Recognize this?

Do you know what this is?

If you know what that is - I bow to your superior knowledge.


I had no clue. I did buy it anyways because it was pretty and smelled yummy.


As most of your probably already know - It is a dragon fruit.

I had a late breakfast as I am still recovering from the dreaded migraine - no headache but I am just still running slow.

Croissant, coffee, orange, banana, and dragon fruit.

I made sure to include some potassium - 

Banana.

And some caffeine -

My intention of going off caffeine has been shelved for the moment.


I will have to devise a moderate and reasonable plan for that later...

A very berry morning

The star of the show this morning? 

Raspberries!

My free trial on the picture editing program I was using expired this morning((. This is why some of the images are rotated 90 degrees.


For some reason my computer defaults to this when displaying images and unless I use an editing program, I am stuck with wonky pictures.


Like this one:

The pink on the end of Connor's nose? That is his tongue.

Feel free to tilt your head to see them better :-)


This morning I made a smoothie from:


Raspberries
1 small container of low fat berry yogurt
1/2 cup of lemonade
1 Tbsp. of Udo's oil
1 scoop of Amazing Grass
1/2 an orange
1 pinch of almond slivers

And since the dogs seemed interested in the berries this morning - 

A shot of Abby's muzzle just before I panicked because she almost knocked over the glass :-)

The dogs each got a taste of some raspberries. 


Abby, although she showed initial interest (possibly she was just intrigued by how pretty they were), wrinkled her nose in disgust when she was presented with a berry.


Connor hoovered it up like he hadn't eaten in a week :-)


Happy Sunday everyone!

Preserves and insomnia

I had another one of those odd nights when I wake up at 3am and there is no hope of getting back to sleep. Even warm milk didn't help.

By 6am I was starving so an early breakfast it was.

Blood orange slices, strips of toast with butter, slices of a Cortland apple and in the center - nectarine and blackberry preserves.

If you have never tried a Cortland apple you should. I grew up in Massachusetts and I have fond memories of going to the apple farm every November and picking up bags and bags of McIntosh and Cortland apples. My mother preferred to use the Cortland apples for baking. They are firm and have a nice tart taste that hold up well to cooking. 

But I think they are delicious any way you can get them. 

I gave up on falling back to sleep at around 5am so this is my third mug of tea. I will be vibrating by noon time...

The dogs were especially interested in the toast this morning so they got this as a snack:

Connor gobbled down pieces of toast with apple, a juicy wedge of blood orange and a drizzle of Udo's oil.

Most dogs don't enjoy citrus fruits - in fact citrus scent is used in dog repellents - but for some bizarre reason Connor enjoys the occasional nibble of orange. 

Abby munched on apples and toast drizzled with Udo's oil.

The dogs have gone back to sleep with contented and full tummies. Sigh, I wish I could do the same.

An eclectic collection and lightboxes

As promised - I brought out the rest of the french cheeses tonight. A friend let me borrow their light box so I got to have some fun.

Here is the picture of the ingredients pre-light box shots.

From the bottom left going clockwise: chestnuts, french port salut, french brie, french chevre, a blood orange and asparagus.

These are the shots - all fancied up - using the light box.

 

And yes, that is what I enjoyed for dinner - well, I shared the cheese :-)

To me the photos using the light box look stiff and too formal. Not representative of my personal style or attitude at all.


I like the "normal" photos I usually take.


What do the rest of you think?