December 16, 2017

38 brought me Star Wars, shopping, dinner with friends, and a cake bigger than my head.

I’ll take it!

Low Carb Strawberry Parfaits

This dessert is delicious, low carb and light – aaaand it also tastes fancy because of the fresh fruit and different textures.

It’s also, as it turns out, dead simple to make and quick to set up.

Gluten-free, primal, keto

Low Carb Strawberry Parfaits

1 package sugar free strawberry jello
1 cup boiling water
8 ounces softened cream cheese
Juice of half a lemon
1/4 cup almond flour, almond meal or ground almonds
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1/4 cup almond slivers or shaved almonds
12 fresh strawberries

First, make your jello by whisking the jello powder into the hot water until fully dissolved. Let sit 2 minutes. Full disclosure: I screwed this part up and had lumpy jello, so I slapped the whole mixing cup I was using back into the microwave for another minute or so, whisked the crap out of the mixture and crushed all the lumps I could with the back of a spoon. The result was mostly not-lumpy jello. 

When your jello has rested, add to the cream cheese and beat with electric beaters – or do things the hard way. I was already looking at grating my own cheese and wasn’t trying to exhaust myself by 8:30 am on Thanksgiving morning. #delicateflowerproblems

Spread into a metal or glass pan kinda evenly and let chill for an hour or two.

While the fluff is chilling, toast your almond slivers and make a simple buttery almond crumble by combining the butter and almond flour and baking (I think I baked at roughly 220C which is what I seem to bake everything at because I think it’s like 375F) for 5 – 10 minutes or until the mixture is golden and kinda looks like a cookie.

To serve, put a little crumble into the bottom of a teacup or glass, top with a sliced strawberry, a scoop of fluff, almonds, more fluff and more almonds – garnish with a second strawberry.

Makes 6 teacup sized portions

December 15, 2017

When you’re annoyed with your day filled with first world expat problems, duck breast & cauliflower cooked in duck fat makes it less traumatizing.

December 14, 2017

Holiday ram

December 13, 2017

Holiday lunching.

December 12, 2017

December 11, 2017

Not a strict POD today – I ran my Instagram handle through a site called best nine, and these were my top 9 (likes-wise) posts:

We’ve got (from top left)

1 – Dali art on a door in I believe lower Manhattan somewhere

2 – A shot I took while on a nice warm walk – also in lower Manhattan

3 – The ceiling from baby Madison Square Garden where I saw a UFC fight – I think on New Years Day

4 – Street art in SoHo

5 – The Staten Island Ferry

6 – More door art – probably in the Lower East Side (Manhattan)

7 – A random street scene in NYC (I think SoHo?)

8 – The Pearl as you pull into the harbor

9 – The window shades of a Karak cafe in The Pearl

Add a shot of Brooklyn, and it would be a timeline of my year.

December 10, 2017

If this wasn’t a black & white shot for a Facebook challenge, you’d be able to see the purple in my mug – yep. It made the move. 12 years and still going strong!

December 9, 2017

Mall Birthday spectacular

December 8, 2017

*insert Kermit flail gif here*

It’s 62! We may die! ❄️❄️❄️❄️💀💀