{Friday Photo Bliss} Percolators, Low-Carb Bread, Biking, and Sleepy Piper!

On Fridays I like to post snapshots of the week that make me happy.

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I have a constant-brew Kombucha set-up in my laundry room, and with Kombucha comes fruit flies. They absolutely love the stuff and I have to place little fruit-fly traps around the container every few weeks.

Lately I have noticed a few fruit flies flying out of my electric coffee maker and it freaked me out. I deep-cleaned everything well with vinegar, but then I made the mistake of reading about nasty germs that grow in coffee makers.

I am the first to admit I don't clean my pot or maker often enough. I also don't like the amount of plastic in my coffee maker. Who knows what chemical soup it adds to my daily coffee?

And did I mention fruit flies were using my coffee maker as a vacation home?

YUCK!

So I read up on all of the other ways to make coffee that wouldn't involve moist (yes I hate that word too) nooks and crannies that can't be cleaned well or plastic parts that leak potentially nasty chemicals into my hot-morning-heavenly-brew.

I eliminated the Pour Over method as it is too slow. Paul and I drink 2 cups apiece, and I don't want to stand around pouring water over coffee all morning. I love my French Press, but the coffee gets too cold too fast and  it also doesn't make enough coffee.

But the old-fashioned all-metal percolator made sense. And I just happened to have a Farberware stove-top percolator in my garage that we use for camping trips.

I noticed that this "Yosemite" version had a plastic top, defeating my purpose of going all glass/stainless. So I bought this gorgeous little replacement glass top that fit perfectly.

I didn't have any percolator filters, but I was able to use my cheap regular basket filters following this tutorial. The filter fits perfectly and once wet, it completely folds down on top of the ground coffee and I have seen zero grounds in my cup!

I add the ground coffee (1 tbsp/cup) and sit the pot on my electric stove back burner and put it on high. Once it starts bubbling in the glass top I turn it down to "1" and let it percolate on the burner for 10 minutes. Then I remove it off the stove and set it on the table to cool down while we make breakfast. Easy peasy once I worked it out.

The coffee is super hot (it stays warm for over an hour at room temp!) and very rich and smooth with no burned aftertaste. It actually tastes better than my electric coffee maker coffee. I am seriously considering getting an electric percolator in the future, but right now I love using this cheap stove-top version.

I usually grind some vanilla bean with the coffee beans for custom-flavored coffee and I add some of this delicious coconut milk . I found out that I prefer coconut milk over dairy creamer. Coconut milk has less sugar, more healthy fats, and adds a wonderful richness to my morning cup.

As you probably know by now, coffee is a big deal in my house and I love my old-fashioned brew!!!

This week we went for a few bike rides through the neighborhood by the golf course. It is heavily wooded and we always see rabbits, deer, and all types of birds.  I really think it is so important to get out in nature as often as possible. 

I also think it is really important to get my kids out as much as possible to work off all of their excess energy so they don't drive me as crazy...

Now I present my delicious homemade low-carb buns!!! We eat a primal diet, low in sugar and processed carbs and high in veggies/fruits and healthy meat and fats. We do like to have bread occasionally but unfortunately most of the gluten-free breads out there are pretty tasteless.

Did I mention I am a science nerd (I worked in a genetics lab for years) and my sweet husband gifted me a blood glucose meter knowing I would love playing with it? Yes, he really gets me. For fun (???) I tested my blood glucose level 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, and 3 hours after enjoying a hamburger with a gluten-free bun.

My blood glucose level shot up high and stayed that way for over two hours!  I don't know about you, but I don't like to see my blood sugar reading getting too high too often. My father has type 2 diabetes and I will do whatever I can to avoid getting it myself. And unfortunately my body does not respond well to anything with rice or rice flour so I try to avoid eating it.

But then I discovered low-carb real-food Cloud Bread!

This "bread" is made of eggs and cream cheese and is wonderful!!! If I let it age overnight in the fridge and then toast it the next day or two (or three, four)  I actually prefer it over real bread. Best of all, my entire family asks for it all of the time; they love it! I tested my blood sugar after having a hamburger with this bread and my numbers were at morning fasting level. Yay!!!!

So we are back to eating sandwiches and it feels so good! This is my modified "Cloud Bun" recipe. If you want to give these buns a try, you can click on it and then save it to your computer. My oven might be off, so watch them carefully the first time to make sure they don't burn.  And if you have a stand mixer it is so much easier to make a batch.

Here is Imp and Nutmeg. Nothing like a boy and his rat. Right??? ;-)

I will end this post with Piper. He is not dead, just worn out from his walk and sleeping at the feet of his favorite person in the world, Paul.

Have a great weekend!!!

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