Adventures with Coconut Flour....PIZZA!!!

We've been dipping our toe in the recipe pool of gluten free -- Specifically using coconut flour.
My guy is eating a full on ketogenic diet these days so in order for him to have anything resembling a carb we've been cooking with coconut flour. So far he's perfected coconut pancakes and we've made coconut flour cupcakes with a delicious cream cheese frosting but he's been craving the savory taste of bread with cheesy goodness in the form of PIZZA! So I found what looked like a simple enough recipe online and luckily we had all of the ingredients http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/index.cfm/2010/1/15/herbed-gluten-free-coconut-flour-pizza-crust

I liked that the use of herbs in the dough overpowers any sweetness from the coconut flour so you can really embrace the savory tastes of the dish. The only issue was flipping the dough at 10 minutes in as it sticks to the parchment paper, but he figured out that by icing the opposite side of the paper for a moment it helped to release the dough on the other side.
We topped ours with a mix of alfredo and tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and our favorite Salami from whole foods (wine & garlic, non-nitrate). I may have thrown some marinated artichoke hearts on mine because I'm an addict but that's another post. They were super delicious and satisfying as was having company in the kitchen for me. Cooking & shopping together for new ingredients has been so rewarding for me. I love anything that we can do together!!

Rainy day perfection

I love a rainy weekend, especially a rainy Sunday like yesterday. When I wake up to the sound of rain a romance washes over me that fills me with sepia toned ideas for snuggling away the day. First a delicious breakfast made together, sipping  teas while watching TV all snugged up on the couch with blankets & cats. Then I skipped off to do a little rainy day shopping with my mom, found a cute new lunch spot then back home to my babe. Grocery shopping together, which for us is fun. We like to pick out healthy tasty treats for the week including a yummy new unsweetened cocoa powder that we warmed up with coconut milk, stevia, vanilla, cinnamon and topped with homemade whipped cream. Such a Delicious rainy weekend treat.
I painted the bedroom a gorgeous shade of grey while he hung with some friends and shot some rainy & random YouTube vids.
Then back on the couch for Mad Men and homemade chicken veggie soup. It's been 17 months since the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce graced us with their presence and it was good to have them back.

The only thing better than Sunday was our Saturday night but some days and dates are meant to be private;)

Don't take a cheat!

I was reminded the other night while watching Smash just how much people cheating makes me uncomfortable. I always skip to the end of the scene when its on.
I wasn't always like this, I could watch it and shit I could even do it but once I learned my lesson you could say that lesson was my new moral code.
My husband is the same way and I love that about us. We don't like movies centered around cheating -- Unfaithful, no thanks. It makes us both squirmy and sick. We are not puritanical people by any means, not religious at all really but we both hold a strong belief that it is not how we are going out.
Seriously, been there -- yuck that, so not for me.

5 loves.

~ the thoughts, smile and sound of Maya Angelou
~ this season -- the food, sounds of holidays songs, family gatherings, thoughfulness we show eachother, cold evenings cuddled up close.
~ my husband. his touch, sound, smell, laugh and spirit.
~ voices of florence & the machine, mumford & sons, and adele who all play my heartstrings
~ the human spirit. our ability to rise & fall and rise again. to create, love, forgive, see beyond the bleakness and soar with hope and conviction.

Loves List

I wrote this for Chadd before the wedding. I love all the little quirks about us that make an US. We all have our idiot-synchrosis and to truly love Chadd is to honor his and love him deeper because of them. Just like he does with my many...





He’s obsessed with climbing and jumping
She has to read in bed with her cat for 30 mins after work to properly calm down
He needs double cheese on anything he eats that’s cheesy
She likes cheese too
He use to say two-apart because of together
She smothers her lips in anything creamy than licks it off
He prefers baths
She only washes her hair 2 times and week and is terrible at it
On her birthday and Valentines Day he washes it for her
She made him watch all the sex and the cities
He finally admitted he likes them
They don’t like watching anything with people cheating on their partner
He wishes he could have two a day sex sessions with her
She has him on a semi-sex schedule
He always cleans the hair out of the drains
She packs his bags for him
They are obsessed with their cats
He doesn’t read but likes to have books of things that interest him
She has a random hair that grows on her chest and is having it lasered
If he farts around her he makes her promise to hold her breath
One time she pooped with the door open when he was home
He was a virgin
She kissed him first
He can’t get enough
She loves him so much that she cries
He bought her the perfect ring
She pestered him until he surprised her with it
He combs his hair slick back after washing it
She only washes her armpits, girly parts and face in the shower
He has a little tooth
She only looks good in pictures when she's smiling
He looks like superman
She always wanted to be famous
He can do the robot better than anyone
She cares what other people think
He could care less
She loves the color pink but only certain shades
Red’s been his favorite color his whole life
She goes to boot camp for exercise because she’s too lazy to workout herself
He likes martial arts
She isn’t overweight but still thinks she’s fat
His ears don’t have lobes
She sings to any song she knows trying to prove she can sing
He lies to her and says she’s good even though she’s tone deaf
She needs a lot of adoration
He gives her anything she needs
She wants to hide in a closet when she’s sad
He makes the bed every day for her
She relies on him to plan their future but has opinions about everything
He lets her think she’s in control
She doesn’t swallow
He says he doesn’t care
She sleeps on her stomach
He sleeps on his back but wants to sleep on his stomach
They are desperately in love
She’s going to take his last name even though she hates it
He’s not offended but wants her to take it anyways
She can only eat her meat well done but orders is med well and always sends it back
He wants to walk outside without shoes on
Sometimes she lets him but rarely
He’s going to high jump again
She’s so proud that he chose her
They both love cleaning their ears
He runs the bath for her if she wants a bath
But she runs it for him too
Candles = romance
Kissing is their favorite
He hates when she sticks her tongue in his mouth out of the blue
She likes red wine
He likes white and tries to get her drunk
They talk in baby talk together
They are getting married in 38 days

jamesandkati.com

It's so so sad. I can't stop thinking about the family that got lost in Oregon in the snow for 2 weeks, stuck in their car. They were on the right path in life. A happy family from San Fran. Both with successful careers and two daughters. From the photographs you can see that they cherished them so much. Then they literally take the wrong path and now the father is dead and their world is a nightmare. They missed their turn off to I5 while driving home down the coast and they got stuck in the snow. After 9 days the dad, James, left his family to try for help. The family was rescued without him 2 days later and then yesterday he was found dead from hypothermia about a mile away from the car.
I can only imagine the heartache Kati feels right now and it makes me so sad for the future they had in their grasp and will never be. It brings out my fears of this happening to me someday. I'm sure Kati is a strong women who will raise her little girls with family support the way James would have wanted her too and I'm sure thier daughter will sort of remember him but they won't know him and there's such a vast difference.
One of my friends dad drowned in Italy while the family was on vacation when she was 12 and I know there is a sadness in her soul that will never go away. Her mom never remarried or even dates really. She's commited herself to being a mom and that's her purpose now.

It's so hard to find a mate that fits you in the first place. How can you ever find another when the bar is set so high. I guess my bars been set at Chadd's best highjump, 6'10'' and there aren't many men out there that can beat it. I hope I never have to look.

God bless you Kati.

loves bandaid

If I were there right now I would be looking around anxiously for a doctor while squeezing your hand. I’d hum to you and pat your back to a soothing rhythm. I would speak on your behalf and ask all the questions I could think of, if I were there. You’d look in my eyes and be so pathetic that my heart would tear and I’d say “if I could be the one in pain and take it away from you I would”, even though we both know I’m a huge puss and couldn’t handle what you are going through now and what you’ve always gone through. Right now I need to see your pain and hold you because speculating while sitting at work is killing me. Has the doctor seen you or are you still sitting there in agony? Don't understand that you need to be fixed? I would kiss it and make you better if I could. I’m sorry you didn’t sleep at all last night and that I did. I didn’t know you were up. Next time tell me and I’ll be there on the couch with you. Grouching together is better than alone. I love you.

Before Chadd

I briefly went to christian church when I was in high school. I liked the sense of community, the songs and mostly the boys. Well boy actually. Jesse was the first guy I ever really fell for and I hate to sound shallow but he was just so pretty (he was also on house arrest for stealing a car). He sorta broke my heart after 6 months of dating. If you asked him, I'm sure the split had to do with the fact that I wouldn't sleep with him. As for what I'm now attracted too, I've kept the pretty part but upgraded bad boy for nice boy and have semi learned my lesson in the 10-ish years since then which I now refer to as the BC years. This had nothing to do with church days or what jesus would do but everything to do with Chadd. BC = Before Chadd. Before I knew what I really wanted or rather before Chadd showed me.

There were a two others in the BC years. There was the mostly good guy who was just not the right guy for me and then there was the asshole. Say it with me ladies, ASSHOLE. We've all had one. One we thought we could fix. Make nice. But you can't and it's a good thing because who wants to be a school teacher/detective all their live long days just to prove to themselves that THEY could do it. I'm so glad over that one quick!

I've learned in these last two and a half blissful years of AC what a good relationship should be. It should be Chaigha. Chadd + Leigha = Chaigha. That explains everything to me. from the time we met it was real. He played with my hair while I lay on his lap watching movies. This was before we ever touched lips but it was just as intimate if not more because it wasn't driven by blood flow. It was sweet and honest and safe. When Chadd and I met I needed safe and slow. He became everything to me, Still is. I love him from my core so much that we truly become Chaigha. To us, it's a state of mind. It's forming a life together and living it with eachother in mind, always. It means Chadd wearing an engagement ring as well by his own choice because he too wants everyone to know he's fianced as well as I. He loves my family and I his. It's all one family now.

And the best thing is that the BC's no longer matter because I have everything in a mate that I always wanted NOW. At at 28 I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.