We got very lucky in Edinburgh and found an awesome Turkish Cafe for breakfast. Cafe Truva had an assortment of breakfast options, which works really well for a picky eater like me, and excellent coffee. I fully admit to being a coffee snob so when I find a place that makes a really good mocha (with melted, good quality chocolate) I’m a fan. On our last day there, we had limited time and decided, rather than see the palace, we would find a cheese shop. The gentleman running the cafe told us about a good cheese shop near the grass market, but it was not walking distance in the time we had. (well, not to get there, find said cheese shop, get back to the hotel, check out and get to the airport). We decided to check out and catch a cab to the grass market area and try to find the shop. We did (thanks to a great cab driver who knew about where it was) and we ended up with five different cheeses that we carried back to the US. Needless to say the last couple of days have been filled with cheese dishes. We did the above picture with home made bread, a tomato and cheese crust less quiche (not pretty enough to post a picture of) and a summer salad with shaved cheese.

Part of this comes from Bob deciding that he wants to loose weight. I’m not sure why as I think he is just about perfect as is, but it is his body and comfort level so ok. However, when he started talking about eliminating all kinds of food that I love … well … I we needed to talk. Before we left for our trip we talked about it, and now that we are back, I’m making an effort to support his effort. He wants to go to something called “slow carb” eating, but when I look at what you can’t have on it, my brain and stomach yell “nooooooo”.

So we look for a compromise. I’ll eliminate a lot of the grains, and processed foods (which includes soda which will be hard for Bob). I’m ok with limiting the grains and starches, but I’m not ok with eliminating so many foods that I pretty much can’t eat. (and since I do the cooking, I’m going to cook things I can eat.). We’ll start slow and see how that goes. I’ll get my dessert fixes out or when he isn’t around, and cook with lean meats and more vegetables. I even had a whole day of no meat and he didn’t care – really, goat cheese quiche and summer salad is not a bad way to eat. And I now have some lovely Scottish and English cheeses to work with for the next few weeks so we should both be happy.

This weeks menus includes chicken with braised kale, pork chops with kohlrabi and apple slaw, baked goat cheese salad and quinoa strawberry “salad”. If any of them turn out picture worthy, (and tasty) I’ll post pictures and recipes.

Until then! Hope everyone has a great week.

Chocolate pie is one of my favorite desserts, ranking close to strawberry shortcake. I have a great recipe for a French Silk Pie and decided to try a cherry chocolate version. It came out ok but I’m not getting the cherry flavor I wanted. I took some really pretty cherries, pitted them, puréed them and then strained them through a sieve. I had close to a cup of pure cherry goodness which I thought would be enough to really taste the cherry.

I made the pie as I normally would – whip eggs and sugar together (for a LONG time) over heat as I have an aversion to food poisoning then whipped some more to cool; I added my bittersweet chocolate and the cherry goodness and then folded in the whipped cream. The results are good, but even Bob agrees not very cherry. After the mango-palooza at Val and Bill’s, and the very good mango shortcake I did the other day, I had high hopes for the pie. But alas, good but not great. Will have to do a little research and try a second version soon.

Val and I were discussing some of the random adventures of having cats in Florida and she sent me the above picture. While I’ve seen plenty of large lizards, that one has to take the prize. Gracie and Tigger regularly bring “outside” toys in and it is the one part of Florida living I just cannot get use to. Alligators in the ponds? No problem. Air conditioning at Christmas? Sure. Hurricane season? Fine. Lizards in my kitchen? No thanks.

On the upside, as I always remember, is that I no longer own a snow shovel. Really can’t beat that.

Summer is here. The kids are out of school making work a little shorter day and a lot less busy equating to less stress. Time to set the yearly summer goals.

In the past I’ve had goals such as “move” “paint the kitchen” ” get a dog” and the like. This year there are two – get the closet cleaned out and successfully hold the Buddhist Supta Pose for at least thirty full seconds.

This one came from yoga last night. I was doing a nice stretching routine and feeling pretty good. Until this pose. Holy cow – I just could not hold it for more than five or seven seconds. What is this crazy pose you might ask? (or not but I’ll tell you anyway) You stand with your legs wide – maybe a little more than shoulder width apart but not trying to do a split. Turn your feet out and bring your hands in front of your chest as in prayer and – with your back straight – bend your knees until you are in a squatting/sitting position. Now hold. It doesn’t sound all that bad. At first it was even a nice stretch. After this, it just hurt. So the goal for the summer is to be able to hold that position for the full thirty seconds. If I can hold it for the full thirty seconds without it hurting – bonus points.

On a side note, I’m adding this entry via the iPad, hence no photos. If I can figure out how to get pictures from a regular camera to the iPad I may be able to post pictures and updates from England when we go.

Enjoy the weekend!