26 Years and Counting

I love the beach!

Like, REALLY love the beach!

But I haven't touched my toes to the sand in about three years because of my bum foot and subsequent surgery.

This year, Doug took me to a beautiful resort in Galveston that was right on the beach for our 26th year anniversary.

That ice cold water on my feet and sand between my toes never felt so good!

There's a saying that goes,

The cure for anything is SALT WATER ~

tears, sweat, or the sea.

And I believe this with all my heart...

and a little fried coconut shrimp and gumbo doesn't hurt either!

We ate seafood for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

We watched the sunrise over the Gulf, 

sipped coffee on the balcony, 

and took in the sunshine and salt air.

It was the cure all I needed.

I think I'll keep this guy around another 26 years!

The Chaffle

This stuff is LIFE changing!

I have found that the keto diet has been the only way I can loose weight.  It just works for my metabolism.  

But gosh, I sure do love bread!

There are a ton of low carb "bread" recipes out there, but let's face it, it's a poor substitute for the real thing.  

So let me introduce you to the 

CHAFFLE.

It's simply one egg, 1/2 cup of cheese, 

and one tablespoon of almond flour.

Add any ingredients you like to this basic recipe...and I REALLY like pepperoni and jalapeno!

Cook it for five minutes in a waffle maker, and voila!

A scrumptious, low carb, bread-like slice of heaven!

Use them as buns for hamburgers, sandwiches, 

or just eat them plain.

They are super filling, super delicious, and about one carb per chaffle.  I may never go back to regular buns or sandwich bread ever again!

YOU'RE WELCOME!

October in the Garden

 It's the beginning of Fall, 

but someone forgot to inform Mother Nature!

We are still having days with heat indexes into the 100's.  

That kind of weather is great for the garden...

not so much for all the pumpkin spice things.

My little garden is still going pretty strong.

I've started seedlings for cool weather crops and I hope to get them in the ground in the next three weeks.  They've all developed a strong case of "legginess" but I think a thinning and re-potting will take care of that.  Until then, We are still enjoying peppers, chard greens, okra, and a few little cherry tomatoes.  I also let one of my flower beds go to the weeds and I found the most delightful volunteer goldenrod plant growing!  The bees are loving it right now, but I did harvest some for myself to use in tea and soaps!

Our peppers always grow well into the end of October, but the above pictured pepper is absolutely the slowest growing pepper I've ever seen!  I sowed these Carolina Reaper pepper seeds back in February and just now in October I am seeing my first pepper.  There are dozens of flowers on the plant that will eventually turn into peppers, but I'm not sure if they will have time to mature by the time cooler weather arrives. 

Who knows? 

 Maybe we'll be eating that super hot "Suicide Salsa" 

with our Christmas tamales!