This Week’s Bits & Bites
What’s new, friends?! We’ve been in bit of a deep freeze, here. Well – it’s a deep freeze for Seattle, where even in the winter it rarely dips below freezing. It’s been frosty all week …
And this morning, we’re actually waking up to snow, which rarely happens. So it is very. exciting. Especially when you have a 4-year-old.
The frost and now the snow makes everything an adventure when you are a kid, and I’ve been appreciating the reminder to slow down and appreciate the world around us. All week, our kiddo has been loving daily “frost hunt” walks – investigating tiny patches of ice, making frost angels in the lawn, searching for crystals. I adore that she still stops and analyzes every little thing and it takes 45 minutes to walk a quarter of a mile. I’m not sure how much longer that will last, so I try my hardest to slow down and go with it. 🙂
The dogs become puppies again in the snow, bopping around like they do on the beach. It’s the cutest. Meanwhile, the cats are on the windowsill, wide-eyed. What IS that stuff?! (By the way, after a roller coaster month, Blossom seems to have made a full recovery. Yay! She’s back to her sassy and weird calico self, wanting to ride on my shoulder and licking doors and doing her signature sloth kitty move on the backs of chairs.)
Oh, and I finally caved and bought an Instant Pot. I have to say, I am both mystified by and a little scared of the thing. I know my brain is not what it used to be but I have had a heck of a time making sense of the instructions and even just getting the thing to even START cooking. I mean, I basically felt like Hansel and Zoolander trying to get the files out of the computer – but with fear, because hello, it’s a pressure cooker! I figured it out, we enjoyed our first recipe quite a bit (chili!), and I think I’ll give it a few more tries … I think.
We’re starting to ramp back up on the kids’ art front, though I have yet to launch my new blog. Soon! I hope. Our daughter loved mini marble painting with sparkly holiday colors this past week – and she’s totally into paper snowflakes (pictured above).
I love December so much.
Anyway, here are the recipes (and other fun goodies) I’ve been eyeing this week. Mostly treats … guess I’m officially in the holiday state of mind.
- Meringue Coffee. WHAT IS THIS TALL AWESOMENESS.
- Coffee Blondies from Bakers Royale. Deliciousness.
- Fluffy One-Bowl Sugar Cookies from Minimalist Baker. Vegan! GF! FLUFFY!
- Not food, but these gift tag printables from Occasionally Eggs. The cutest.
- I am totally making these DIY Hand Warmers. Because my ice cube hands in the winter … over it!
- Red Wine & Orange Granita from Williams-Sonoma. Yesss.
- Almond Toffee Shortbread Cookies from Vegetarian Ventures. Perfect.
- Sage & Butternut Squash Risotto in the Instant Pot from Hip Pressure Cooking and Pressure Cooker Dal with Spinach from Pressure Cooking Today. I think I need to try both of these when I get up my nerve again.
- Pantone’s color of the year for 2017 is a bold green. Kind of reminds me of a matcha latte. What do you think? Green is my favorite color, so I’m all over it.
That’s it for this week! Stay warm!
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