July News

July has flown by! Mark got a new smoker and has made some amazing meats--pork belly, brisket, ribs.  We have chickens to smoke next. 

This is the chicken salad from the recipe posted previously.  It was so good.  Makes me think of Paducah and I get a little homesick for family.

Our G Dog is hanging in there.  He had a little turn for the worse this month, but then he's rallied again.  Too much medicine made him weak, so we cut back and he's better.  We tried the raw diet for the dogs, but it proved to be too much for us right now.  I really wanted to get the carbs out of their diets because it sounds like too many carbs are as poison for our dogs as they are for us.  We found a new brand of dog food that is 40% carbs, which is low for a commercial dog food.  I'd rather have them down around 5%, so there's still room for improvement. Anyway, we're happy to have our G Dog feeling better.  He's 12 now.  I used to call him my big strong brave boy, but now he's my wise old man. 

I wore a dress one day!  That's different!

We're still low carb happy.  Mark has been working out at Fit Club and is building a bunch of muscles.  My little Keto With Kynda group at the church is going strong and I'm so happy that this  many of my friends and their friends have been able to lose weight and drop their blood sugars and blood pressures and feel so much better while eating good food.  It is my dream come true.

Mark's first tomatoes here.  We love the bacon & tomato--I add lots of mayo to mine!--even without the bread.  I hear Betsy & Kyle are going to be here this week, so August is going to start off with a bang!  I am so thankful for these so many blessings. 

House of Grace California Chicken Salad

Back in the 70's/80's, I loved going to House of Grace where Curtis Grace made the best food in a beautiful old house that was refurbished as a tea room.  He still has a House of Grace there, only now it's in a former Pizza Hut.  The last time I had this wonderful salad from him was on a visit with Nan.  Ellen picked up take out for us and we had a wonderful time visiting in their kitchen eating Curtis Grace's food one more time.

Nan threw Debbie a baby shower at House of Grace one time.  There were probably 8 of us and the meal was served in 5 courses.  We were fancy in those days!   Another one of his specialties was strawberry shortcake.  It was an old-fashioned shortcake even then--more like a cracker than a cake.  

Anyway, I found this recipe for his California Chicken Salad which was my favorite of his specialties.  As I was looking at it, I realized that it's pretty much low carb!  I just left off the grapes to make it keto.  And I used chopped pecans because I didn't have slivered almonds.  It's as good as I remember.

 Look at that typing!  I am thankful we don't have to use an old fashioned typewriter to copy recipes anymore :)

June Visits

 I am missing my mom & sis & Jeff and all the fam these days.  PJ and Jeff look great and are our gardening gurus.  I can't believe it's already July 1st and 2017 is  half over!

I'm ready to go back to visit again already.

Mama and I both wore our black & white pants one day.

 When Mark picked me up at the airport, we visited the botanical garden where there was an art glass show by Craig Mitchell Smith.  This was my favorite piece: 

In some places, it was hard to distinguish the real blooms from the glass. 

 The kids came to visit and we had a wonderful time with them as always.  More of our favorite peeps to miss and go visit :)

I was so bummed to miss seeing Jennifer and Isaac when they traveled to Madisonville.  She left her bunny Bun Bun with Rachel for summer vacation.  I'm sure hoping for a good visit with them soon too :)