Recipes

Recipe: Woman Crush Wednesday

~ Harper220

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With the little break from my Woman Crush Wednesday episode last week due to our travels to Iceland I’m back with a bang!   I LOVE this day!  A chance to spread some love on a female foodie who is setting the culinary world on fire.  This week’s chef is the gorgeous gourmet gal Lilly Higgins.  She is a Ballymaloe Cookery School trained chef like myself and she has written two amazing cookery books, Make, Bake, Love and Dream Deli.  I am so excited to finally give her this special day so I can share all things Lilly with you reading this in different corners of the globe.   And I will be doing my live Snapchat cooking tutorial (my username is blissbakery) of a recipe of Lilly’s that I have never made before. Continue reading →

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~ Harper220

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Last year was the first year I was blogging during my birthday.  Here is the post I wrote to celebrate:  “Triskaidekaphobia + 51 is the new 21“.  Now I realize that being 51 and 21 are totally different, so that part was a joke.  But there really is a phobia about Friday the 13th, and that was the day on which my birthday happened to be last year. And indeed I was also born on a Friday the 13th. So for me it is a lucky day! Continue reading →

T.M.I

~ Harper220

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When people hear TMI they might think of the acronym “Too Much Information”.  It is true some people share TMI, telling near strangers things better left unsaid.  But I have some TMI for you and it is info you need in your life!  Especially if you are on Instgram.  My version  of the acronym is called:  Tuesday, My Instagrams.  I’m talking about the Instagrammers on my feed that I like to follow! Continue reading →

Recipe: Red Wine Braising and Tasting

~ Harper220

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While I was in Washington State visiting my family recently I still kept up the weekly Saturday Snapchat Cookreel takeover.  I’ve been meaning to share a post of one week in particular because it was pretty darn delicious!  I started out by making one of the best recipes of all time. These Red Wine Braised Beef Short Ribs are so easy and though they take a bit of time, are well worth it. You and your dinner guests will be thoroughly satisfied with this melt in your mouth, meat falling off the bone dish.   Continue reading →

Recipe: Woman Crush Wednesday

~ Harper220

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As the calendar rolls on to November and Autumn is in full swing, today brings with it the joy of Woman Crush Wednesday.  Since we are in that period post Halloween sugar coma and pre Thanksgiving turkey triptophan sleepiness, this week’s honoree is a perfect panacea. Vani Hari, better known around the world as The Food Babe is ready to get us all on track through healthy eating. Vani may be one of the most controversial WCW chefs as she has been known to shake a few food conglomerate trees.  But she has a passion for wanting people to have the best possible options for their food.  But first we need to be not only informed, but have access to the information!

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And I am happy to fill you in on what I know about this gorgeous gourmet gal. She was born in North Carolina and got her university degree in computer science. But after an illness found her in the hospital, she decided to change her life for the better. It didn’t happen over night.  But today, Vani is the picture of health. Yet she isn’t modeling bathing suits.  She is pounding the pavement trying to encourage food businesses to improve their food so we can all benefit from toxic free meals!   Thank goodness for me, a massive sweets eater, that she hasn’t cut out treats!   And for my WCW cooking tutorial live on Snapchat (username:  blissbakery) I will be demonstrating her amazing Chocolate Goji Sea Salt Drops!

Ingredients:

2 bags or 20 ounces (569 g) of organic chocolate chips
4 (114 g) of goji berries
8 ounces (228 g) of almonds chopped in half
¼ tsp sea salt + additional for sprinkling
Instructions
Fill a small pot with ¼ water and heat to simmer
Place large bowl on top of pot (creating a double boiler)
Fill bowl with chocolate chips and slowly melt
Once all chocolate is melted, stir in sea salt, goji berries and almonds
Use a 1 tablespoon sized ice cream scooper or spoon to drop mixture onto wax paper
Top each drop with a small sprinkle of sea salt
Refrigerate to allow chocolate drops to cool

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This is quite possibly the easiest recipe I have ever demonstrated.  Literally all you have to know how to do is boil water.  But don’t let that fool you.  It is the most delicious little treat you’ll ever taste.  It is sweet and salty, crunchy and chewy.  All the textures and flavors you want in a goodie!  It would make a wonderful gift for the holidays or for the hostess of a dinner party you attend.  Besides the fact that chocolate tastes good, high quality chocolate is good for you!  And goji berries are proven to have many health benefits.   As well as the fact that almonds are packed with nutrients.  So this is like a multivitamin dessert!  Okay maybe I’ve gone a bit over the top on that description but you won’t regret making these yummy delights!

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I first heard about “The Food Babe” from my daughter.  She is always on the look out for Woman Crush Wednesday chefs for me.  And while some might be a bit skeptical because of Vani’s media exposure, I love that she speaks her mind.  We don’t have to agree with everything a person says to respect them.  She is thinking about the common good and is willing to risk personal opinions of some, for the service she is doing for public at large.

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So I take my chef’s hat off to you Vani!  I wish you continued success on your quest to investigate what is in the food we eat!  After five years of blogging and sharing your journey I am sure there are more discoveries to be revealed from under your microscope!

Magnified LOVE,

YDP

 

Snapchallenge: #30daysofgratitude

~ Harper220 ~ 2 Comments

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It is no secret I am all about the thank yous!  You may have already read my post on here before called Grateful.  Again, I devoted a whole post to this topic on my week long summary of our trip to Africa in a post called Gratitude. Well, yesterday being November 1st I kicked things off by sharing my appreciation for several bloggers that have inspired me.  I also decided to start a challenge over on my snapchat account (blissbakery) to encourage appreciation amongst the social media community.  Each day for thirty days a snapper can post onto their story one thing for which they are grateful.  It may be the same thing everyday for thirty days. That’s awesome.  Or it can be something different each day.  I’ve asked the snappers to send the snap to me as well.  I am going to keep a log and at the end of thirty days there will be a “winner”!   Though let’s face it we are are all winners when we have more gratitude in our lives!  If at the end of thirty days there are multiple people who have posted every day, guess what?  It will be a random draw for a winner.  I have already gotten so many submissions it is AMAZING!!

It was last year at this time I hosted another competition where people could find LOVE or heart images in their world.  I actually chose three winners, the person who sent me the first, another for most and a third for best (which I actually couldn’t choose a best so that was a random draw).  I wrote about the competition on here and it was called #LOVEfest .  I also posted a followup story called LOVE Wins with the results.  Some people told me that it was the best competition they ever participated in because it actually changed their attitude on a daily basis.  I know what a joy it was for me to host and I decided this year to do something similar.

The irony is that this year like last, the winning prize was never discussed at the start of the competition.  Yet people just jumped aboard.  Though it will be a fab prize as last years prizes were.   But it just shows how people want to be involved in something positive.  Sure the 30 day fitness or diet challenges are wonderful.  But not everyone has the physical ability for a fitness competition or financial where with all to buy certain foods and supplements for a detox contest.  But everyone, and I mean everyone, that has a heart beat can find one thing to offer up a bit of thanks.

So I hope you will join in with me and the others snappers in this special contest for the month of November.   I know this isn’t a new idea.  I heard years ago about the importance of counting blessings.   And some espouse the notion of writing down three things we are appreciative for at the end of the day.  But I think by stating them publicly, in the form of a post on one’s snapchat story, we are in essence committing it to the world.  That accountability helps build community.  As well, it lifts our spirits to hear what others have shared.

Thank you for reading this and for watching on Snapchat.   As I have said before, we may not be able to change the whole world, but we can change the part of the world where we stand! May that little change spark something in those around us and sooner or later maybe the world will in fact be changed!

With LOVE and gratitude!

YDP