Peppermint patties: only 3 ingredients!!!

Ok, for anyone who is not eating gluten dairy or sugar, or for anyone who just wants a delicious and healthy peppermint pattie, I have the solution. Here is a recipe for peppermint patties that only contain 3 things: unsweetened bakers chocolate, raw honey and peppermint oil. This little recipe will change your life!!

To make 10

Ingredients:

3 squares of unsweetened bakers chocolate

1/2 cup of raw honey (make sure it is the solid kind or you can use spun honey)

peppermint oil to taste (use a peppermint oil that is mixed with a carrier oil)

10 cupcake liners (you can also use the really small ones to make lots of little patties)

Directions:

Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a pan. spread a thin layer of the chocolate on the bottom and 1/4 of the way up the sides of the cupcake liner (it may take some practice to get it perfect). Stick the liners with the chocolate shell in the fridge. Mix together the honey and the peppermint oil. Put a scoop of the honey mixture in each shell and spread it so that the whole bottom is covered in a thick layer. Lastly, cover the top of them with a very thin layer of melted chocolate. Put back in the fridge until the chocolate is hardened. Enjoy!!

Old photographs

Yesterday my parents and I sorted through old family photographs. We found some that dated back to the late 1800's! I love looking at old pictures and learning about my family history. Here are some of my favorite pictures I came across.

Here are my grandparents sitting in from of their brand new TV.

It was the first one on the block! So crazy.

Here is my great grandma holding my grandma at six months old.

I think my great grandma was gorgeous!

Here is another picture of my great grandma. She is the one in the

middle. I just love those swimsuits!

This is my crazy great uncle Alex. I never met him, but I can

imagine that he was just a little bit crazy.

Passage to India

My best friend is flying to India today! I am so stinkin' excited for her! I'm sure she will find lots of beautiful things over there. Here are some pretty Indian inspired trinkets I found on etsy today.

Via

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Crustless Quiche

Ok, seriously, this is pretty much the easiest thing in the world to make! I call this quiche the garbage grinder because once I have the egg base made I just add whatever I can find in the fridge.

The base of this quiche is just 4 eggs and 1 cup of rice milk. After the eggs and milk are mixed together, you can add whatever you want!

For this one I used:

bell peppers

broccoli

onions

mushrooms

sliced turkey meat cut into pieces

thyme

dill

salt

pepper

Mix all of the chopped veggies, meat and seasonings in with the egg mixture. Oil a large pie tin. Pour the mixture into the pie tin and bake at 350° for 45 minutes to one hour.

Papaya

These gorgeous cards are made by a company called Papaya that is located here in town!. I just think they are amazing, and I pretty much want every single one. They also have beautiful journals and gifts.

Wraps three ways

When it comes to wraps there are endless possibilities. Today I was inspired to try three different kinds using three of the foods I have been itching to make: sun-dried tomato pesto, chipotle avocado cole slaw and pine nut rosemary spread. using these three things i created three very unique and delicious wraps.

First I made the pesto.....

Spinach and sun-dried tomato pesto

Ingredients :

1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

1 cup spinach leaves

1 cup fresh basil leaves

4 T olive oil

1/4 cup walnuts

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup grated parmesan (I used a rice cheese substitute and it still tasted great!)

salt to taste

Make 1 and 1/2 cups

Directions:

put everything except the sun-dried tomatoes in a food processor and pulse till smooth. Then mix in the tomatoes.

For the wrap: For this wrap I used a bit of mayonnaise, sliced turkey. salami, pancetta, sliced bell peppers, pesto and some spinach leaves.

Then I made the cole slaw....

Chipotle avocado cole slaw

Ingredients:

1/4 large hass avocado

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 chipotle pepper (from a can)

1 and 1/2 T vinegar

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

2 T agave

1 carrot shredded

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 cup shredded onion

8 oz bag of shredded cabbage

Directions: In a bowl combine the cabbage, carrots, onion and cilantro. In a food processor add the avocado. mayonnaise, chipotle, vinegar, agave and cumin. Pulse until the avocado is completely mixed in with everything else. Add the dressing to the cabbage mixture till it is all covered (you may or may not want to use all of the dressing).

For the wrap: For this wrap I used sliced turkey, sliced avocado, onions and lots of the cole slaw. I also added extra cilantro to my wrap.

Finally I made the pine nut rosemary spread....

Rosemary and thyme pine nut spread

Ingredients:

1 cup pine nuts

1/4 cup raw almonds

1/4 cup walnuts

1 T tahini

1 T vinegar

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp dried thyme

1 clove garlic

3-4 T water

1 T olive oil

salt to taste

Directions: combine everything in a food processor. Keep the processor going till you get a smooth paste (a minute or two).

For the wrap: For this wrap I used turkey and salami, a thick layer of the spread, spinach, onions and bell peppers. This one is my personal favorite!

Pretty Little Things...

These pictures make me excited for summer. Tea parties outside, riding bikes, camping, picking berries, sleeping in, and wearing dresses. I think I might love everything about summer...

Photos via Alice B. Gardens

Wandering

via

Today I wandered around town with no set destination. I ended up spending time in an antique store and a wonderful used book store. I was amazed by how inexpensive the used books were. Why would I ever buy new? Not only were they inexpensive, they were also beautiful old hardbacks. They even had the old book spell. My adventures from this afternoon reminded me how much I love old things.

Here are some other beautiful antiques that I've been eyeing.

1940's bracelet via

Japanese tea set via

1950's necklace via

I really want this 1960's nightie!

Cheeseless Pizza

The other day I had a passive craving for pizza. Obviously that is kinda a sucky thing to crave when you can't eat gluten, yeast or cheese. However, I came up with this cheeseless pizza with a glutan free, yeast free crust and it satisfied my craving. ;)




I am still not completely happy with how the gluten free crust turned out, so I will not post the recipe. However, I did enjoy this pizza very much and i didn't even miss the cheese! The secret is to load it with sauce, veggies, olives, herbs and sausage! Before I cooked the pizza I thought I had put way too much on it, but the veggies cook down a lot. Moral of the story: don't be afraid to load the pizza with toppings. There is no such thing as too much!

On mine I put: onions, garlic, broccoli, bell peppers, mushrooms, spinach, olives, pepperoncinis and sausage!

Daydreams

I got an Anthropologie catalogue in the mail today. These are some of the beautiful things that caught my eye.

I am in love with this comforter. It is so beautiful and cozy looking.

I have been wanting to plant some tomatoes out on my deck. This would be a perfect pot.

I have no words to describe how much I love this hammock.

This is a shower curtain! Isn't that amazing?!

Lettuce sandwich

This simple yet delicious lunch is perfect for warn spring day like today.

Ingredients

2 large romaine lettuce leaves

4 slices of turkey or chicken meat

1/2 avocado

sliced onion

sliced bell pepper

4 basil leaves

mayonnaise

dried oregano

dried thyme

For the dressing

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 garlic clove smashed

salt and pepper to taste

Fold the slices or meat and place two on each lettuce leaf one above the other, but overlapping a bit. Spread the mayonnaise over the meat. Put on the slices of avocados, onion and bell pepper. Mix up the dressing and sprinkle it on ( it is not necessary to use all of the dressing). Top the sandwich off with some sprinkles of oregano and thyme and some whole basil leaves.

Rain rain go away

When it's rainy and cold out all I want to do is curl up with a good book and drink tea. I loved these teapots I found on Plumo. They are all so beautiful.

As kingfishers catch fire...

Red Bird by Swan Papel

"As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Dragonflies Dráw Fláme"

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:	5
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.
Í say móre: the just man justices;
Kéeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces;	10
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Chríst—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

When I studied this poem in school last year, it was the poem I had the hardest time understanding. Ironically it has since become one of my all time favorite poems. Although it is still very difficult for me to understand, I can’t help but love the idea that every object and creature in the universe has a purpose to live out ("finds tongue to fling out broad its name"). Each and every being in the universe ‘selves,’ or enacts its identity. Hopkins idea of inscape represents this divide and unique individual identity that each and every creature possesses. Inside of each of us, our inscape is crying out "Whát I do is me: for that I came." That is beautiful.

Lilacs

Today someone left a jar of lilacs on my porch. I love lilacs. As I sat at my computer trying to focus on my torturously difficult chemistry homework, I was distracted by pleasant smells coming to me from that jar of flowers. Instead of burdening my mind with more quantitative nonsense (it hurts my brain even to talk about it), I thought I'd blog about this lovely jar of flowers. In all honesty I'd probably find a reason to blog about anything if it meant taking a break from homework.

Lovely little things

{via Alicia Bock photography}

I think these pictures are beautiful. I want to be in all of these places...at once. That would be nice.

A family of deer welcomed me home from school today

These three deer were munching on grass in my yard when I pulled into my driveway today. I see deer everyday, but this little family (minus pops) was especially adorable.