blog, and after a bit of deliberation, I decided to go for it.  Thank you, Olivia , for your encouragement and help setting my blog up!! Some things I am considering writing include recipe and book reviews as well as sharing ideas and thoughts. Please subscribe so you can see my updates as I go along.  Oh, and be patient with me as I figure out my path on this new journey. If you haven't already, go check out Olivia's  lovely blog. Is there content you would like to see here?  Feel free to leave a comment.