This summer has been a big fruit and vegetable season for me. Not only do I just genuinely love everything we experience in my area during the summer, but it has also been something I’ve been very mindful of in the maintenance of my health during my cancer treatments. I was recently gifted with a sizeable batch of fresh peaches (full transparency; I have no idea what kind of peaches they are. Just go get you some, preferably from a farmer’s market if you can.) and was rolling around in my head what to do with them exactly. Yes, there’s always the time-honored tradition of cobblers, but you know…it’s been done. And I could grill some up and maybe throw them on top a salad, but darn it, I just wanted to make some dessert. So I fell back on my favorite stand by, cake. I love making them and I definitely love eating them. And as I have been on a bit of a “Treat Yo’ Self” tear lately, I started with my basic go-to cake recipe and did some tweaking.
For about the last year or so, I have periodically shared my personal experience with breast cancer here on the blog, both from a dietary perspective and through other facets that were involved, such as my appearance. And I am currently still recovering and receiving follow-up chemotherapy as part of my treatment. I responded very well to all the treatments and surgery I had, and was on the path to returning to a semi-normal life.
Ok guys, bear with me on this. You’ve already seen the title, and I swear I would normally never do an entire post on something as singular as mascara. But when I come across something that I like this much, I just have to talk about it.
For a long time on the blog a did a series ofΒ postsΒ about some of the more popular herbs used in cuisine. But there is a whole other side to cooking and enhancing the flavor of our foods. After all, the old adage doesn’t say, “Variety is theΒ herbΒ of life.” So I wanted to check out a few spices that you maybe weren’t as familiar with, and check out a few ways to use them. I decided first to look at za’atar, a spice blend originating in the Middle East and becoming more widely known in popular Western cooking.