Head on over to http://www.sandquistphotography.com/Photography/Favorites-2012/ and take a look around. My partner Smugmug.com enables me to offer a great selection of prints, including Canvas and Metallic prints in a wide array of sizes. Use the Coupon Code: holiday2012 at check for 25% off all your print purchases through the end of the year!

Truffles and Chocolate Bars-Gluten Free and Dairy Free!

Photo a Day 332/366

Over the years we bought a few items from Dan’s Chocolates, but since they do have Gluten Free and Dairy options its even better! These are Peppermint Truffles, the small balls and the bars are Oragadu. Both are delicious!

My favorite are the Peppermint Truffles…. I’m not sure I should have such a big box around the house!!  But the season’s long right?

I recently attended a course about all things related to Gut Health! Heard about a couple of interesting uses of Melatonin. Melatonin is often used to help circadian cycles and improve sleep, but it also has a wide variety of other uses as well. Here’s a fairly recent study(http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-230X/10/7) that shows how Melatonin can be helpful to those that suffer from Acid Reflux(GERD).
Here’s the conclusion of the study:

“From the results of our study, it can be concluded that melatonin could be used in the treatment of GERD either alone or in combination with omeprazole. The combination therapy of both melatonin and omeprazole is preferable as melatonin accelerates the healing effect of omeprazole and therefore shortens the duration of treatment and minimizes its side effects.”

Seems reasonable(but always a good idea to ask your physician first) to give a few milligrams of Melatonin before bed a try for those that suffer from GERD.

Attempting Vegan English Toffee with Earth Balance Butter Sticks/Spreads

It’s a family tradition to make English Toffee for friends and family around the holidays. The recipe is simple:

1 Cup of Butter, or Margarine, or Vegan Butter
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Cup of Almonds
Enough Chocolate to cover the slab of toffee.

After lots of stirring and a little bit of magic it ends up looking like this:

But this year I removed Dairy from my diet so I’ve been attempting to find a replacement for the butter and I don’t want to use a hydrogenated Margarine. The recipe works just fine with Margarine, personally  I would rather limit my Hydrogenated oil intake. Granted this is not a health food by any means so i’m not trying to make it healthy, just not full of trans-fats!

Which leads to Earth Balance Vegan Butter sticks

These sticks of non-hydrogenated vegan butter work really well making English Toffee, in fact as well as real butter, except for one thing. There’s an aftertaste that well just odd, I really can’t describe it! It’s like one of the oils didn’t like being heated very hot or something. I have no idea what its from and I would like to know what it is… After the first batch was inedible I decided to try one of Earth Balance’s Vegan Butter Soy Free Spreads

The Soy Free Spread turned out really well! No Aftertaste! I just wish it wasn’t in spread form as this tends to allow the oils to separate at high temps, which wreaks havoc on your hands and the stove top and very hot oil is slopped around the pan. I have the burns to prove it! So working with it was nothing like the sticks, much more difficult and I don’t recommend other’s trying to use it to make toffee at least the way I make it, all ingredients in a pan and stir on medium heat until the almonds start to toast! The finished product tastes great and I’ll post a final pic of the Vegan English Toffee when I finish adding chocolate to the other side.

Here’s a photo of the Earth Balance Soy Free Spread Toffee as the Chocolate bars start to melt.

Does anyone knows why Earth Balance Vegan Sticks have an aftertaste, I’ve noticed it in other recipes as well? Do I have a bad box? Will Earth Balance ever make a Soy Free Butter Stick?

Day 331/366, only 35 photos to go to finish this years project! Today I found this cool lampshade in my daughters room. It’s cute, my wife loves cute things! I admit I often get nervous when I see too many cute things coming home. I’m working on toning down the anxiety! 

I was recently asked this question by my 4 year old daughter and I reflexively said no to eating apple seeds and then I found this article.

I don’t recommend eating apple seeds, and it is not because a tree will grow …

via The World’s Healthiest Foods http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=dailytip&dbid=222&utm_source=rss_reader&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_feed

I’m a bit skeptical that a few apple seeds will cause much trouble here and there, i’m pretty sure I’ve consumed a few here and there. In general it doesn’t sound like a good idea to make eating Apple seeds a habit.

 You will see Vitamin D measured, ng/L or nmol/L. This video mentions Vitamin D measured in nmol/L. If you are looking for ng/L divide the nmol/L number by 2.5. Or multiply ng/L by 2.5 to get nmol/L

Here’s some highlights from the lecture: 

Astounding to see the cancer rates plummet as the blood serum level of Vitamin D increased above 100 nmol/L.  Current guidelines recommend only 25 nmol/L which is protective against Rickets. Many are still below this level. 

Breast cancer rates drop 50% with Vitamin D levels above 100 nmol/L

Loads of research has been done related Vitamin D and chronic diseases. 

Most are significantly deficient. 

Serum levels of Vitamin D below 80 nmol/L are not adequate for any body system

Levels as high as 125 nmol/L may be closer to optimal

Early life levels of Vitamin D levels seem to be related to development of chronic diseases later in life… Our Kids need Vitamin D supplementation. 

Out west out leaves usually start to turn and fall around Thanksgiving time! These are Liquid Amber leaves in my Mom’s yard! I preferred the sepia toning here.. And I’m still impressed with the images I get from an iPhone!

Heres a color version:

Photo a day 329/366

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Was fascinated by this flower vase… the flowers were cool but the I liked the vase better!