Today, here in America we celebrate our Veterans. The men and women that have served in our armed forces. Without their dedication and sacrifice…some the ultimate sacrifice…we would not have the freedoms we still enjoy.
While I have no memory of family serving in actual battle, my husband’s paternal grandfather served in World War I. His Uncle Cal served in the Vietnam War for multiple tours. During my years working in rest homes, I had the privilege to speak with many war survivors. I was always amazed at the stories they told, the experiences they had.
And I was extremely thankful for them serving their country.
Today we remember all of you, and we thank you for your service.
My family…
My maternal grandfather, Daryl McMillen, United States Navy
My father, Larry Johnson, United States Air Force
My husband, George Dykeman, United States Air Force
My brother, Todd Johnson, United States Navy
My husband’s family…
His paternal grandfather, George Dykeman, United States Army
His father, Robert Dykeman, United States Marine Corps
His uncle, Calvin Dykeman, United States Air Force
His uncle, Albert Dykeman, United States Air Force
His brother, Ron Davis, United States Marine Corps
His brother, James Dykeman, United States Marine Corps
My husband has another uncle, Tom Dykeman that may have been in the service as well. If family reads this post, please be sure to correct me and post the branch.
Please be sure to show your thankfulness and support for all our Veterans today. Display your flag correctly and with respect. Attend services for these Veterans if available in your community.
And always…remember their dedication and sacrifice to the United States of America.
My mother loved old homes, and probably passed that down to me. Throw in a little history, maybe some drama about a place, and I’m hooked. Because of those two items, I read a lot of Victoria Holt in my teenage years. I also enjoyed John Jakes, and Eugenia Price for the same reasons. And yes, when I was younger, I read a wide assortment of genres. Usually spending my lunch hour reading in the library rather than eating, if I had the option.
Because of my mother, we were privileged to live in some real beauties over the years. That also meant a lot of restoration projects, and cleaning! I don’t think we ever just lived in a house. And about the time it was fairly decent, and had a good kitchen, we moved. This happened a few times in my memory. That is probably the reasoning behind so many of my own kitchen projects!
So imagine my surprise when a friend from high school, (actually in my sister’s class I believe) shared this link with me a couple days ago.
My parents purchased this house the summer of 1978, the year I celebrated my 14th birthday. We had been living in Burlington, Vermont since that January and my parents saw this house on the way through Crown Point, New York. So about August, we began making weekend trips to the house to clean, paint, and get ready for us to move into. Those were long days, but I was so excited! For one thing, I had hated living in Burlington. It was one of the rare times we had moved to a new house in a new neighborhood, and the schools were not great. I won’t even mention how miserable it was to move to Burlington in January! You can let your imagination run wild and it will be on course.
In a previous post of mine, titled All Hallow’s Eve in 2017, I included this: A gorgeous home built by the town banker in the late 1880’s from what we were told. His name was A.J. Wyman, and he began a banking business in April, 1881 in Crown Point. My parent’s talked with people all over town getting as much information about the house as possible. They were told that the oak staircase in the front of the house was hand-carved and took a year to make, and other interesting facts and trivia. Some they questioned, because you never know how the stories change over the years. Another item that was shared was that nuns had lived in the house for a while. The Catholic Church in Crown Point was just a little ways from the house. A realtor friend of my parents at the time said the house had porcelain sinks, tubs, etc. originally, and they had disappeared from the house during a time of it being rented.
The summer we arrived, the house had been a duplex. The section that had been for the Wyman family when built, the north side, had been done in oak. The south side was done in cherry, and housed the servants. There were pocket doors between the two sections for servants and family to be able to cross discreetly. So these two sections had been closed off to make two homes. My parents used it for one home, opening it back up.
Because of this, there were two kitchens, and three bathrooms at the time we moved in. For some reason, my mother elected to use the south kitchen, which is what you see in the above real estate pictures. I say for some reason, because the other kitchen was rather nice, actual cabinets and counters. But it was modern, and my mother wasn’t into modern too much back then. She even put a wood cookstove in the kitchen we used. It was located on the same wall where you see the stainless range now. My grandfather built a brick wall for the cookstove, and that’s where I learned to lay brick. When we lived there, the kitchen had no cabinets. Just an old porcelain sink. There was a gorgeous butler’s pantry just off this room, all done in cherry. We kept all our kitchen supplies in there. The other kitchen has now been made into a bedroom, the only one on the first floor.
I was amazed, and so very pleased to see that all the woodwork is still intact, and not painted! It was gorgeous, and it still is. I spent many hours with lemon oil polishing it. My father hung the wallpaper that you see in the front foyer, parlor and what was our formal dining room. That included the wallpaper you see going up the stairs and in the upstairs hall. I remember him placing a long board across that rotunda, and hanging that very heavy wallpaper. It’s wonderful to see that it survived all these years! I had noticed that the red-flocked paper in the northwest room we used as a formal dining room is not finished on the west wall. I seem to recall my father running out of wallpaper, and that was not completed. I will have to ask him about that!
My sister and I had the two bedrooms on the north side of the house with the bay windows. Mine was on the west and her room was on the east. One brother had the room next to mine, that is now a bathroom. The room that was a huge bathroom when we lived there is now a bedroom. Another brother had the bedroom across from the bathroom. It is now where you see the baby bed and whicker furniture. A doorway that was installed, and not original to the house leads to a bedroom in the servant’s section of the house that my parents used. In the pictures above, you see a really pretty bathroom with burgundy colors and an old toilet. This was where the cistern for the house was located, and it was gigantic! That was all that was in that room. The bathroom my father used was the bedroom you now see at the end of the hall. The bedroom across from there has a daybed in it if I remember correctly. When we lived there, the walls in the servant’s quarters were pretty bad. It’s nice to see that they have been updated…but for my taste I would have gone with something not so dark, and that complemented that cherry woodwork a little better.
The large room at the back of the house had been the woodshed. It was pretty rough when we lived there. We used it for a family room, and I had a sleep-over with many friends in that room! The Christmas we were there, we had a huge Christmas tree, and my father anchored it to the supports in the ceiling. The room is nice now, and very cozy-looking. Not to mention the added bathroom that was once my mother’s laundry room. You entered it through where the washer and dryer combo is in the kitchen now.
Some of my friends on the staircase. And I hope they don’t mind me sharing! 😉
The row of pine trees beside the house on the east side were planted by my parents. My mother would be thrilled to know they grew to be so big! I was surprised to see how very much the house is blanketed by trees. It seemed rather open to me back in the ’70’s. My brother had a horse and a pony that had stalls in the barn, and a corral behind the barn. We kept rabbits there as well. A very large garden area was to the west of the barn. My father grew lots of potatoes that second summer we lived there. He stored them in that cavernous basement beneath the house. It was a terrible thing to hear my mother ask for wood for the stove or potatoes. That meant a trip to that dungeon, and that is exactly what it looked like! I can still remember the damp coal and heating oil smells from all the years before us.
Memories! Mine seem even more sentimental now. My mother is in a nursing home. A small room with very little of the items that she at one time enjoyed having surround her. She does have memories of the Crown Point home, and other homes she enjoyed fixing up and decorating. She often mentions all the work they took to maintain! Slowly, her material items are being given out to family members, and I hope they come to love them as she did.
I suppose this post is more for me than anyone else. A record of my thoughts when I was looking through the pictures that Allison shared with me. I have good memories of my school years in Crown Point. My favorite teachers were there, and I still have many friends that I stay in touch with through social media. Someday…it would be nice to return…preferably with my siblings, and remember the good times.
Not just the bad.
Below is the house our first Christmas. Isn’t it beautiful?
Main Street – Crown Point, New York, taken Thanksgiving Day 1978
All social media sites, blogging sites, and general computer companies…STOP! We older people, can’t keep up with all the changes! Just about the time I get the hang of something new, a team of ‘experts’ come along and change it for the better…they think. I hope I’m doing pretty good, and then the platform is ripped out from under me once again.
That said, WordPress probably is great for some people that are really tech savvy. All the little changes are probably for the better. But I’m under the probably radar. And, just as a side note, I don’t feel that my age of almost 57 is that old. But when my 12 year old grandson is able to show me how to manage sites…it’s a little humbling.
Those two paragraphs were just a little venting to take me to the real post. So yes, the title does make sense now. 😉
I’ve been amazed at how many people have stopped by my site that are enjoying the keto diet. I’ve tried to check out some of your sites, and read some posts. But there is SO much information out there! I could read for days and still be learning more. So thank you keto-people/bloggers! I’m just starting this journey…or I should say taking my time with it. I started a little over a year ago, and I’ve just been incorporating all the information I’ve had over the years with everything I’m learning new.
For me, losing weight was kind of secondary to just eating better. I wanted to feel better, have more energy, rid my body of inflammation, and hopefully lose weight along the way. That has all been happening gradually. I’ve read up on Intermittent Fasting, Trim Healthy Momma https://trimhealthymama.com, and absorbed what our chiropractor has had to say about different diets.
When I began this journey back in August of 2020, I was really concerned about making it through the holidays, and no chocolate. I did make it through the holidays, and did not get pulled away from my eating guidelines. And now, after a little over a year, my chocolate cravings are a thing of the past. At first, that seemed a bit disappointing, but now, not really.
Baking dessert items has been a huge help for me. We have always eaten pretty well. I’ve never purchased packaged items on a regular basis, don’t use very many canned foods, and I make almost all meals from scratch. Salads were a daily meal when our children were growing up, and I usually made my own salad dressing. But desserts had to be not eaten, or enjoyed for holidays and special occasions only.
When I found all sorts of sites that were keto-friendly, and they had desserts, I was thrilled! These days, I bake several times a week. I’ve shared some of the desserts on here, and the sites I’ve found them on. With the holidays right around the corner again, I’ve been narrowing down my dessert menu. (I started out with a rather big list.) My husband has been a very willing taste-tester. Through all this baked-goods eating, he has lost 10 pounds!
My recipe tweaking has me making a Pumpkin Roll that serves 16. Well, it should be 16 people. It doesn’t seem to last long for my husband and I. The recipe I first used served 4, and was microwaveable. I don’t own a microwave…by choice. The recipe also called for almond flour and coconut flour, and almond milk. The recipe is right here for those of you that are interested: https://joyfilledeats.com/mini-pumpkin-cake-roll/. For my recipe, I used a baking blend, which I found to make the cake more moist and easier for rolling my larger version. I also switched out the almond milk for cream, and added a few more spices. It’s wonderful!
The other recipe I would like to make for Thanksgiving is an Apple Cobbler. The same site above has an amazing Peach Cobbler recipe which we love. I have some ideas for the Apple Cobbler that I want to try out. Topped with some of my homemade whipped cream…absolutely delicious!
Of course I will be checking out some of your sites to find more recipes for Thanksgiving, and everyday use! My only regret is that I don’t have time to try them all! Happy baking everyone!
I would like to say here, that I am not a keto-food blogger. The site above, and others that I follow have the correct nutrition information for the original recipes. I’m not as concerned about that, so switching out a couple things here and there has worked well for me. But if you want to be strict, follow their recipes exactly. Also, as I have said before, I’m extremely thankful for these people that have these sites and have shared their culinary talents. It’s a very complicated, and time consuming process, and they are appreciated!
I think autumn has finally arrived in our part of the world. Here in Kansas it always seems to peek around the edges, giving little snippets of cool weather and fluttery days, mixed with hot and humid. Then suddenly, it’s cold, and the leaves disappear from the trees.
Very different from the autumns I remember as a teenager in upstate New York. The colorful show began in August, evenings with cool suggestions of winter to come. Gorgeous colors seeming to turn overnight. By October, you knew those wintery days were just a breath away, and the holiday season was upon you. It always seemed to be a colorful parade, leading up to a finale of crystal snowflakes.
Here in Kansas, there is no stroll through the off-seasons of autumn and spring. More like a plunge.
So, the kitchen projects I needed to finish took a backseat to the outside projects that kept popping up. I probably shouldn’t word it like that. One would imagine just springing onto the scene, rather than items on a list I always have running through my mind.
Our oldest grandson came for a week or so to help with those outside goals. Poor guy…he will probably never return. This grandma’s house isn’t a safe haven of cuddles and cookies. It’s more of a boot camp for life-training. But there was some baking thrown in for good measure.
He worked like a trooper, helping me dig holes for fencing, and pushing wheelbarrow load after load of dirt to fill holes around the yard. He mixed cement, and got out supplies that are a burden for me after a long day of digging. And he hung in there. Projects that were on my long list were accomplished, and then some. And now this grandmother feels better about the cold winds around the corner.
We assured him that the holidays were upon us, and days of playing games for hours were promised to come. Days when we all can sip hot chocolate and eat yummy baked goods. I hope those remembered other times will be an enticement.
In the meantime, I can look at my very happy roses climbing on the white fence, walk on the stone path Joshua helped me with, and look forward to some steaks on the firepit he helped me move to a larger area.
My beautiful pink roses on the arbor and fence.
At the end of those days with our oldest grandchild, our son and son-in-law helped replace the windows in our bedroom. This was the third set of windows they have done in the past couple of months. It was a huge project…more than we expected…just like all the others. But they are beautiful, and they fit in with all the other windows now. I’m hoping for at least one more warm day to get them painted outside.
View of new windows, and kitchen door installed in kitchen renovation.View of windows from the inside.
This year has accomplished way more than I had hoped for when it began. The kitchen was to be the main project, and it probably was. But so much more has been done. All with the help of family. Some would read this post and think that all I care about is getting stuff done around the house. Some of those readers may even be my family! 😉 But what sticks out even more in my mind is the time that I have spent with all the family that has been here to help…and that I am blessed to have children, sons-in-law, and grandchildren that are willing to be here for us. And not just when it comes to projects. I know that if we ever need anything, our family would be there in any way that they could to lend a hand. That means so much in this world today of each person looking out for themselves.
The past few months have given me many memories of frustrating times of things not going right, boards in the face, dropped hammers on toes, wiring cut, and rethinking of a plan. But so many more memories of stepping back and thinking, “Wow! We accomplished that!” And I believe all of us can say that. Thank you to everyone for just hanging in there!
Before picture of the east wall with our cat having a snack.
As a side note, I had another blogger at https://bluewillowcottage.com/2018/10/12/make-a-coffee-station-at-home/ ask about my coffee station. It ended up being a question about my previous kitchen remodel in the home we sold in 2020. My how time flies! So here is a picture of our coffee area now. I don’t have it as cute as some, but it is extremely handy. All coffee supplies are located in those cupboards and drawers. The counter provides enough room to hold many cups waiting for coffee. (Grandchildren have some cocoa, lots of cream and a bit of coffee). For me, it works perfectly!
Last Friday was a baking day, and most importantly a trying-new-recipes-day.
For me to make three new items was a pretty big accomplishment. They all turned out delicious…as always. So far, most of the keto recipes I’ve tried have been pretty good. Of course there are those that are my favorite, and some that were good, but probably won’t happen again. And with so many to try, that last statement occurs every once in a while.
My first endeavor was mayonnaise. I’ve been wanting to make my own for several years now, but for some reason I had this vision of a labor-intensive not-so-good-tasting glop of stuff I would never put on a sandwich. None of the above applied to this process. I made it in a pint-sized mason jar. I added all the ingredients, and used an immersion blender to combine. It was literally done in about a minute. And, yes it is gloppy, but isn’t all mayonnaise? I used organic olive oil for my first try, and the one I use is a stronger-flavored one for our salads. So, the mayonnaise is a bit bold, but it is still delicious. There are so many recipes for this homemade goodness. Choose your favorite one online. Here is a picture of mine:
The next recipe on my agenda was cake. This recipe was easy to make, and I was wanting that ooey goey butter cake taste. I may have baked mine just a tad too much, but it was still very soft and yummy. There is just a tiny taste of the almond flour, but if this bothers you, use a finer ground version. It was definitely buttery!
Lastly I tried a new brownie recipe. I will forever be on the search for the perfect-tasting, and texture brownie that is keto. I love chocolate, and brownies have always been a favorite of mine. These were also very easy to make. I was shocked that they used so little coconut flour! If you are not a fan of almond flour, then this recipe is for you. I used the Anthony’s brand mentioned in the recipe, because that is what I had. I did not notice any coconut flavor in these brownies. A major ingredient in these is eggs, and the batter tasted pretty close to those remembered boxed brownies I made so often. I may have undercooked these just a bit, but they are very good.
The day was a triumph for me. I don’t normally bake so much when it is still hot outside. Last Friday was nearing 90 or so again. But autumn is almost here, and cooler temperatures will have me in that baking mood. And of course, I have a list of new recipes to try already to go. 😉
What are you looking forward to making? And if you try any of these recipes, please let me know how they turned out. I would love to hear about your adventure. Have a great day!
P.S. As with so many of the keto recipes I’ve tried, a couple days after…the cake and brownies are even better! The mayonnaise is holding up very well too. I do apologize for the wrong spelling of immersion blender in the original post. This was caught by my husband. What was I thinking? Probably not much…and that was the problem! 😉
When I was young, this made me sad. Summer, and all the activities we were involved in was one of the highlights of my youth. For a few years, I was in summer school. I know that may send shivers down some spines, but for me it was a few weeks when I could extend the classes that I really loved in school. I took art classes…fun stuff like pottery, and macramé. My siblings and I always took swimming lessons, and then spent every day at the pool.
When the first cool breezes hit Longmont, Colorado, (where I lived until I was thirteen), we knew it was time for school to begin once again. There was always a shopping trip to purchase new clothes and shoes for the school year. These clothes came with instructions from our mother of what day, under what circumstances, and what kind of weather those pieces of clothing were for…and we didn’t stray. You were not caught in school clothes if you were playing in the yard, and never on a weekend. Work clothes were not worn to school, and church clothes were for church, and only very special occasions. This list of instructions was the same for all children. When the cool weather changed to winter, you added a cardigan to your dress, and sometimes tights, or knee-high socks. I spent many mornings waiting for the school bus and wishing I had remembered my tights instead of the knee-highs. I would board the bus with red, chilled-to-the-bone knees.
After the first day of school, you had your school-supply list. That of course meant another trip to the store. I think I was in middle-school before a list was posted before school started. That second trip to the store was fun, and must have cost my parents a small fortune when all four of us were in school. But back then, those supplies were yours to use. A nifty little school box, (that we kept caterpillars in), stored our pencils, erasers, and little scissors. If you were really fortunate, you had your own pencil sharpener that didn’t eat up too much of your pencil, saving you the wait time of using the class crank one. Life was easy back then, and the little things meant a lot.
Memories make up so much of our lives, and I have many good ones. I started this post with the end of summer, and even as an adult, it makes me melancholy. The days are already becoming shorter, and the mornings have that autumn feel, even if the temperature rises into the nineties. Outdoor projects once again beckon me, but now they are a process of getting things ready for the winter. A winding down, preparation for the holiday season ahead.
One day, my goal is to spend a substantial amount of my year beside the ocean. Seaside is still my favorite place to be. A few trips to see my father’s side of the family in the San Diego area, made many good memories for me. Most notably the time we spent at the ocean. The beaches were a little more crowded than I liked, but the crashing waves, sand sifting beneath your feet, and that salt-water tinge in the air were always there. In my young-adult years, I was introduced to the Cape Cod surroundings, and I felt as though I had found my special place beside the ocean. It still beckons.
For me, summers always mean water, and that seaside experience. I don’t even want the palm trees and sand, but the sand dunes and beach roses. White picket fences trailing into oblivion, dune grass swaying in the ocean breeze. Even though I’ve lived in the middle portion of the United States for most of my life, this is my picture of summer.
And today, those pictures are replaced with the memories of trudging off to school in a plaid dress, wet leaves plastered on the sidewalks. That damp smell filling your head, as the heavy air lingers around the trees.
The title to this post says it all. We ask for prayer for our loved ones, our friends, to help us get a job, to be patient, and the list goes on. At times, I just need prayer for myself…without ceasing.
This video was from many years ago. Back when our family was doing concerts. Back when our three youngest children still lived at home, and only our oldest was married. There have been so many miles traveled since those days! So much prayer needed for our family, and struggles we’ve had. Just like any other family out there.
Here’s Catherine Emily singing. She has a beautiful voice now, at almost seventeen years old. Alyssa Lynn is on the mandolin, and our son, Nathan on the guitar.
With cooler temperatures just around the corner here in the mid-west, I won’t be able to put off our kitchen project finishing-touches much longer. There is something to be said about opening a door and letting the autumn breezes drift through. Especially when you are painting and staining. I will be able to do just that very soon!
The major projects involved are about done. Two extremely gracious and merciful son-in-laws will be over this weekend to install a window in the attic. I rely heavily on this kind of help, and I’m very appreciative of it! Me climbing very high on a ladder has never happened much, and most certainly not now at 56 years young. Hopefully we will have a chance to celebrate the window installation with a hot dog roast over the fire pit. Also a cooler weather kind of thing to do!
I have promised updates on the kitchen. After all the trim is back up, I will share again. For now, just a few little peeks at what has been happening. And may I say again…I absolutely love the kitchen!
Northwest wall of kitchen. Refrigerator is now on the east wall.
Northwest wall, looking more toward the east.
The two pictures above are the north wall of the kitchen. The cupboards are all the same color, so something with the bright sunlight coming in the new kitchen door was making the butter-yellow take on a different hue. Note the cookie jar on the left counter. My mother enjoyed her grandmother’s cookies in this little gem.
Looking northwest.
My view out the new kitchen door, where there was once a window. This is looking northwest.
The goldfish/lily pond.
My view out the same door looking southwest. Our grandson worked very hard digging out this little pond area for me! We have seven goldfish, that aren’t so little anymore. They survived the frigid winter this past February, and they even had some babies. This year the plants had two yellow flowers. It’s been a pleasure to see this view out my kitchen!
I hope you are enjoying the beginning of September in your part of the world. For me, it’s always signaled the start of autumn. A time of cooler weather, more baking, and the delicious aroma of spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and apples.
Have a great day!
The header picture for this post is by: Image by Peter H from Pixabay
Now that my husband is home more often…I think they call it retired, we have been trying to incorporate a morning walk into our routine. At some point, more than a mile would be great, but that will have to be after the temperature drops into the sixties. Walking in ’80’s and above with the sun beating down, and humidity at jungle level is not fun!
We are blessed to live in a small town with a lot of places to walk safely. Just from our front door, we could head to our River Walk in less than five minutes.
Council Grove River Walk – July 2021
Those two trees on either side of the bridge are gorgeous in the autumn when they turn red. This past year, they have extended the River Walk once again, and you can meander along the Neosho River for quite a bit. Some amazing volunteers from our town also put in an amphitheater just down a bit from where we took this picture. It has been put to fantastic use several times in the past few months since it was finished.
Even though the River Walk is just a few minutes from our house, I always prefer to walk at the lake whenever possible. I love being near water, and in the summer, the cool breezes blowing our way make it very nice. Four times around this loop make it a little over a mile. This picture does not show the brilliant sunlight that day!
Our little town also has a portion of a rail trail running through it. For me, it’s not the best place to walk because of the vegetation nearby. (I seem to break out in a rash whenever I glance at something green and potentially itchy.) But it has been the location for a few family walks over the years, and great for bike-riding.
With lower temperatures just around the corner, our walking routine may pick up. Those cooler temperatures also make yard work, and kitchen projects a little easier to handle. So, keep checking in. I will post some after pictures of the kitchen soon. I haven’t forgotten.
Until next time, this is where I would love to be walking. Have a great afternoon!
It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since I started eating better, and basically applying a lot of Keto-type eating to my diet. I stopped weighing myself long ago because of the debilitating roller-coaster it put me on. I do know that I’ve lost weight, but more importantly I feel so much better! Much of the inflammation I struggled with is gone, and I have more energy.
My husband has also been doing better. He isn’t as strict as I am, but I’ve been amazed that he has enjoyed many of the recipes I’ve tried. I no longer bake with flour or sugar, and I try to stay away from those two items as much as possible.
The community of people that apply this way of eating has been such a tremendous help in my journey. Without the recipes, and the encouragement from others, I don’t think I would have stayed the course. There is so much support out there! Because of this phenomenal support, there are so many sites and groups you can hook-up with.
This post is about the yummy lemon cookies I made on Saturday. I love anything lemon, and I especially love it during the summer months. So my only regret with these cookies is I found them in August and not April!
Easy Keto Lemon Cookies
I’ve printed off several recipes from this group. Another one I’m anxious to try is the Red Velvet Cake. I’ll be ready for the winter months with that one! I was always disappointed that a Red Velvet Cake did not taste more like chocolate, because I always thought that was part of it. It was very interesting to learn of the reason why it doesn’t taste more like chocolate. But I’ll save that for another post…after I’ve tried the Red Velvet Cake recipe. 😉
At one time I made boxed-cake mix cookies. These lemon cookies, after being refrigerated, had the same softness, and tasted very much like the lemon cake mix. But so much better! These cookies have a freshness that is lacking in anything boxed. The drizzle you put on top really does harden, and it is so good! I’ve kept these cookies in the fridge because of the heavy whipping cream in the drizzle. That coolness just makes these taste better in my humble opinion. For those that are not a fan of almond flour, these cookies use only coconut flour. I was also concerned that the recipe would not make much. After baking/cooking for large families, I always double everything. I did not do that for this first-time-through. The recipe says it will make 24 of these little gems, but I had about 30, and they were nice-sized cookies. I will double it next time though! I want these around for awhile. My husband and I did quite a bit of damage to my supply this morning with coffee.
I have shared a recipe or two on here, and I have made most of my recipes from Joy Filled Eats. I make the Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars weekly, and I always double the recipe. These were my husband’s go-to snack with coffee or tea while he was still working. They travel nicely and I store these on my kitchen counter for a week at a time. I love the collagen in them, and I attribute that to the amazing finger nails I’ve been growing over the past year. Although those nails are not so good for my writing career! Here is the recipe for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars: https://joyfilledeats.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-bars
I know this keto way of life is a really big thing right now. For me, it is very much the way I was eating before I was married…before it was cool. And I didn’t even know I was doing anything special. I just ate as pure as I could, stayed away from anything fried, and didn’t eat flour or refined sugar. I limited fruits to treats, and generally ate some form of protein with them. Any of our children will tell you that their snacks were generally a banana with peanut butter…and the peanut butter was just peanuts. I don’t think any of them enjoy a banana to this day! lol That way of eating worked for me when I was nineteen, and it’s working now.
The absolute best thing about eating this way now, and I say lifestyle most of the time when I refer to it…is the recipes available. A big shout-out to those that take the time to figure out the recipes, take pictures, post about them, and answer questions. You all are loved!
This Life is Real...and so are the Answers 
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