Celebrations-Restaurant Review and Goodies, and Some Fun Stuff

Happy New Week! We're up in Anchorage again after a much less stressful day on the road. Our anniversary, and it's been very social, in a happy kind of way. I hope you enjoyed my review of Tropical Traditions coconut oil and Hawaii stories. It's turned cold here again today and I sure enjoyed my coconut oil today. Later this week, I will talk about fats some more.

We went to Cafe Cups a few days ago to celebrate our anniversary together early. I've eaten out very little in Homer and this was a fun experience.

It was so pleasant to eat out in such a mellow, peaceful atmosphere. We were not rushed at any point, the two waitresses were friendly and fun, and enthusiastic.

I felt grateful for my easygoing cooked-vs-raw dynamic at the moment, as they were easily able to make their veggie curry gluten-and-dairy free for me.

And it was so beautiful!

Very interesting presentation: having the rice (which I didn't eat) in the middle with the curry in a moat around it. Lots of very interesting textures, where a lot of curries tend to have all the veggies in cubes. I appreciated that a lot of the veggies were almost raw, just barely steamed, including the carrots and mung bean sprouts (a great touch), although the eggplant pieces were a little underdone. There were even some olive pieces in there! It wasn't a 'traditional Indian' curry, but it was so delicious: lots of cardamom in the spice mix, which I love most, and lots of heat, which I also adore! I was surprised how much of it I ate, how good it tasted and how happy my tummy was afterward.

Phil was very pleased with his fish special. And I wasn't so pleased with the picture I snapped! Beautiful red kale garnish though...

A few other things to share: I took advantage of The Raw Food World's 17.5% off everything offer over the holidays and was once again delighted with how quickly my goodies arrived.

I got more Irish moss, my new favorite food, and some yacon syrup to try (man, that stuff is expensive! But a little goes a long way, I'm told). And a whole gallon of coconut nectar! It's low glycemic enough that I feel ok about using a little in dessert recipes, and it's so expensive in the 12oz bottles, as well as shelf-stable,  that this seemed by far the most sensible way to get it. That's probably going to last me at least a year.

I love to get things in bulk and know that I have a supply for long enough to make plenty of variations or experiments on a single theme, or just have a staple readily available. I think living far from the source might be part of why.

How about you?

My other splurge: some recipe books and some poetry books!

That pile of paper made me so very happy. The Poet's Companion is one that I've enjoyed using quite a bit before, and had borrowed and wanted to own. On Speaking Terms is a poetry collection that I'm reading to broaden my experience: and am so far loving. And the three raw recipe books--what can I say? I miss being part of that world 'in the flesh,' I owned no raw recipe books at this point, and I will use these lovingly until I have learned all I can from them, and then consider them beautiful things to share more widely.

A couple of final silly little things:

Check out our 'pant-tree'--we freeze-dried our laundry strung up right on the edge of the bluff. We agreed that some clothes-pins would be a good investment. Yes, we wheelbarrowed our laundry down from the truck! The bedsheet in the wheelbarrow looks quite stylish, no?

Check out that sunset reflected in the outhouse window!

And I personalized one of my notebooks!

I covered it with Yogi Teabag tags! Been meaning to do that for ages, and finally got around to it. I love how some of them are naturally dyed/teastained.

It's the perfect decoration for my notebook: lots of inspiring words, which often speak more to me than pictures. Given the size of my handwriting, it's especially fitting--here's a random page from inside the notebook!