The Scoop

Hey gang! I’m just checking in with you to see how everyone is doing! My husband and I have managed to avoid covid 19 so far but are still being soooo careful! Meanwhile we haven’t wasted a minute of time.

We had our house in the mountains up for sale but it wasn’t moving fast enough for us and we want to buy a bigger place in Arizona this winter (we have a tiny condo there). We want be closer to family so we sold our house in the valley. And oh my gosh, we had two offers on day two of listing and on day four it was under contract. Everyone is moving to Idaho this year. It is the fastest growing state in the nation. Homes are few and buyers are many. So we took our house in the mountains off the market and will keep it for another year and see if we can sell it next summer. It is much bigger and will just take a little more time and we are still enjoying it there, so no worries.

This means however that we had to get two houses ready to sell this summer and we did most everything ourselves. We just finished packing the house in the valley (the movers will pick it all up next week) and are spending some time in the mountains before we head to Arizona to start looking for a house there. We will be heading south in a couple of weeks and I am so excited. But I am beyond exhausted too.

I have to say the whole summer has been stressful and I am looking forward to some down time at the condo. We still have to social distance with our families but we plan on out door get togethers and grandparent parades so that will be fun.

Now that I have kind of caught you up on things I thought I would share a post about food choices. This is so important to us right now as we try to stay healthy and active. I hope you enjoy and I’ll be back soon. Meanwhile notice the blog name change? Expect a little less fashion and a little more lifestyle as I move forward with the blog.

Food Choices

It would be reasonable for most people who read my blog regularly to think all I really enjoy is fashion. But the truth is fashion is easy for me to blog about. Cooking is one of my true loves. I also love home decorating, crafts, learning about wines, running and dog psychology! Ha! Ha! I am always wondering what my dogs are thinking.

Anyway, I thought I would sprinkle a little of my other interests here and there in my blog. Today I am showing you the versatility in my food choices. I above all am about health. But physical health is based a great deal on mental health for me. I need to love what I see, do and eat to feel content in this world. So I eat almost everything that is edible. I believe in balance, fresh, natural and most of all, home cooked. I think you can make anything you love healthier if you make it yourself with fresh ingredients.

Although I usually intermittent fast until about 11 AM, I still love breakfast foods. One of my favorite breakfasts is shown in the first picture. A poached egg on top of fresh sliced avocado on whole grain or sourdough bread with a drizzle of honey, a drizzle of sriracha and fresh cracked black pepper. To me this is a gift from the food gods!

Presentation is also important to me so I always use fun dishes when I do anything cooking or eating related. I have so many dishes that I have a dedicated dish room in my home in Idaho.  My little condo here in Arizona is bare bones so there is a lot of making do. Eventually I will get things arranged so both places are set up the way I want.

This next group of pictures are of the cake I made for my daughter-in-law's birthday last year. We were at the condo so I improvised some. I am not a cake mix user but for this cake you use a cake mix but add other things to amp it up. So I got the most chocolaty cake mix I could find and added some things. Here is the recipe from Giada on the Food Network. This recipe is a keeper. You add coffee and coconut and all sorts of goodness to make it taste home made! I love toasting the coconut and other little things that make this cake special. And more important than anything else, my family loved it!

I think it is so fun to toast coconut!

This last picture is of a salad I made out of Brussels Sprouts. This is goodness to the max! I chop up Burssells Sprouts added roasted red peppers and red onions. I chopped up a tart apple and added a little tomato and cooked this heavenly thick sliced bacon bought at the meat counter at Sprouts to mix throughout. I made a vinaigrette out of olive oil, cherry preserves, balsamic vinegar, fresh lemon and salt and pepper.  A sprinkle of goat cheese on this salad makes it perfection! 

Here is a link to 10 amazing Brussels Sprouts salad recipes. I always alter mine to meet what I have in the kitchen or am in the mood for. 

ideas for creative time in your kitchen

It the first picture of this post my plate is from Williams Sonoma. I  have so many plates and things in my kitchen from this store. They have beautiful everything for the kitchen. My cake plate is Gracious Goods, I have two different cake plates from this company and I adore them. They make any cake look beautiful and I need all the help I can get! My salad serving bowl is from Target, as well as other cups and small plates seen in these pictures. It is another great place to get kitchen stuff! I linked up some fun cook books as well as other things that make time in the kitchen almost spiritual for me! 

One more fire in the mountains before we head south.

Thanks for stopping by!

Peace!