I really need to cool off...

I'm feeling crazy from the heat!
Here is a little pix of the Crescent (more on it below) that cooled me right off!




I also love this pix:

I mean seriously, I can't get cool. I want a bathtub full of ice cold jello.. what? That's not weird...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve been needing to post for a couple of days. Life is getting away from me lately!
I wanted to share our antipasti plate I made for DH and my brunch yesterday:



I LOVE this stuff and we just munched on it all day. He then made us great steaks on the grille and I made a simple iceburg wedge salad with blue cheese dressing, chopped tomato and bacon. I love this salad with steak.
It was a good day.

We are gearing up for a trip to AR to visit Patrick’s mum and some of my family in Eureka Springs (YEAH!) next week.. We are leaving this coming Saturday. We will be gone a week. I will take lots of pix of Eureka.. it’s such a cool place, we used to go fairly often when I lived in AR. It's got a fantastic artist community and I love alot of the "fringe" society that lives there. I would certainly fit in! It reminds me of a little European village with lots of gingerbread looking houses, it’s in the Ozark mountains in AR. When I was a teenager I wanted to buy an old house there and turn it into a B & B. One of my sister's got smart and moved there. My sis Tommy works at the famous Crescent Hotel there and has arranged a great room for us. Tommy and Jessie I am SO excited! No REALLY, REALLY I am excited. I miss my sisters - I will get to see two of them, I have too many to count now.

So, The Crescent is rumored to be haunted. http://www.prairieghosts.com/cresc.html

Maybe I will have a ghostly visit? I am sure I will have enough to drink that I will eventually convince myself that I have anyway! It always happens at that hotel. Years ago when I was in my 20's my granny and I stayed there and I heard laughing in the middle of the night that sounded strange to me. I was sure it was an evil spirit.

They have a great spa.. I deserve to indulge, right!

When I was growing up we went to this hotel several times. I love it. The hotel was built in the 1800's. The entire town is amazing, it is very Victorian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Springs,_Arkansas

It's been many years since we stayed so I am really excited. Check out some of the pix:










Most excited about the fact that my sis lives right in the middle of Spring Street (Eureka was famous for it's springs, one claimed to cure blindness in the 1800's).

Anyway she lives right in the middle of downtown.. It's fantastic and I can't wait.

Spring Street, Eureka Springs, AR:


The totally cool flat iron building downtown:






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

We also love the ThornCrown Chapel in Eureka.. http://www.thorncrown.com/

Architect for this amazing steel and glass chapel in the middle of the woods was Fay Jones. He was my step-father's professor in college. It's an amazing structure:






Well I have spent WAY too much time on this post.. as you can see I am really looking very forward to my trip home. It's been I think 4 years since we have been back to Arkansas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tonight I am making a tenderloin roast and Italian (the fat style) green beans. I like these more than regular or French green beans but they are a bit more carby.

Oh and lastly.. on the weight loss front. I am holding at 42 pounds total lost. I have really slowed down in my weight loss (1/2-1 pound a week) and I am going to see about stepping it up when we get back from AR. I WILL stay LC (with help from my sis!) while I am there though.

Well got to run!
Have an excellent week.

Rituals...

Have you ever had blooming tea? It's beautiful and some of them are REALLY good!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good Morning,

How are you this Tuesday morning? It’s a stunning and very beautiful morning here, somewhat still cool with a bit of fog at this early hour (6am). I am enjoying a new blooming green tea with a baby hibiscus flower in it (working on drinking MORE green tea! I love it for several reasons, all the antioxidants of course, and it’s supposed to help with weight loss. But for me I think it’s more the ritual of tea).

I have a small collection of teacups I have gathered over the years. Each morning I normally have tea first thing when I get up and then an espresso about an hour later (with lots of cream! – got to love low carb (LC) for that!) with my husband.. from here on out he is to be known as “The Genius”. And he actually is. But that’s another story…

I can’t tell you how much I enjoy my morning tea ritual. In my past my food was out of control. I have had to find a new mentality (still a work in progress) about how and what I eat and drink. I went from an extreme of over-eating whatever and whenever I wanted to a very severe extreme diet over and over, back and forth.

It’s incredibly hard for me to find a “happy medium”. I am an extreme person. I tend to see things in black and white. Somehow my tea and espresso ritual has helped me with this. It feels indulgent (really nice china cups, really good quality coffee and tea and what’s not indulgent about real cream!) so that appeals in a big way to my hedonistic side, but it is actually good for my physically and mentally so that appeals to my more “virtuous” side.

We all have read about how green (and white tea) is so good for us. I really do believe all the hype. I like to try new tea often. I normally buy from small companies online (I really like to support indy businesses) somehow I feel like my buck might make a difference to these smaller companies. I also go to ebay from time to time to find a new teacup or espresso cup. I have a small collection of ones that are special to me. A pink and a blue set that is from the 40’s are my very fav right now. Here are a couple of pix just because I love them that much:





I guess what I am getting at with this post is that once you begin to only put what you consider the best into your body you need and want less of the crap you used to eat. You get so much more satisfaction from it. Now a really nice cut of meat, even very small, and a salad with good quality fresh (and organic if we can afford it that week!) veggies seems very special to me not to mention my extreme fascination with cheese and wine! Now we have a bit of good cheese and a glass of wine for dessert and it’s incredible! But that’s an entirely different post…

Have a great day my lovely friends!

The joy of good food...

Do you or have you ever cooked live lobster at home? I am not sure I could. I am watching Julia Child's lobster show on youtube and wondered if I might try it. Eeek! I sure do love lobster though and isn't it perfect for low carb!

Here is her video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPcGiLVp9Zw

I think I may try. One thing about low carb is that I really try to have special meals more often. I truly don't want to get bored and actually don't spend more on groceries than I did before low carb (most of the time). Did you know that on average in France women spend 25% more on groceries than we do.. I guess food is just more special to them than to most of us... For me so far, much more natural and fresh ingredients tend to be more affordable than all the processed crap. I do spend more occasionally when I have to get a good cheese fix! and of course lobster, if I do make it, is freaking not cheap! Although I am sure it would be much more expensive at a restaurant.

Some other meals I am thinking of (my French leanings!) are Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon and I want to do a nice Bernaise sauce... I want to get really good at sauces.

I am eyeing an original 1966 Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking".


I have seen them for well over $100 so far though, so I am not sure I will find an affordable one but doesn't it just need to be mine if I am going to get more serious about good food?

Sunday Brunch...

This morning I decided to drive myself crazy and try to do two difficult cooking techniques that I have been working on.. together. I am talking about eggs benedict! I had recently perfected true poached eggs (the secret is the vinegar and salt in the water)… here is a video I followed:

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2007/03/eggs-benedicts-last-2-episodes-to-make.html
(speaking of this food blog.. I LOVE it! Great videos and I learned the hollaindaise here as well.)..

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2007/03/hollandaise-101-can-sauce-really-sense.html


My poached eggs were perfect! I LOVE good old style poached eggs. So wonderful for a Sunday brunch or well, any time you have the TIME.

His secret (he is a chef) was to make the eggs up ahead of time and keep them in an icewater bath until ready to serve and just slip them back in the simmering water for a minute. It did not overcook them at all.. just warmed them up perfectly. It’s HARD for one person to time the poached eggs and hollandaise perfectly together to serve them on time so the re-heating the poached eggs was a great idea! I actually only needed to have them sit in the icewater for about 5 min. so I just kept the water I cooked them in, simmering.

The hollandaise was another story. I have been reading several sites about making it and love his Tshirt he has on his site that says “a hollandaise can sense fear”!.. ha!

I decided then to not be afraid and just do it. It actually came together well.. no worries with separating but I should have let it cool a bit because when I poured it over the eggs it ran down onto the plate. I also don’t think I drained the eggs well enough because then the sauce got even more watery. I did notice that about 5 min after we set down to eat (still tasted fantastic!) that the leftover sauce I had not used that was still in the bowl, was nice and thick.. I think the trick is waiting 3 or so minutes before spooning it over the eggs. I WILL get this meal to come out perfect!

I also think I am going to serve the tomatoes on the side as they might have added to the watery-ness of the hollandaise.

All in all I was pleased.. one of the important things with long term low carb is to not get bored.. to not make the same things over and over. The poached eggs were perfect and I didn’t break the hollandaise sauce, it was creamy and smooth after those couple of minutes.

Next time will be perfect and what a fantastic low carb meal this is.. we don’t need no stinking English muffin!!!

#$%!&*##$^!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have been struggling lately. I am dealing with boredom in my eating. I have gotten to where I don’t want to cook often because it’s Summer and this always happens in the summer when I get too hot PLUS I am dealing with freaking hot flashes too.. Whatever...

I posted on LCF re: foods that are cool and don’t need cooking or at least can be cooked ahead of time and just brought to room temp.. like a quiche.

A couple of days ago I just gave in and had Thai food. I really don’t have an excuse. It certainly was NOT a planned indulgence. (I do have those from time to time). I think actually I had waited too long for my next planned indulgence and just was starting to feel deprived. Didn’t feel like cooking, was overwhelmed with work and just made a decision to “not give a crap” for that day.

I gained 4 pounds of water and it’s slowly coming back off.. I went back to induction levels (below 20g a day) but not induction really, as I am allowing myself more veggies and nuts than are allowed on true induction.

I had to look at why it happened and came to the conclusion I was bored and decided to get back into ketosis as quick as possible and then start cooking a few more interesting meals and some cold meals like gazpacho, good salads, ceviche, etc.. I need to keep focused and plan better, I was allowing myself to sort of let go too much. I was overwhelmed with work and the house and painting the house.. etc.

I need to do what I know works, making a weekly menu, doing the shopping, getting everything organized and cooking a few things ahead of time.

I am doing a roasted lemon rosemary chicken for dinner tonight.. I wash and dry the chicken, separate the skin from the bird and stuff thin sliced lemon and rosemary leaves under the skin. Then I butter the skin (make sure the bird is good and dry... I wash it and then dry it with a few paper towels) and sprinkle LOTS of garlic salt, onion powder and pepper.. so much that you would think it would be too much but it really makes the skin GREAT.

I cook it uncovered until it needs to be covered, in a 375 deg. Oven. It’s a really good chicken this way.
I am making a nice salad to go with. Simple with a homemade vinaigrette.

I just made an interesting drink. I am always struggling with wanting to drink sodas. I bought a bunch of dried ginger from Penzeys spices and boiled it in water for 15 min.. strained it and added stevia. It’s good hot (right now) and will be really good cold. I think it would be good added to lemonaide.

I am also going to Whole Food (freaking should call it Whole Paycheck) soon to get some sushi grade fish, shrimp and maybe scallops to make ceviche.

A cucumber, tomato, avo gazpacho is in the works too. I LOVE good gazpacho. I want more salads too. Friends on LCF have had some good suggestions for me too here:

http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/lowcarb-recipe-help-suggestions/677505-i-need-cold-food-ideas-gazpacho-ceviche-etc.html

Other ideas are Caprese salad.. tomatoes, Mozzarella Cheese, capers, bunch fresh basil leaves , olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I really like this salad and make it fairly often.

I like slaw too and am looking up an old Italian chopped salad recipe I have somewhere.

I also love Antipasta salad and a good Greek salad. I also want to work up a recipe for a cold pasta salad using Dreamfields.

Anyway, I am going to be fine. This is my lifestyle and I know I am not perfect but I am SURE much, OMG MUCH better off than I was 40 pounds ago!

Ok.. I feel better now.