Monday Monday~

I have been absent from my blog a lot lately.

I have no real explanation for this other then my chronic pain. Sometimes the pain is so intense that thinking beyond the pain is to much to ask. Some days I am at my best to tolerate myself let alone putting anything together to share with the world.

I woke up a week ago with my neck so wrenched that I could not turn to the right at all. The muscles were all spasming and it stayed that way for nearly a week. Nothing helped. Not massage, not ice, not heat, not stretching. It took a combination of all these things and a whole lot of resting to get my neck better. Its still not 100% better but it is getting there.

So how do you treat this kind of pain? Do you reach for a bottle and hope it helps? do you curl up into the fetal position and wish for death? Do tell.

Over the weekend I found someone selling about 3 yards of fabric that I just love for the dining room chairs. I paid 3.00 for it! A dollar a yard for fabric! It had to be washed twice because the person smoked but a vinegar rinse and two washes on the gentle cycle (because its got raw edges) did the trick.

I love the fabric and am hoping that it matches what I have for curtains already because if not I will be forced to sew some other curtains to match the chair fabric.

I also took some fun pictures of the moon last night with my camera.

All week last week I was visited by this beautiful Butterfly. I got pictures of it on a few different days.

I think this concludes my week and weekend. I am looking forward to getting back to my blog and sharing here. Lets hope that my body cooperates with me.

Happy Birthday~

Today is the love of my lifes Birthday. It is also my Brother in Law's birthday. They share their birthday, which is odd to most people and just fun for us.

Today we will do little things around the house and just try to relax. We will enjoy time off together and I will bake him a cake, or a pie (he hasn't decided which yet) And his favorite meal. Then we will sit down together and enjoy.

Having the weekend off is a rare treat because he has been working so much that he has not had much time off.

Up in just over a month we have the birthday of my youngest son and then in October is my oldest's and we are finished for the year.

I will come back and post pictures of whatever delicious creation I come up with for his birthday celebration.

Hawaiian Sweet Potato Salad

This potato salad is done without a mayo dressing, but instead uses a cilantro lime dressing. This picture shows the salad done with the Orange fleshed Sweet potato because we could not find any Yellow fleshed sweet potato's. The biggest problem with this is that the Orange flesh is sweeter. It changes the flavor slightly. The other issue is that the Orange fleshed sweet potato is softer.

Here is a picture that shoes the difference.

Yellow Fleshed Sweet Potato      Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato

I don't have step by step photos because my husband prefers to not be photographed when hes cooking.

Dressing~
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
4 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 clove garlic minced

whisk together the mustard, lime juice cilantro and garlic. Slowly streem in oil whisking constantly. stir in salt and pepper. let sit while you finish the salad.

Now you can choose to cook your sweet potatoes any way you choose but we prefer them to be oven roasted. For this you will place your sweet potatoes on a cookie sheet (this is strongly suggested unless you enjoy cleaning your oven) and roast them in a 425* oven for 30-45 minutes depending on the size of your potatoes. We usually do 4 small to medium potatoes.

Once the potatoes are cooled peel the skin off and chop them into medium sized chunks.

Salad~
3-4 medium sized sweet potatoes (of the yellow fleshed variety if you can find them)
1 cucumber
1/2 red onion
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Peel the cucumber and slice it lengthwise, remove the seeds and thinly slice. Thinly slice the onion (we have used a variety of onions our favorite is actually the vidallia onions), chop macadamia nuts and lightly toss all ingredients with the dressing. Refrigerate and enjoy chilled.

I love this at a summer picnic because you dont have to worry about it getting warm.

The Weekend

For the weekend of the 4th of July my Sister from another mother came to visit. She is not my blood but a sister none the less. Her mother passed away just a month ago and We really needed to hug one another. So she came, and we talked all night, laughed and cried, and drank wine.

Me on the left, her on the right. 

We got together with my neighbors and had this wonderful bbq outside. It rained but we enjoyed how it cooled the air off. We were under the giant tent anyways so neither us or the food got wet. (much)

There I am way at the end of the table.

We were enjoying the dessert. Some of us had the cake I made and others had strawberry short cake with biscuits (is this a southern thing or do people everywhere except California eat strawberry short cake with biscuits?) My cake was delightful, and healthy, well as healthy as a cake can be!

4th of July Cake

And just to top off the day I will share my recipe with you all.
~Cake~
(I found the recipe in an old betty crocker cook book and modified it)
1 cup sugar

3/4 cup honey

2/3 cup butter

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup vanilla flax milk

bake in 2 bundt cake pans (one smaller then the other) for 35 minutes at 350*
Mix dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Cream butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs together. alternately add dry mix to wet with milk. Do not over mix. Grease and flour bundt cake pans and divide batter into each.

~Frosting~
2 packages low fat cream cheese

1 8oz jar of marshmallow cream

Soften cream cheese and blend until smooth then stir in the marshmallow cream and stir again until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use. I also will use this to just dip fresh strawberries in. It is sweet and creamy. I got this recipe from my wonderful Mother in law, we used to use it to eat our strawberries with in the summer when I lived down the street, except she used one package of cream cheese to one 8oz jar. I like the extra cream cheese.

Strawberries and Blueberries top off the cake. I sliced my strawberries and added the blueberries at the end. I only added 1 tsp of sugar for the whole bowl because I did not want to much "juice" in the bowel, just enough to coat the berries.

I also made pasta salad, and my husband made Hawaiian Sweet Potato Salad, and we made bbq chicken.