Saturday, March 8, 2008

OOOOHHH SNOW!!!

Living in the South, I don't see much snow. I like it that way. I have visited the North in the wintertime, and I just don't know how people cope with it. Down here, everything closes when it snows. That doesn't have anything to do with how much snow, either. Looking out my window, I'd guess we got about three quarter inches of snow. All the roads are closed, there is a runner across the bottom of the television listing all kinds of closures. Our school always build a couple of snow days into their calendar and the kids get to take those days at the end of the school year because it almost never snows. As luck would have it, this is Saturday, and the snow will all be gone by Monday, so the kids still have this snow day available.
I am spending this lovely, white day drinking my favorite hot beverages (flavored coffees)and watching cooking shows on satellite. I watch all the cooking shows, not just low carb ones (as if there were any low carb shows left!) But I am constantly on the lookout for wonderful recipes that can be de-carbed. Boy, today is a good day for de-carbable recipes. Paula Deen made a Marguerita Mousse....YUMMMYYY! OK, I can de-carb that using lemon-lime diet soda instead of lemon and lime juice, and Splenda instead of sugar. Everything else was legal (eggs, unflavored gelatin, and Tequilla) She topped it with a dollop of homemade whipped cream, and what low-carber turns down homemade whipped cream! LOL
Sandra Whatshername who specializes in semi-homemade stuff made baklava rollups. Hey, I happen to love baklava, and I do believe her method can be de-carbed enough to eat. She used a total of 4 sheets of Phyllo dough for 5 servings of baklava. I could eliminate 1 sheet without sacrificing the Phillo crunch. I could use the sugar-free honey (or possibly low carb pancake syrup) instead of the real honey. She didn't use much honey anyway, about 2 TBS. The other thing she did that I really liked was that she mixed half pecans with half pistachios. I know we could lower the carb count by using half pecans and half walnuts instead, but I just might stick with the pistachios for the flavor and deal with the carbs. About 25 total carbs before nuts. Add 5 grams for the nuts (assume just 1 cup pecans, no other nuts) and you have 30 grams. Slice the baklava roll into 6 chunks and you get 5 grams of carbs each. For something as decadent as baklava, I think that's pretty good. It is strange that Phyllo dough isn't used more in low-carb recipes. 36 grams in 5 sheets is a lot, but how often would you actually eat 5 whole sheets in one serving? In this recipe we used only 3 sheets and it makes 6 servings. Not bad.

Well, the snow has melted, so I have to go out and take care of the farm critters.
Until Next Time.
Syd