Rain, Rain

Today, it rained. Wonderful, glorious beautiful rain, on and off and very heavy for at least an hour or more.

It's been an interesting summer, being in a drought and all. Especially with working at the museum, where I'm much more connected to the earth, and really notice the effects of the weather. Brown, crunchy grass; crops not growing; deer eating anything that is watered; real and true threat from fires.

I've been feeling a bit like I'm living Sarah, Plain and Tall - Skylark. Although I haven't seen that movie in a while, I distinctly remember their desperation for rain and joyous thankfulness when it finally came.

So, in lieu of pictures of today's rain (since my phone camera is kinda pathetic and wouldn't do it justice), I've complied a few of my favorite rain pictures!

 E. H. Shephard

 Rain In The Oak Grove - Ivan Shishkan

 Rain's Rustle - Leonid Afremov

And, because chocolate makes even the best things better.....chocolate chip cookies tonight! This was a last minute recipe choice, after realizing I only had coconut flour, and not almond flour. They are delicious! Yup...there's one missing on that tray =)

Summer Nights

Amazing, breath-taking sunsets in Penn Yan.

"...Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice." - Psalm 65:8b.

Peach muffins and a berry pie for an Independence Day Picnic. Forgot to take pictures, but here are the recipes!
http://cookeatpaleo.com/peach-paleo-muffins/

I used this recipe for the pie, substituting tapioca flour and coconut sugar:
http://tiphero.com/old-glory-berry-pie/

Here's the pie crust - definitely not the flaky, golden crust I'm used to, but still a delicious crust!
https://elanaspantry.com/paleo-pie-crust/

Batavia Muckdogs and a picnic with Stephen's co-workers.

When it's been a terribly hot day full of house-cleaning and sweaty chores, you kick back with a cookie dough milk shake and a favorite movie.

Praying for rain, but it just won't come.........

No More Training Wheels

I started this whole diet-change journey by doing the Whole30. Totally changing your diet can be really overwhelming, so I was incredibly thankful to find that there was a very detailed, here's-everything-you-need-to-know book written just for Whole30. That book was definitely the "training wheels" for my foodie-bike. I could find any meat or vegetable recipe, and they had suggestions for what other recipes to pair it with in order to make it a full meal. Hey presto, a super delicious meal plan, all ready to go.

But, there are only so many recipes in that book; as good as they are, I still need more variety. So, the last few weeks I've begun expanding my horizans and searching for more recipes (thank you, Pinterest!) This week, I really feel like I have been able to shed the training wheels and meal plan all on my own; finding new recipes, combining them with Whole30 recipes, lots of mixing and matching. So, here are some of my meals:

Breakfast this week has been egg burritos. I found a new recipes for paleo flatbread, combined it with an egg, bacon, and veggie filling I had used in the past, and added avocado mayonaise from the Whole30 book. Yum yum! The flatbread was way too salty, but otherwise great! They were a little too small to actually wrap the filling in them, so I opted for open-faced, but it was still nice to have something "bready" to make it more like a burrito than just scrambled eggs.

Lunch this week was meatloaf muffins with sweet potato "frosting" and roasted broccoli. The meatloaf muffins were super tasty, and I loved how quickly they cooked! I'm not sure if I would put the effort into topping them with the sweet potato if I was storing it for lunches again (especially since I had extra sweet potato that just got lumped on the side anyways), but it would be fun if you were serving them that day. The roasted broccoli was a staple from the Whole30 book.

My first dinner for the week was chili-lime chicken, paired with grilled pineapple and roasted peppers and onions from Whole30. I was afraid that this chicken was going to be too spicy, but it was just perfect! I've really grown fond of lime recently.

Mmhmm....and people think I can't eat anything ;-)

The View From Where I Sit

Anniversary Date to Aladdin's Natural Eatery in Pittsford.

My rooster Buddy at Hetchler.

Livingston Gardens - my favorite peaceful place. 

A nice bound edge is a beautiful thing, especially when it means you're almost done with a very, very, very time-consuming project!

The Seminary blackboard, with a lesson on spelling.

The Wardian Case and the sensitive plant - such a fun teaching point with kids.

Wegmans

Or, as Stephen and I fondly call it - WEGUHMINS!!!! Yeah, we get kinda silly and excited when we see or even just talk about Wegmans. I've always known that I loved Wegmans. Back when I could eat everything, it was amazing just because it had great food, great options, great prices, and a great store.

But, since restricting my diet, my love for Wegmans has grown in leaps and bounds. They have consistently had every crazy, weird, I-can't-believe-I'm-eating-this food item that I've needed, and at better prices than anywhere else. And they stock Whole-30 approved (read: sugar-free) bacon. This changed my life. Seriously, you try looking for sugar-free bacon, and you'll understand pretty quickly.

Wegmans has become my foodie-safe-place. My I-know-I-can-find-something-to-eat place. My save-money-and-eat-well place.

Most recently, Wegmans became my save-the-anniversary-date place. Because when the ONE restaurant that has a dessert you can eat is randomly closed with out warning, it's a big deal. Like, I legitimately almost started crying over it.

Wegmans to the rescue with coconut-milk ice cream!!!

Guys, it was SO GOOD. It tasted like a super chocolatey coconut macaroon, in ice cream form. And the texture was perfect. In fact, it was so good that Mr. I Can't Live Without Dairy kept trying to steal it from me, even though he had his very own pint of Ben and Jerry's Coffee Toffee Chunk ice cream.

Yeah, it was that good.

So, thank you Wegmans for saving our date night and making me fall in love with you all over again!

A Fresh Start

This poor blog has been so neglected; this past week I was inspired with a way to bring it back to life. It'll require some honesty on my part, and I'm not terribly great at sharing personal struggles. But I think this is important.

This year has been a crazy one for me health-wise. Long story short, after months full of doctors, my own research, experimenting with my diet, and wisdom from others, I find myself dealing with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. For those unfamiliar with IBS, it basically means that my stomach is damaged, and therefore very sensitive, and it needs to heal.

What this means is no dairy, grains, or legumes, and limited sugar for an indefinite amount of time. I've been doing it for a while now, and it has been so good for me! Even though I'm still not healed, I have expanded my cooking skills and food horizons and I'm eating such delicious food now.

But still......this means I can't go out to eat just anywhere. It means I can't count on there being food I can eat at a party or a picnic. It means I have to bring my own food, to pretty much everything. And that's hard. So, that's why I wanted to start this blog.

First, I hope to be able to help others. A BIG reason why I've been able to do this as easily as I have is that so many others have done it before me. I basically just have to search for a paleo version of whatever I'm craving, and someone out there has figured it out. Others have lived on a restricted diet, and even flourished, and so I can, too. So hopefully this blog will encourage others that they can do it, too! I hope it encourages YOU. To take charge of your health. Or to find the joy in your trial. Or even just to try a new recipe today.

But also, this is for me. I want this to be a place and reason to celebrate. To celebrate all the yummy things I CAN eat. To find joy in things that make me happy. Thus the name - looking for the gold lining. By the way - did you know that in Sweden their clouds have GOLD linings instead of just silver linings? I think the rest of the world is selling themselves short by only looking for silver linings.

Most of the time, please don't expect tons of writing. I've finally accepted the fact that I like lots of pictures with minimal writing. And it won't be a cooking blog. But, I do want to share recipes that I've tried, and new amazing foods, and all things that make me happy!

So, if you're back after my two-year hiatus, or even if you're new and you've read this far, thanks for sticking around. Let's make this a gold-filled life!

Sunflowers For All

My friend Michaela tagged me for the Sunflower Blog Award. I haven't blogged on here in quite a while, and I thought this would be a fun way to get back in the swing of things. So, here goes. First, 11 random fact about myself.

#1 - I really dislike writing with pencils. And most pens for that matter. My favorite kind of pens to write with are gel pens. I guess because it's the most similar to writing with a nib pen and a bottle of ink.

#2 - I love acorns. In fact, I've been a bit hoardishly collecting them this fall. No worries, I DO have plans to do something with them.

#3 - My favorite mug right now is one I got from my brother last Christmas; it was made somewhere in Africa (I think?) and it has a little fish on the inside. That fish is just darling!

#4 - I really love books written by E.D.E.N. Southworth. Good, thrilling, 19th-century novels! The Hidden Hand, Ishmael, and Self-raised are three of my favorites.

#5 - I also have a love a dictionaries. I don't often go in them (ah, the convenience of Google), but big books full of words just make me happy!

#6 - I have always been enchanted with Winnie the Pooh. In fact, I still have a little Tigger plush next to my bed, and two of my favorite gifts from Stephen a few years ago were vintage copies of Winnie The Pooh and The House at Pooh Corners.

#7 - I have a love-hate relationship with roosters. I LOVE decorations with roosters on them (well, most of them....some are just tacky). But, I've learned that REAL roosters can be awfully frustrating - especially the one at work that is constantly escaping the coop.

#8 - I got to play the character of Pretzel Gretel at work last weekend. I even dressed as a pretzel! A light brown under skirt for the soft, chewy inside. A dark brown looped up into by belt for the crunchy, twisty outside. A yellow neck-scarf for the mustard, and a white head-scarf for the salt! Oh, and I twisted by hair into a pretzel bun in the back.

#9 - I have a really hard time throwing away fabric. You just never know when you might need that random piece! But, I've found a good system for keeping at least my scrap stash under decent control. Anything that is big enough to cut out pieces for quilts is an instant keep. Anything smaller gets cut into 1/2 strips for making rag rugs. Anything too small for that I can throw out without hesitation, because there really isn't much more to be done with it.

#10 - I take pictures of and dry a few flowers from every bouquet that Stephen gives me. It's just a tradition that I started the first time he gave me flowers, and I've kept it up ever since. Someday I hope to do something with all those dried flowers and pictures.

#11 - Last year, I found somewhere between ten and fifteen four-leaf clovers at work. This year - none. Oh well, I guess that much luck in one year covers me for the next few years.

Now, 11 questions from Michaela!

What is something you’ve collected over the years?
 Snapple bottles! I really love glass bottles, and Snapples were always a special treat from Stephen. I think I have close to 30 now.


What is one dream, whether big or little, that you’ve had? 
 To own a hobby farm. I love the idea of growing a lot of fruits and vegetables, and I would also like to own chickens, goats, and maybe pigs and alpacas.

What is your favorite poem? 
That's hard. I'm sure there are quite a few that I loved when I read them, but I'm not very good at remembering them. I guess the ones that really stick out are the ones from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. So many lovely, ridiculous poems.

What is a piece of wise advice that your parents have given you?
It's hard to pin-point it down to one, but here's one that comes to mind right now. You're not always going to FEEL ready to do new things or move onto new times of life, but sometimes you just have to do it even if you're terrified, and you'll learn as you go! 


Are you named after anyone in your family tree?
No; I was supposed to be, but my name is still just as special. See, right before I was born, my dad went to Arizona for a job. The couple he stayed with were Allison and Staci. He came home and told my mom that he wanted to name me after them!

Would you consider using any of your ancestors’ names for your children? 
I might. I want to use the name Clara, and I'm pretty sure that's a family name.

Pepsi or Coke?
Neither. The only sodas that I like are root beer, mountain dew, and sprite. But mostly root beer.


Who is one of your heroes from the past?
 This is also a hard question. I was always very interested in Corrie ten Boom. But, I tend to move from person to person; I learn all about one person, and then I'm ready to move onto a new one.

What state would you most want to visit?
Texas? I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about it, and I want to see it for myself. But honestly, I think all the states have something awesome in them, so I would say states where my friends are!

If you could live in a world from a book what would it be?
 Narnia! Or, does England count as a "world"? A lot of my favorite books are set in England. It would also be fun to visit Wonderland, but I think I would go bonkers if I had to live there.

What is your favorite Bible verse?
Two of my favorite passages are Psalm 27:13-14 and Romans 4:18-21. But there are so many more!


Lastly, 11 questions for anyone who wants to join in on the fun.

#1 - What is one book that you would recommend everyone reads?
#2 - Which piece of clothing that you own is your favorite, and why?
#3 - Do you play an instrument?
#4 - What is your favorite household chore?
#5 - What is one of your favorite hobbies?
#6 - Do you prefer plain colored or patterned socks?
#7 - If you were to re-do your bedroom, what colors/theme would you choose?
#8 - If you could have anything you wanted for dinner and dessert tonight, what would you pick?
#9 - What is your favorite ride at an amusement park?
#10 - What is one of your favorite movies?
#11 - If you could instantly be fluent in any language, which would you choose?

If you do choose to participate, please leave a comment with the link to your blog so that I can see your answers, too! Have fun, everybody!