I am going to enjoy the heck out of this day! Why? Because it’s already Wednesday! It’s the last short week we get for a little while, so I am planning to savor it, get a few things done, and enjoy some fun time in the kitchen. I can’t go anywhere today – even if I wanted to – because hubby took my car to work to install my new stereo he got for me for Christmas! With the hands free laws I can’t hold my phone, and my cradle for it on the dash is far enough away that Mom can’t hear me, and since I talk to her every day on the way home from work, I’ve been setting my phone on my shoulder/chest so she can hear me. I called her one day from the Bluetooth phone option on Hubby’s stereo; it worked great, so he surprised me with the same stereo for my car! How awesome is that? It is an icy morning anyway – I’m seeing reports of cars rolling over in ditches all over the place, so it’s just as well that I’m home and inside. We got an unexpected drizzle last night, which put a layer of wet on the roads, then it froze over. It’s definitely hazardous out there!
I am so sorry this is a bit late. I had to make a 2nd version of the Low-Carb Food Celebration of the Day because the 1st one wasn’t what I wanted to present. I’ll still show you the first one, but I am hoping the 2nd one will be something that works out the way I want it to.
Verse of the Day
January 3, 2018
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age…
Thoughts on the Verse of the Day
In a world which has no absolutes, in a world in search of moral standards, salvation by the costly grace of God beckons us to change our lifestyles in response to God’s grace. Anyone who receives grace and refuses to pursue righteousness demonstrates his/her ignorance or hardness of heart. In our day, in our time, to be saved means to pursue righteousness — not so that we may earn our salvation, but so that God’s saving grace will not be fruitless in us.
www.verseoftheday.com
Food for Thought
Have any of you ever seen the videos put out by Kristina Kuzmic? She’s a stay-at-home Mom who does hysterical videos about the realities of being a parent and some of the stuff Mom’s think but don’t usually say out loud. She also puts out moments of clear, honest, soul baring truth and yesterday I saw one of those videos. It was honest and real. She admitted to being a negative person by nature, where she sees the bad in a situation far sooner than she sees any good, so she had promised herself that she would find at least one good thing about each and every day, but after a particularly bad day she really had to search for the good, and found it, but it wasn’t easy. That really struck me as something that would be a good thing to look back on at the end of 2018, a list of daily good things, no matter how small, to confirm that life is good and filled with blessings. I started yesterday, though I went ahead and back-listed one for the 1st. I am also going to list more than one if it’s a really GOOD day. Give it a shot – and while you’re at it, maybe look up some of her videos. They are worth the time.
Drinking Straw Day – Oh what a lovely and wonderful invention. I LOVE straws. I actually use one all the time. So who do we have to thank for this marvelous invention? Marvin Stone patented the spiral winding process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws. He already made paper cigarette holders, and through that work came up with the idea of making paper drinking straws. Before this point people were using the natural rye grass straws – which actually sounds like it would make the drink taste awfully yucky. Now the bendy straw was invented in 1937 by Joseph Friedman – and we should silently thank him every time we use one. What other kinds of straws are there? Well, there are paper straws, bendy straws, stainless steel straws, spoon straws and crazy straws! I remember when my daughter was turning eight years old, we spent her birthday at the ocean with one of her little friends from school. My Mom had found her a crazy straw that was shaped into eye glasses, and you actually wore them! I wish I knew where the pictures were – buried in a box somewhere – but these things were so funny. You wore the glasses on your face like normal, and one arm bent around to go into your mouth, the other end was really long to go into your drink glass, so when you took a sip the liquid swirled up and around the tubes around your eyes and into your mouth. The girls got quite a giggle out of that one. Difficult to keep clean though – they had to find their way into the trash because milk and those types of straws just aren’t a good combination. Celebrate today with a straw in everything you drink!
Earth at Perihelion – I’d never heard of this before a couple of years ago, and found it to be fascinating. I hope you do too! Today is Perihelion, or the night that marks the point that the Earth is closest to the Sun all year. At the precise point in time when we are closest, we will be 91,401,343 miles from the center of the sun . . . so that translates that we are roughly 2.5 million km closer tonight than we are most of the time. Earth’s distance from the sun is always changing because we orbit the sun in an ellipse, and not a circle. Yesterday we were a little further away from the sun than today, and tomorrow we’ll be a bit further away again. One day after perihelion, for example, we’ll be a difference of less than 500 km from today’s distance – though we won’t have physically noticed a difference. The date of perihelion changes every year, though the reasons are long and very scientific in nature and honestly I don’t know that I can translate the explanation into anything short and sweet.
Festival of Sleep Day – If you’re anything like me, now that Christmas and New Year’s Day are over, you are left feeling exhausted and like you just can’t get enough sleep! Wouldn’t a day to JUST sleep be lovely? Well, sadly enough the day did arrive . . . on a day when I have many things I would like to accomplish. Maybe I can take a 15 minute doze if I can get a few of them done. I honestly feel like this one should have landed on a weekend so more people could take advantage of it – except, sadly, for the folks who have to work weekends. Maybe it IS a good idea that this is on a specific date after all. At least more people have a shot at it once in awhile. If you are lucky enough to be able to take a nap today, please make it a good one.
Fruitcake Toss Day – I didn’t get around to making a fruitcake this year but I suppose if I had it would have been a good idea to just toss it out if I couldn’t find any takers. Doesn’t that seem like a horrible waste of ingredients and time? Last year’s horrible attempt at a fruitcake truly soured me to the whole thing. Hmmmm . . . if everyone wants to toss out old fruitcakes, rather than eat them when they were given, maybe I shouldn’t waste my time ever trying it again! BUT, if you have an aunt who just insists on giving you a rock hard fruitcake that nobody can even think about eating without breaking teeth, then at least make tossing it out fun. There is only one way to celebrate this one . . . you take it out into a field, with other people who are also tossing out their old fruitcakes . . . and you see who can throw it the farthest. Now, note – it is not a good idea to throw the cake AT anyone. They could get hurt. Just have fun with it! Maybe I should make one next year – even if nobody wants it. This celebration sounds like fun!
Humiliation Day – Everyone deserves to be treated with respect, and humiliating someone is definitely not treating them with respect. Today is not a day about causing someone humiliation, but to bring awareness to people about the negative impact that humiliation has on people. Be nice to everyone around you, and treat them nicely. Treating others the way you want to be treated really comes into play with this one.
J.R.R. Tolkien Day – Most people know that J.R.R. Tolkein is the author of The Lord of The Rings books, but they may not know much about the man himself. Did you know that he was a philologist? (That’s someone who studies history of language and the comparisons of languages) He created the languages of the Elves and the Orcs in the stories, and even though that is fascinating, what’s even better than that is that he created his first language when he was only seven years old! Did you know that The Lord of The Rings books led to a long list of dungeons and dragons style games, videos and stories full of Orcs, elves, rangers and humans. And those are things in ADDITION to the ones made about the stories themselves!
Memento Mori “Remember You Die” Day – The phrase “Memento mori” is Latin and means “Remember your mortality.” What that means is to never forget that someday you will die. Memento Mori was started in ancient Rome when a servant reminded his general that even though he was successful that day, he might die the next and lose everything he had on earth. My goodness, this servant was a little ray of sunshine, wasn’t he? Actually the theme of Memento Mori Day is found in the Bible, in Isaiah 22:13, ” ‘Let us eat and drink’, you say, ‘for tomorrow we die!” One of the symbols that represents the idea of memento mori is the Grim Reaper. This was never intended to be morbid, but to be eye opening, to help us remember that we all die, and that life can be over before we know it. Appreciate the little things!
This Day in History –
1870 – Construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Food Celebration of the Day
National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day – When I was growing up my Mom LOVED chocolate covered cherries. She still does. My Grandma always got her a box of them for Christmas and most years I carry on that tradition. If you get a good brand, they are delicious, aren’t they? Today’s low-carb attempt is to make chocolate covered cherry candies, but since cherries are NOT low-carb, I had to resort to using cherry extract. The first attempt was from a great food-blogger and cook book author, but seriously wasn’t thrilled with my results. I didn’t have a good candy mold for them, so I used my brownie bite mold. Not a good idea. These things are HUGE. The cream in the middle, while it tastes OK, has an unpleasant color and unless they are frozen, the center oozes out. I’m sure it’s something I did wrong, and the fact that they are so big, but this wouldn’t be my first choice to make again. The recipe is linked here if you choose to take a look.
I got up this morning and found a different recipe that is in process right now. The centers are cream cheese based and the original recipe called for raspberry flavor, but obviously these are chocolate cherry candies, so I used cherry. They aren’t bad. I may have to try them if we have a raspberry candy day, or even if we don’t. They definitely turned out to be prettier! There was another change I made too – and that would be up for individual taste.
I prefer milk chocolate over dark chocolate, and Trader Joe’s has a stevia sweetened milk chocolate bar that is a lot less expensive than some other brands. I used a couple of bars of them melted with a bit of coconut oil, and ended up dipping them twice, chilling them in between dips. I prefer them this way. I was inspired though and ordered a few basic candy molds yesterday so the next time I try to make something like this they have half a chance of looking beautiful!
- Classic Chocolate-Covered Cherries
- Chocolate Cherry Biscotti
- Chocolate Cherry Cordial Muffins
- Double Chocolate Cherry Cake
- Chocolate-Covered Cherry Shooter
- Dark Chocolate Cherry Brownies
Now that I’ve gotten the ball rolling, I have more fun stuff to do in the kitchen! I’ll post pictures when those Food Celebration Days roll around soon! God bless you and I’ll see you tomorrow!