Nourishing Delight--Bluths watch out.

I love ice cream, especially ice cream with additions like chocolate, nuts, swirls and candy. After reading Nourishing Traditions and The Sugar Blues, however, storebought ice cream and all it's sugar and additives kind of lost its luster.

I can certainly make homemade ice cream, but that involves so much work and expensive ingredients, so I was rather intrigued by this one ingredient ice cream post on Apartment Therapy's the Kitchn. It's basically frozen bananas processed in the food processor and they take on the consistency of soft serve! The reviews on the site were really positive and I wanted to try it out, but I wasn't so sure if plain ice cream without "chunks" would cut it.

I needed a topping/"mixin'" that would complement the ice cream and not wreck all the nutritional benefits of this wonder recipe. The Nourishing Gourmet's Easy, Healthy Guilt-Free Fudge came to mind. It would provide a kick of chocolate and melt in your mouth rather than gunking up the teeth with waxy chocolate bits.

I made the fudge and added some peanuts into it to stretch the recipe. Then in the same Cuisinart bowl, I made the ice cream. Folks, it was amazing! As the bananas processed they took on this creamy, frozen soft-serve texture that was astonishing. What was interesting was that you cannot over-process the bananas, like other foods. We popped the fudge and "ice cream" into the freezer until after supper and enjoyed our nourishing and fabulous treats.

Folks, you gotta try this! I added some vanilla and a little cream to the "ice cream" to help my bananas break up and to modify the banana flavor. The bananas are nothing but good for you and the fudge chunks were healthy and free of additives, white sugar and artificial sweeteners. Tuan's comments were, "dang" and "this fudge is exceptional." The kids just ate it up. Aubrey used a spoon until it gave out, then drank the contents and finally employed her fingers.

A final piece of advice--pre-peel and cut up the bananas before freeezing. I can't imagine anything more bone-numbing than peeling a frozen banana.

Here are some pictures and happy eating! (excuse the sideways photos, we're doing well just to post photos, today!)

dream chairs II

In my search for the chairs below (search terms: chinese, chippendale, faux bamboo, adler, regency--it was a broad search), I began to realize that These chairs were going to be out of my budget unless I hit the mother lode at a thrift store or a faithful reader just gave me some. Hello? Anyone? I didn't think so.

I could afford perhaps two chairs and what good would that do? Searching led to Overstock and Overstock led to restaurant and event suppliers and I discovered the above beauty. The Chiavari chairs come in a variety of finishes, are sturdy because they are rental chairs and need to hold up to wear and tear, they stack seven high and are much less expensive!

I can buy a lot of 10-12 gently used chairs for under 400.00, with washable cushions. I can spend a little more for new ones. This idea is appealing because they seem versatile and having that many would be great for a party where we would have to bring in an extra table. The chair's footprint would be small, so storing extra chairs in our storage room or attic (what a glorious prospect!) would be super practical. Stackable chairs also make mopping easier.

The idea of restaraunt supply chairs is new to me, but I really like it. They are bound to be sturdier than a lot of chairs and in bulk, less expensive. What do you think, reader? Will these capture the idea of the chair without the expense?

Dream Chairs

After much consideration in the realm of dining room chairs, I have fallen in love with this style. It's called Chinese Chippendale and I can hardly contain myself I love 'em so much! Meredith at Like Merchant Ships has a set in black. Hers are actually metal patio furniture that she uses indoors and they look smashing! Please, dear readers, if you stumble across chairs such as these, will you let me know?

UPDATE: a quick Google search has enlightened me in regards to the chairs. First, they were the Golden Girls kitchen chairs! I'm so jealous. Second, they are not cheap when made of wood. Third, Jonathan Adler has a smashing version which I will not price because I know I will never afford Jonathan Adler chairs!

Good morning, my name is Paula and I am a rule-loving, judging first-born ,

I really do love rules and guides and have a hard time with other birth orders that don't--babies, anyone? The Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Lehman is great, by the way, and I highly recommend it.

We have several things going on at once around our house and life. I thought I would share them so folks would know how to pray for us.

Tuan's acl surgery is on Tuesday. It will be less invasive than the one on his other leg. This is good for reasons which I'll spare the gory details, but we are very thankful for that. However, the surgery is full anesthesia, and we are uncertain of the recovery time and amount of pain he will be in. He has spent a lot of time caring for me this past month, so I feel greatly in debt to his service and hope I can take care of my patient as cheerfully as he took care of me. Pray for that, too, as all the lifting, shoving and non-verbal child-rearing jobs fall on me.

Tuan's parents are re-marrying! We are very excited about this our entire family is in the wedding party. : ) Johnny is a ring-bearer, Aubrey a flower girl, I am a bridesmaid and Tuan is a groomsman. Please pray that we survive the busy-ness of the wedding celebration and that Tuan is able to maneuver somewhat with a still healing knee. The wedding is a little less than a month after the surgery.

We're moving! In late September or early October. We will still be at Twin Lakes, but will be moving into the duplex that the Nasekos occupy. Tuan will still be recuperating then which will make for an interesting time. I'm pretty sure that the Mighty Men of Maintenance will be able to assist us with much of the move, but there is lots of packing and cleaning and maneuvering to be done before they can step in!

In the same vein, please pray for me as we move. I love this house and know I will like the new one, but I struggle with worry and am concerned about the new house and those issues. This is silly, but I am terribly afraid of prowlers and burglars and the thought of being in a house with windows only on two sides and a downstairs/upstairs is a bit hairy for me. One of the reasons I love our house now is the 360 view and its location within the gates. Sigh . . . life would be much easier if I were only afraid of realtors or whales.

Please pray for Johnny and Aubrey's transition into the new house. Johnny is fearfully and curiously obsessed with snakes right now and he thinks there is a snake upstairs in the duplex! This is good, right? : )

Finally, I have not felt well since Saturday and thought my sleep was just out of whack. I realized last night that is was more than that--I have a full-blown sinus infection that has rendered me absolutely useless. We ran to Wal-mart for Sudafed and Tylenol and those have made a great difference, but I'm not up to snuff and really need to be full of energy in the coming days and weeks. I am blessed with fantastic immunity (as are Tuan and the kids) and never catch anything, but my sinuses and allergies can knock me to the ground.

Thank you for praying! I am learning the joys of seeing my prayers for other fulfilled and am amazed at how God uses the prayers of the saints.

If I Ran the World . . .

1. The use of overhead lights would be severely limited. In their place, lamps would abound. From every table, shelf, cornice and floor, the sweet glow of lamplight would illuminate our darkness and cast us all in a more flattering light.

2. All restaurants that claim to serve mexican, southwestern, or tex-mex foods would serve complimentary chips. That's right; none of this charging for chips business.

3. I would eat Avocados everyday, in manifold ways.

4. Everyone would use their turn signals--especially when changing lanes.

hee hee

Okay, I confess: I laugh at other folk's misspelled words and more so at wrong words. For example, today, someone on Facebook said they were glad to have gotten their shopping done early so that they could avoid all the "crazy folkes". Since "Folkes" is actually a surname, it made me wonder if they had something against the Folkes family.

Then, someone wrote a comment on my status update about how they, too were "defiantly a poor speller." Hmm, just let that one sink in. Good spelling, wrong word.

I know my own use of the English language is typically wonkety, and that gives me the freedom to laugh at others because I know myself. Nevertheless, if you are in a managerial position, you should be able to correctly mate subjects and verbs, use quotations properly and avoid awkward apostrophe use. It's so unimpressive and annoying to see signs in stores that are so full of errors that they communicate something else entirely from their intended purpose--the management's un-grasp of their native language.

Please share your own examples! I'm off to bed and a rousing sing-along of, "I'm glad I am a consular."