Various Bits and Pieces

The weekend before Christmas I house-sat for my dad and watched his golden lab, Sophie, for him.  Sophie and I bonded and I'm proud to say that she now responds when I call her "So-Fifi".  I feel as if I've accomplished something here.

On that Saturday I went to Sugarless Delite in Richardson for the very first time.  I wandered around aimlessly - it's a tiny store, but they have a buttload of stuff there - until a very nice woman named Hannah came up to help me.  I could almost swear she read my mind because the first thing she had me taste-test when I told her I wanted low-carb things was a 0 net carb brownie, then a 3-4 net carb piece of pecan pie with a pecan crust.  Pecan pie is my absolute favorite and brownies come in a close second, so I snatched some up.  The pie was just divine, and the brownies were so fudgy that when I let my nephew eat one he spent a few minutes arguing with me because I'd called them brownies and he insisted they were fudge.

I also got a few sugar-free, calorie-free, carb-free syrups.  I usually put Starbucks peppermint or vanilla syrup into my coffees, but those can run something like 26 net carbs per serving.  Yikes!  Since I'm only allowed 20, that didn't fly.  These are very tasty and I found that since they're artificially sweetened, I didn't need to add extra sweetener.

What I forgot to take a picture of is the Millennium pie I went back on Monday for.  Once again Hannah helped me out.  I wanted a pecan pie, but they were out so she had me try the Millennium pie and explained that it had the same ingredients and the main difference was that it had caramel and the pecan pie didn't.  It was tasty!

Seriously, if you're low-carb, sugar-free, diabetic, or just want sweets that aren't going to blow your diet out of the water then go to Sugarless Delite.  And ask for Hannah.  Hannah is awesome!

Monday night I made dinner for my nephew and dad.  It included what I was affectionately told was called "crack slaw."  It's very simply shredded cabbage, ground beef, onion, soy sauce, and rice vinegar but it is so so good.  Yum!

Along with that went brussel sprouts tossed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Look at how crispy and caramelized it got!  It was seriously delicious.

And no low-carb meal is complete without jalapeno poppers.  Seriously, meals are incomplete without them.  No joke.

When I got back from house-sitting and Christmas festivities with my dad I found this beautiful dish of oxtail stew in my freezer waiting for me.  CarbTripper has shown herself making this a few times in her blog and she was kind enough to make it for me.  Oh, you have no idea the deliciousness in that bowl.  I've been eating on it slowly so as to savor it and have it as long as possible.

These awesome dishes that are part Christmas present and part house-warming present are also from her.  If all I got as house-warming gifts were things for the kitchen, I'd be a happy person.  Forget the bedroom, living room, bathroom...  I want pots!  Pans!  Spoons!  Knives!  Blenders!  Food processors!  I might be a little sore from sleeping on the floor, but it would be a good sore.

Okay, so there's one thing other than kitchenware that I need.  Books.  Books are what make the world turn.  I took a box of books up to Half Price Books to sell to them.  When I left the box was as full as it had been before, but now with books I'd bought thanks to an amazing Christmas gift card from my dad.  Kitchenware and books.  Life is good.