We're moving! (The blog, that is...)

After Google announced yesterday that it was going to run over all it's users by collecting all their data, with no opt outs, I made the decision to quit using Blogger/Blogspot and Google+ (not that I ever actually used Google+, but I had an account). To that end, I'm transitioning this blog, and the Ten Eighteen blog to Wordpress here and Wordpress here. I hope you'll follow me over, and excuse some "under construction" learning curves as they pop up.

I hope to move some of the more popular posts over to the new blog, which will show up as new posts, I guess... but it'll give you a chance to check them out again.

Thanks for coming by! See you at the new View.

I have a dilemma...

It's not really "my" dilemma, because it doesn't actually require much action on my part. It's probably more in the category of "things that make you go hmmm". (Who was that? Arsenio Hall? What happened to him, anyway?)

Here's the thing. I enjoy cooking shows and blogs. I read The Pioneer Woman's blog, and thoroughly enjoy it. I have watched some of her Food Network shows. Same for Iron Chef and Chopped and Next Iron Chef and Cupcake Wars. I'm not a big fan of Paula Deen, but I have occasionally watched The Barefoot Contessa. Watching these shows isn't my problem. It's the way they all cook.

Home from the farmers market... wowzers, look at those colors!

Now I know it's all delicious. Duh. Butter. Cream. More butter. Cups of sugar. What's not to like? But knowing all the information I do about health and food and saturated fat, I can't do it. I can't take one of their recipes and make it as it's written. Even if I really, really want to, I just can't. It's the same thing that happened after I discovered the ridiculous calories that the hard shell of chocolate added to my dipped Dairy Queen cone. I go to Dairy Queen, I've had a great week of nutrition and exercise, and I start to order... and I can't do it. Ask my kids - they think I'm nuts. Ignorance was, truly, bliss.

I have a little bit of an issue with Paula Deen's keeping her diabetes to herself while hawking her mo' butter recipes, but hey, no one makes people cook that way. It just seems like an odd thing, I guess. 

Oh my, lobster! And yes, we did have butter with that beauty!

The good news is, after many years of cooking lighter and healthier, I can convert almost any recipe to a more healthy version. Sure, I use butter. Just less of it, and use healthier canola or olive oil, or fruit puree. I know sometimes you need half and half, so I use the fat free version. Light sour cream. Light cream cheese. 1% milk. Lowfat buttermilk. 2% cheese. Lean proteins. When I make veggies I put a little good Irish butter in at the very end, which adds tons of flavor with very little extra calories and fat.

Delicious and low fat buttermilk pancakes. A little butter and sugar in the recipe, so you don't need it on the top!

I make regular food. I use a ton of a homemade 50-50 olive oil/canola oil mix. I eat eggs. I use whipping cream when necessary. I'm not a fanatic. But when it comes to making something for my family, I just can't get past the nutritional knowledge I have accumulated over the years. I'd probably be happier without the internal pressure... Probably have a higher bad cholesterol number, too. 

Oh, my... seared tuna steaks. Too delicious for words!

I really admire these chefs/cooks' talent, and thoroughly enjoy watching them, reading The Food Network Magazine, and cheering them on in the competitions. I just can't emulate them in good conscience.

This is my husband's. It is definitely not mine, especially that huge sucker. Sorry... I just can't do oysters!

New Years Do-over

We left for our vacation in the Keys on Dec 31, verrrry early in the morning, and were gone until the night of the 9th, so my intention all along was to "start" my new year things when we got back. Well, it's now the 20th, and I've had a horrible cold and now (again) a sinus infection, and not shockingly none of those things have happened. My house is a wreck, my book isn't edited (almost, but not completely), my exercise program is... nonexistent. My eating is messed up because I can't smell or taste anything. My painting is still sitting unfinished on the easel - since August.

Emmy is hibernating

So I'm calling a do-over. A mulligan. While I may not have a party with champagne and streamers and those annoying things you blow that make too much noise, I am turning the Gregorian calendar on its ear (at least in my house) and starting this new year again on February 1. What the heck... Companies are allowed to determine their fiscal year, the government's fiscal year starts on the random date of October 1, and I have basically lost January. So instead of trying to find it, I'm going to relegate it to "last year".

Thyme is having a sleep over with friends

10 days from now I will be done with my round of antibiotics. I will be starting my 60k in 60 days writing extravaganza (which is really 90k in 60 days for me, unofficially). I will be starting my 325k in 365 days writing experiment. I will be back from my mom's 70th birthday, and ready to start using my rowing machine and treadmill again. My brain will be (theoretically) back to normal functionality, and I will be starting the countdown to our May 3 departure to Uganda.

George (in Uganda) is worn out by it all

What is time, anyway? Einstein said "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." Well, in January, ain't nothing happening. And a whole lot of it.

Even our resident owl is just wiped out...

So look out February! Good thing you have that extra day this year, cause I'm gonna need it!

Always good advice...