No post tonight – tomorrow I’ll tell you the story of how I crashed and burned today. Ah, Tex-Mex, you did me in. Reset begins tomorrow!
Author: AuntGem
It’s time to act.
Book Review: Drawing Lines
Note to all my Keto post readers: Every once in a while I post something else. I also like gardening and books, in addition to Keto. If you only want to read Keto posts, just click on the “Keto” category in the top menu.
In Drawing Lines: Why Conservatives Must Begin to Battle Fiercely in the Arena of Ideas, Kira Davis issues a call to action: take your stand, make a difference in the fight for our culture. For the past few decades, our society has defaulted to liberal values everywhere: media, books, television, and universities. Kira is telling conservatives it is time: time to stand up, speak out, make your position known. Push back whenever and wherever you can. Her writing voice is the same as her podcasting voice: friendly, encouraging, with stories from her own life that make you laugh and make you think.
Kira weaves her personal story in between chapters on women’s rights being pushed aside, schools and corporations going woke, and critical race theory. Growing up a liberal, she believed everything that left taught, and she thought the Right was just as evil as they were painted by mainstream media commentators. Volunteering at an afterschool tech center program for kids made her start to question how effective the education system was. No matter how much money was poured into the schools, test scores and passing grades never improved. Worse, the only solution that the left offered was “spend more money.”
After realizing that, Kira started questioning more of her political positions. For the past several years she’s been a conservative commentator, one who has “built a brand on reaching out to the other side, on giving people space to be wrong, the space to discuss, the space to tolerate.” Sadly, she admits that it is now time for conservatives to question the liberal zeitgeist.
In each chapter she gives suggestions for how you, the reader, can make your voice heard. Whether it’s going to a school board meeting, running for office (like she did) or writing to your representatives, she outlines the many ways conservatives can say, ‘hey, we’re here. This is our country too, and you can’t cancel us.’
Kira ends the book by ‘taking it to church’, as she says on her podcast. Her strong Christian faith undergirds everything she does. One of her core beliefs is that just below the surface of each societal fad is a soul longing to take the place of God, to make himself God. Having a faith in something greater than yourself allows you to reject the notion that government or politics is your Lord. As she says:
It’s very freeing when you can accept perfection is divine, and you have no way to get there on your own. It’s no wonder progressives are always so cranky. They sense they’ll never get to where they’re going.
– Drawing Lines, page 116.
Victory over All-You-Can-Eat Buffet
A Keto Win
Every month my team goes out to eat at a different restaurant. This week, it was the locally famous all-you-can-eat barbecue restaurant Little Pigs. It’s a patriotic country place that features the flags of each branch of the Armed Services on the walls, along with the “Thin Blue Line” flag and a flag for MIA-POWs. And they serve the three styles of barbecued pork sauce predominant in South Carolina: tomato-based, mustard-based, and vinegar-pepper.
Buffet means minefield
Unfortunately, meat isn’t all they serve. There’s also the tantalizing display of casserole-type foods and starches that are mainstays of the Southern diet. Here’s what I had to pass by in order to stay on my Keto way of eating:
- Fried chicken
- Wings
- Rice
- Hash
- Tomato pie
- Hush puppies
- Macaroni and cheese (this is considered a vegetable in South Carolina)
- Mashed potatoes and gravy
- Candied Yams
- Corn
- Candied Yams
- Cut Corn
- And for dessert:
- Banana pudding
- Chocolate pudding
What did you eat?
Believe it or not, I was able to dine quite nicely at the BBQ restaurant, and not feel too deprived. (Although I did sigh several times over the tomato pie I couldn’t have.) I filled my plate with broccoli salad made with cheddar cheese and mayo, green beans, and three types of pork: mustard-based BBQ, vinegar and pepper-based BBQ, and plain pulled pork. It was divine. And best of all – my teammates who ate all the carbs were falling asleep later that afternoon at work. Me? I had no problem powering through the day.
It’s WWW Wednesday
It’s WWW Wednesday again! This round-up is hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. Here are my answers to the three “W’s”.
What are you currently reading?
Today I got a new book in the mail, written by one of my favorite people – Kira Davis. Her book “Drawing Lines: Why Conservatives Must Begin to Battle Fiercely in the Arena of Ideas” looks like a wonderful discussion on the current moment. From the inside cover: “Kira Davis has built a brand on reaching out to the other side, on giving people space to be wrong, the space to discuss, the space to tolerate. She sincerely believes there are many reasonable people in America from all ideologies who are still willing to talk with ech other, people who are quite happy to live and let live. Unfortunately, none of those people are controlling the conversation right now.”
What did you recently finish reading?
I just finished tonight “Dipped, Stripped & Dead,” by Elise Hyatt (a pen name for Sarah A. Hoyt.) It’s the first in a series featuring Dyce Dare, a clumsy young girl who though she wanted to be a ballerina, ended up refinishing furniture and dumpster diving to supply her business. Then she stumbled over a dead body…. This is the perfect light-hearted read, an entertaining yarn which takes you away from the craziness of today. Dyce is both independent entrepreneur and slightly ditzy dame, who doesn’t want to realize the gorgeous cop is in love with her, and also keeps mum about the antique coffee table she found next to the body. See, she’s got to raise her young son, and find a way to make more money from refinishing furniture to keep them in something other than pancakes.
What do you think you’ll read next?
I know I said after Dipped, Stripped, and Dead I’d read this book, a mystery with some political overtones, set in a farming community: The Gentleman Farmers. But it’s going to have to wait until I can finish Kira’s book.
Keto Confessions
The good, the bad, and the ugly (+4 lbs)
- Rule 1: Never go on a girls’ trip to Charleston without an extra-strong dose of willpower.
- Rule 2: If you’re going to cheat, don’t cheat at every meal!
- Rule 3: See Rules 1 and 2.
One good thing
My friend and I went off to explore the city of Charleston, S.C. over President’s Day weekend – and that meant LOTS of walking all over the gorgeous historic district. In fact, on one day alone we walked six miles by my Fitbit. That was the shining moment of the weekend. We saw everything from the beautiful Battery to the downtown Market to scores of houses with those magnificent, long Charleston-style porches designed to catch the breezes.
One not-so-bad thing
We decided to take a break from the walking (12 miles total over the weekend) by taking a Carriage Horse tour. That gave us the chance to see more of Charleston – but also kept me from some more much-needed exercise!
The ugly
All those delicious meals – and the grits! Oh, my word, the grits and the biscuits (So NOT Keto) were out of this world at Miller’s All Day, a wonderful breakfast and brunch place. I think there was a way to eat keto-friendly here, but it would have broken my Southern heart.
All told, I weighed again this morning and found I’d gained 4 pounds. Ugh. Yuck. Oh, well – back to salads, lean meat and keto-friendly oils! A few final pictures of the Charleston trip:
Planning Keto meals
Didn’t I just plan Keto meals for a week?
It’s that time again … time to set myself up for a good week of Keto Living by planning ahead and shopping conscientiously. It feels like I do this all the time! Now that I’m doing Keto, I’m cooking at home more than ever. So, time to plan out some menus. As always, I’m turning to my new favorite cookbook, Simply Keto.
Shopping my freezer
I’ve got so much meat from my last Butcher Box delivery that I need to use up. More filet mignons mean I’m making Filet Mignon with Gorgonzola Sauce! Other dishes I’m going to re-make this week:
- Keto Crackers
- Twice-Baked Cauliflower Casserole (it’s the faux potato dish I love so much)
- Keto Chili
New recipes I’m going to try this week include:
- Keto Beef Stroganoff (from the Keto Karma website.)
- Grilled Parmesan Chicken Wings (gotta use all those wings in the freezer!)
- Sunny Side Up Burgers
Here’s to a week of happy eating!
Something nice to snack on
Keto crackers
Sometimes, you just have an itch that fat or protein won’t scratch. Another fat bomb won’t do. And eating yet another devilled egg doesn’t appeal either. Sometimes, you just want a cracker. To the rescue – once again, my new Bible of Keto cooking, Suzanne Ryan’s “Simply Keto” cookbook. (Seriously – go buy this book!) I found her Keto crackers recipe – and it offers two ways of making these wonderful snacks. I choose the cheese cracker option. They don’t even need dip. They’re delicious all by themselves. See below for my photo essay of my first attempt to make these crackers.
The ingredients
Planning the garden
A February pleasure
My daffodils are already blooming! It’s time to plan out the rest of the garden for my backyard. And heck, I need to get some things re-planted in the front. First up: about 15 new bales of pine straw so I can properly edge all the beds in the front yard. And in April I’m digging up those poor dead hydrangeas in the front bed – victims of a zealous over pruning when I didn’t know any better – and replant some beautiful Encore azaleas.
The below plan is NOT to scale – but it gives you the general idea of what I have to work with in my backyard. I’m thinking of an entire bed of green beans (I have four raised beds) because I want to try canning at the end of the season. And I’m still working out where to put all the seeds I’ve bought and will be starting under the grow lamps very soon. In the flower bed at the right – there will be marigolds galore. Oh – I forgot to note the daylilies – they’re on the right just above the Iris.
Keto “faux” potatoes?
Yes, you can!
Ah, the cauliflower. As writer Rod Dreher once said, it’s the “Sansabelt slacks of vegetables” fit only to scoop up dips. But to someone following the Ketogenetic way of eating, the cauliflower is a lifesaver. With just a little prep, you can fool yourself into thinking you’re eating mashed potatoes! Let me show you how my attempt at making Faux Mashed Potatoes – from Suzanne Ryan’s Simply Keto cookbook, turned out. Spoiler: It was delicious.
Measure out your “mash” ingredients (beside cauliflower)
Time to cook!
Ready for the oven and done
The big finish
Two odes to Keto, courtesy of AI
ChatGPT gets Keto
I’ve been monkeying around with ChatGPT just like everyone else. Even though I swore I wouldn’t use it to write a post, that’s what I’ve ended up doing. Hope you enjoy the crazy stuff the machine came up with!
I thought it would be fun to ask the AI bot about Keto. Then I thought – why not test its poetry skills? Hence, a poem about Keto in the style of Shakespeare.
Oh Keto, fair diet of low-carb might, With roots so deep, it brings forth new light. Thou banisheth grains, and sugar's sweet vice, And bringeth balance to body and spice. Thy fat doth burn, and energy soars, With strength and clarity, and health restored. And though some may scoff, and call it a plight, Thou standeth firm, as truth in the night. So here's a toast, to this way of life, With food so pure, it banishes strife. And though it may take some effort and care, Thou wilt reap the reward, so bountiful and fair. So hold fast to the path, of this noble quest, And let the journey, to health be blessed. For Keto, thou art the diet so right, That brings balance, and joy, both day and night.
Ok, well it rhymed. And scanned fairly well too. But – it really wasn’t the Shakesperean effort I was thinking of; I wanted a sonnet. Remembering that you have to specify EVERYTHING to a computer, I politely requested a sonnet on Keto. And this is what ChatGPT gave me. The machine does enjoy rhyming “strife” and “life.”
When I consider how my body thrives, With Keto's low-carb, high-fat delight, I find within my heart a newer life, And healthier days that banish endless night. This way of eating, though some may revile, Is based on science, proven and true, And brings to me a sense of power so wild, That I with joy, my journey do pursue. No longer do I struggle with my weight, Or suffer from a lack of energy, For with this diet, I am strong and great, And feel a sense of clarity, so serene. So let us celebrate the Keto life, And all the blessings it brings, free from strife.
Notes from Aunt Gem 