Moving into a New Phase/Poetry Reading/Bucket List

It's getting greener every day here, and a couple mornings ago we had not one, not two, but three moose in our yard! Unfortunately I couldn't get them all in a single shot, but it was cool to see.

Poetry Performance

Since my previous post, I performed in this event: 

--last night, I shared two poems with "bird" themes as part of this event, itself a part of the annual Shorebird Festival here in town, the subject of that newspaper article a couple weeks ago. I was sorry not to have had time to memorize my poems, but another thing I did since my last post was turn in grades, so I'm now officially done teaching for the term! I did have the poems mostly from memory, and was in eye contact with the audience, as I prefer to be, for the majority of the time. It was a wonderful event, with some great music and many beloved local poets sharing.


We saw some sandhill cranes on a back road recently. They are so...arresting.

yes, still plenty of snow higher up

Plans and Writing

Since last posting, I've also finally made my bucket list--actually written down all the things I'd been hoping to get done when the semester was over! 

Lots of room to add more details!

Writing is top of the list, followed by reading, followed by outdoor things. Of course, I never stopped either writing or reading, but I'm so happy I'll have more time to attend to those drafts that are crying out to me like babies. I think it was admirable restraint that I didn't put "cleaning" and "taxes" top of the list--those are things I really haven't gotten to that have really bugged me! Soon...


I've also had a wonderful conversation with my mentor, soon-no-longer-to-be-my-mentor, about which authors I might want to be reading for the months until the MFA residency in August. It feels great to have the promise of some structure as I continue to develop as a writer.

Food

I've been enjoying nettles every day, including in puddings like this, made with the immersion blender from unsweetened almond milk, warrior protein powder, xanthan gum to make it puddingy, and stevia.

As you can see, the immersion blender doesn't completely pulverize the greens, and I like that there's still texture to chew on. I imagine it's sort of like oatmeal, but way healthier.


Since we're talking about food, a quick revisit of my talk about increasing calories last time. I appreciate the comments and responses; I even appreciate the caring puzzlement elicited. I don't have many more answers yet. except for one thing I need to give up!


Yes, it must be so old by now, but now that the pressure's off, I really have no excuse not to give up caffeine, as I should have weeks and months ago. The first thing that has to go is the chocolate, which I notice I'd posted about giving up over six weeks ago. I've been eating the odd tiny piece of very dark chocolate every few days, and putting cacao in my smoothies regularly, because it's one of the few things that's appealing to me. However, even aside from the caffeine/theobromine synergy exacerbating the negative effects of caffeine on my systems, the cacao has started to cause the uncomfortable irritation effects that it always has on me eventually--this time around, I was hoping it wouldn't happen, but it has. Not worth the pain! So, no more cacao or chocolate. Still bargaining for my autonomy, so I'd better find something to replace its calories in my intake. 


As for the caffeine pills and caffeinated tea, to be honest, I've been relying on them just to stay awake through the day this past month. They haven't even been impacting my sleep as much as they ordinarily do. But now things have mellowed, and I don't absolutely need to stay awake all day! I'm dreading the withdrawal--just six hours of sleep is leaving me with crushing headaches--so I'd love any advice on how to get through that. I'm thinking a gentle taper would be the smartest thing to do.


Excited to get out more, excited that the only work-work I have now is editing and translating, both of which I love, excited to catch up on rest and friends!

Avocado Pie Teaser, Immersion Blender Talk Again; Cherry Smoothie

The avocado pie was not only perfect for Cinco de Mayo, but also ended up as the perfect birthday cake for Leslie!

I will share the recipe, but I want to talk about immersion blenders again, and I think it'll make this post too long if I try to cover both. The immersion blender talk is relevant to the avocado pie recipe, as I made the pie mostly using the immersion blender in order to ensure it could be made without a Vita-mix.


As much as I love my Vita-mix and wouldn't be without it, I also wouldn't be without an immersion blender. I love its lightness, convenience and easy cleanup. Over two years ago, back before I had a Vita-mix, I wrote a post including some tips for how to make goodies using an immersion blender, and I still agree with what I said then. However, the search for the right machine continues. At the time I wrote that post, I had a Kitchenaid handblender. But when my third one in three years bit the dust last December, I knew it was time to look elsewhere. 


My luck didn't quite turn around when I bought the Juiceman handblender. My hopes were up because it had 550W, so was more powerful, but when it arrived, the design turned out to be a bit flimsy, and the blade was too small to be really effective.

After a month or two, a more serious problem surfaced. The "on" button tended to stick in the "on" position, which was very scary, and the power level would surge without warning. An hour or so on the phone, and I was promised a refund (which I'm still waiting for).


Meanwhile, I went back and read lots of reviews both on Amazon and everywhere else I could find, and ended up ordering the MiTutto Miallegro, also 550W. This was so well reviewed, and I was excited.

Turns out, it's built on a very similar design to the Juiceman blender, which means the Juiceman attachments fit it, so I have some spare parts. But it's much better made. The "on" button is sealed so nothing could stick in there to make it stick in the "on" position (in case that was the problem). The motor sounds better, and seems more effective. 

I love being able to blend a thick smoothie right in the cup!

This was a Cherry-Spirulina smoothie:

1/3 cup unsweetened almond breeze

1/2 cup snow/ice

6 frozen cherries

3g spirulina

1t xanthan gum

stevia

erythritol

pinch vanilla powder

1t coconut butter

The blender coped with the ice just fine, crushed it right up. It's cold here, so the coconut butter was solid, and there ended up being little niblets of coconut butter throughout the smoothie. I actually loved that! I often sprinkle a few cacao nibs into smoothies like this for texture, and I didn't have to do that. My suspicion is that part of the reason why the Vita-mix homogenizes the unmelted coconut butter so thoroughly even in the presence of ice is because it heats everything up more, and it may be better, from the oxidation perspective, not to have stuff heated up. 

I haven't yet tried blending greens with it, but will report in when I have.

Bottom line: it's not the same as a Vita-mix, but as I said in my old post, I think it's better than a cheap upright blender, and it's a wonderful tool. Still early days with this model--I really hope it lasts longer than its predecessors.

Do you have an immersion blender that you like?

Tomorrow, the avocado pie!

Bliss Connect #3: New Goods in the House and Two Recipes From Yesterday's Pics

Well, I seem to be consistently posting something for the Bliss Connect Challenge right at the eleventh hour! It just so happens that this week's Challenge ties in beautifully with something I wanted to talk about today anyway, with a little personal tweaking. The week's challenge is to mention the health or wellness item that tops my wishlist this year and will make next year the healthiest ever, and to give a virtual gift!

It so happens that four new items have made their way into our household recently, which are definitely improvements to life. And I want to share two recipes for goodies pictured in yesterday's post, for Shannonmarie and Amber, who asked. This might make it a fairly long post, but it's lots of pictures and deliciousness, so please bear with me.

Three of the new things are better replacements for things we had already, and it's kind of coincidental that they arrived during the holidays. They are all certainly health and wellness related. The number one would be...a new rebounder!

I've mentioned a few times how much I love rebounding. The old one was a super-cheapie, though, and I've barely rebounded for several months, because I kept having to mend it after every ten minutes of use, and mending it was very difficult. It lasted about six months and cost $50. If I pay $300 for one that lasts ten years, that's actually cheaper! This one is a Cellerciser and it was a demo model, so it was actually a little less than $300.  Extras include that the legs fold, the whole thing folds in half, and it comes with two spare springs, a carry case, and a bunch of reading material I don't have time to get into right now!

I did have time to jump straight on the rebounder itself, though, when we picked it up yesterday evening. I got straight on and bounced and bounded and jogged and flew for fifteen minutes. It was SO MUCH FUN! And infinitely better than the old one.

Here's the really wonderful thing, though: after that fifteen minutes of bouncing at 6pm, together with a beach hike earlier in the day, I had my first good night's sleep for about two and a half weeks! It's not that I hadn't been exercising before, either--I sure had been. But I read somewhere that improved sleep is one of the benefits of rebounding. I'll have to try that again!

Other new things: I think I mentioned that during the power outages in the storms a couple weeks ago, our tea-kettle and my beloved immersion blender both bit the dust. Well, they're replaced, with improvements!

Our old tea-kettle was very communicative. It had a temperature gauge, which I really liked, and turned color as the water heated up. What I didn't like was that it also squealed. A lot. Every time you put the jug on the base, it would squeal. Every time the water boiled, it would squeal. Every time you turned it on or off, it would squeal. No making tea in stealth while Phil slept!

Its replacement doesn't tell me when the water reaches 175-180 (my preferred temp for tea-making), but I can actually pretty much tell that by ear. The replacement tea-kettle is not communicative, but silent. And every time I put the jug down on the base, I'm so grateful for the silence. Every time! It's been a couple weeks and I'm still not used to it (Ms Oversensitive to High-pitched Noises that I am...).

The immersion blender was the third Kitchen Aid model I'd blown out in as many years, and I was ready to look elsewhere. The Juiceman cost about the same, but has 550 Watts, which is a big step up.

 It comes with the same useful goodies--the wand that does most things, the whisk, and the mini food processor, which is actually not so mini--it's probably twice the size of the Kitchen Aid one!

 The wand has four blades instead of two, and they're shorter, which makes it easy to clean.

I haven't had it long enough to really put it through its paces, but it actually seems a little quieter than its predecessor, and definitely does a good job. One thing I'll need to get used to is that the wand, whisk and mini processor attach to the motor by twisting on and off rather than snapping, like the Kitchen Aid did. With the Kitchen Aid, I sometimes had trouble with the motor and part separating, which was freaky and horrible (nasty grinding sounds and a whirring, unattached motor in my hand), but it'll take some time for me to get used to the much tighter and stiffer, if safer, twist-on-and-off attachment. I liked being able to snap the motor off real quick and leave the wand standing in the mix (with the motor still attached, it would fall over, taking everything down with it. Don't ask me how I know that).

The fourth item: I finally got a food scale! It is tiny--my chef knife next to it is for scale (ha ha).

It only goes up to eleven pounds, so it's not going to be a major all-purpose scale, but it means that I can finally make a bunch of recipes from Sweet Gratitude without guessing what I'm doing.

Which brings me, in a roundabout way, to the Pomegranate Fondants. No, they're not in Sweet Gratitude--they're out of my head! But I was looking at what Sweet Gratitude does with Irish Moss in terms of weights and ratios in order to give me some ideas.

I wanted a soft fondant as opposed to a creamier, denser truffle. Some of it, I made into hearts; some, I simply poured into an 8x4 pan, cut into squares...

...and finally covered, mostly with chocolate, but some I covered with carob.

The hearts are definitely the prettiest, though!

And here is the recipe:

1 cup pomegranate juice

1.5 oz soaked, chopped Irish moss (about a cup and a quarter)

1/4 cup xylitol

pinch salt

pinch vanilla powder

1/4 cup cacao butter, melted

2 tablespoons non-gmo soy lecithin

Blend the pomegranate juice and Irish moss very well. You'll need to stop a couple times and scrape the moss fragments down the side of the blender.

Add the xylitol, vanilla and salt, and blend again; taste test ad adjust if necessary.

Finally, add the cacao butter and lecithin, and blend very well.

I think I might have added a half teaspoon of xanthan gum as well, but I honestly am not sure!

Pour into molds of choice, or simply into a pyrex dish, and refrigerate to set.

The fondants are soft, and it's really nice for them to have a coating. I used my home-made very dark chocolate to coat them, and also home-made carob "chocolate" for a few. But you can use any kind of chocolate that you love most to cover it.

I hope the recipe makes sense!

And here's the recipe for the Not Quite White Chocolate:

1 cup melted cacao butter

1 teaspoon vanilla powder

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1/3 cup xylitol, powdered in a coffee grinder

7 oz of a combination of coconut cream powder and lucuma (maybe a cup of coconut cream powder and a quarter cup of lucuma)

2 tablespoons tocotrienols

Small handful goji berries, chopped

1 calimyrna fig, finely chopped

Mix the vanilla powder into the cacao butter. In a food processor, gradually add the coconut cream powder and lucuma. About halfway through, add the maple syrup and xylitol, and tocotrienols, and pulse gently until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Pour into molds or into a dish, and mix in pieces of goji berry and fig.

*Note: the coconut cream powder contains a tiny amount of a milk derivative (casinate). It's not more than 1%. I'm pretty allergic to dairy, and I don't seem to have a problem with this in small quantities. I don't feel entirely comfortable using a product that contains dairy, but it's such a minute amount that I'm kind of skating by with it.

As you can see from the photo, I over-processed this and the cacao butter separated. Never happened to me before, and initially I was mortified. But I added some shredded coconut, some sunflower lecithin and more tocotrienols, and decided that I didn't mind the less smooth texture and two-tone color effect. These work especially well with the bits of dried fruit in there, and the two-tone roses are cute, I think. Better luck next time, though!

There's something I really want to talk about on here related to something I said in my last post. But I also think I may have to post the recipe for this thing I made this morning. Simple, replicable and really, really good.

Maybe I can do both!

What's at the top of your Holiday wish list?