Year End 2017

Son K gave this box of Ferrero chocolates to his sister for Christmas, it is a special release box.

Happy New Year when it comes!

Snow and Cold

It's been snowing a lot around here and bitterly cold (-13c or 8.6F). It helps when the sun comes out. I took these photos on Christmas Eve, when I met my friend S for a walk.

Paint Party Friday - Snowing

Welcome to Paint Party Friday, thanks to Eva and Kristin for always faithfully hosting, so much appreciated. I wanted to do a mountain sunrise and got the idea to make it snow. This is an ACEO, acrylic on canvas (2 1/2" x 3 1/2").

Portuguese Blood Sausage

I wanted to share my recent cooking adventure with you. This Portuguese blood sausage was clearing at the supermarket and it's something I've wanted to try. After some googling, I discovered it was pre-cooked and just needed warming up in a pan. I cut the sausage into roughly half inch slices, removed the skin and pan fried with onions for about 3-4 minutes on each side. It tasted like a smoked pate and was pretty good with crackers. You can see the list of ingredients in one of the photos above.  It's a good dish if you need more iron.

Cronut

My brother and his family were recently visiting Los Angeles and stopped by this mall where they bought these cronuts. He says they were so delicious with creme in the middle. They were from the Dominique Ansel Bakery, recommended by Yelp. A cronut is 'a hybrid doughnut and croissant'.

I would love to try this, I'd also like to try a beignet from New Orleans one of these days.

Diabetic Banana Pancakes

I had some overripe bananas and needed a diabetic friendly recipe for them. This flourless banana cake recipe was perfect for what I had in mind. Here is my version:

3 ripe bananas, peeled
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
canola oil
1 tbs butter

Whisk eggs, add to bananas in a mixing bowl and mash with baking powder, vanilla and nutmeg. Heat oil and butter, add pancakes in 1/4 cup measures and they are done when they are golden brown on both sides. This makes about 7 pancakes.  There are about 9 carbs per pancake.

Merry Christmas 2017

Hope your Christmas Day is warm and wonderful! Best wishes from my family to yours.  It snowed last night so we do have a white Christmas.