Photo-Finish Friday -- Greek Island Edition

A village on Syros.

Gratitude Monday -- Cake and Age

My husband baked me the best birthday cake ever.
It was a Cocoa Madeira cake, but we didn't have Madeira so he used  an Argentine Tannat, a red wine
The recipe called for milk, but he decided to use tannat for that, too.
Good call.
This cake is gluten free, and  so moist and so good it was all I could do not to finish it in one sitting. It's all I want to eat.

And it's all for me as chocolate gives Mike a headache.
I am very grateful for my husband and for his thoughtfulness in baking me such a wonderful cake.
Said birthday was Saturday.
Even though the documentation insists I am 56, I still feel:

I am grateful for that, too.

Photo-Finish -Friday --Fire Lane

Along Hwy. 11 near the Banff Park Border.
The right side of the photo had a controlled burn, the left a random one.
 

Gratitude Monday -- Still Here, Still Grateful

I have plenty of reasons to be grateful.

Today, instead of singling out  one in particular, I thought I'd go general.
In that vein I remind myself it's another day, I all but bounced out of bed to greet it, and anything--or better yet everything-- is possible.

How can I not be grateful?

Photo-Finish Friday -- Welcome

Norway maple in a churchyard in Estonia.
This may be a repeat, but I felt the need to post it.
 

Gratitude Monday - Pizza Edition

I like pizza.
I am not alone.
I am gluten intolerant.
I'm not alone in that either.
It's not a difficult thing to manage as gluten free pizza crusts are reasonably easy to make and fairly tasty.
But sometimes they just don't do the trick.
I am grateful that I can handle a bit of gluten now and again.
To that end I raided our spelt flour stores the other day and made pizza dough.
It had to be sifted as it has more than its fair share of bran in it. It'll work that way, but I was in the mood for a soft, easy to manage dough.
While it was based on a recipe I made my own variations including playing fast and loose with the measurements of flour and olive oil.
I like what I did:

I really missed fluffy dough.

It was topped with emmentaler, a three year old cheddar ostensibly made from unpasteurized milk, and goat mozzarella, along with a pepperoni that had cheddar in it, elk smokies, mushroom, onion, green pepper, and tomato sauce.
Also, I threw chipotle pepper flakes in the dough.

It worked out and it was reasonably tasty.
For that I am grateful.

Photo-Finish Friday -- Home Among The Hemlocks

Near Nakusp, British Columbia.

Gratitude Monday -- Sleeping In

This morning we got to sleep in and for it I am grateful.
Husband worked yesterday and has today off.  That means getting all manner of things done, but the most important thing is enjoying the time.
To do that, we slept in. It's a joy to do that on any given morning, but it is all the sweeter when it's a Monday.