Happy New Year, Everyone!

Anyone backslide, yet?!

Seriously, I hope y’all made some firm, but achievable and realistic goals for 2018. I know I may have!

*ahem*

So, as a blogger, I can pretty much do whatever I want. I can write when I want, put posts out when I want, cook what I want, etc. In fact, I can even make up my own words, if I want! That said, I’ve got kind of a fickle boss. Me! I’d like to believe I hold myself to relatively high standards. I strive to achieve them… maybe even surpassing them, from time to time!

I have some guidelines I try to adhere to. Today, I’m going to break 3 of them.

1. Bloggers should never apologize.
2. Be present, current and timely.
3. This isn’t a confessional.

One: Sorry for the late blog post!

Two: Today’s post was designed for New Years and New Year’s Eve extravaganzas. It was originally intended to showcase fun party foods to being to a holiday fiesta. I completely missed the boat on that. Whoops! Try as I might, I never found myself with enough time to actually write the recipes. Dern gummit!

My most recent cookbook shipped in late November, spending the following 2 weeks being cast around the land. While it’s always exciting to ship thousands of books at the same time, it’s also a relatively intense experience for me. It creates a landslide of email and messages on social media, everything from compliments and personal stories, to questions about this and that, on to the darker issues like lost and damaged packages. I pride myself in handling all of this myself, writing personal responses, but it can be a lot to juggle. This event was followed by the holidays…

… where…

Three:… I cheated.

I did. Darn Espresso Éclairs. I regret it, too!

See, my family all came down to town to celebrate the holidays. For reasons that seemed to distill down to incompatible dogs (seriously!), we made reservations in fancy hotels for our holiday meals. I mentioned in my previous blog post that I planned to cheat for one of my holiday meals, but that within that freedom, I would still exercise a modicum of restraint.

Christmas Eve came and… we all went to a glamorous beachfront hotel where we caught up and enjoyed family time by the warm breezy Mexican sea. The hotel had a special holiday menu, which is never really good. It simply means that everyone is getting the same thing. It’s the first time the kitchen has tried it and it’s all cooked in bulk, rather than one careful plate at a time. Granted, it’s all logical and makes sense considering the event, but it’s never amazing.

From my dietary standpoint, however, this was actually a good thing. This will help me behave!

And, I did! The food was very good. The portions were small, some of the North/South holiday fusion was a little weird, but I love and support creativity. I’d avoided any sweet or alcoholic beverages, I sneered at the bread, but otherwise felt free to graze. It was a fun meal! As things were winding down, I’d assumed we were done, then the server came over and pointed to the dessert room.

He pointed to the dessert room.

The dessert ROOM.

A whole room… just for desserts!

Any resolve I’d ever made jumped from my mind, toppled right out of my ear and oozed off my shoulder.

There are certain things that I know that trigger me (smells, doughnuts, wheat, food, anything I’m supposed to avoid, etc.). I work to avoid those things, or have a plan B, just in case. In all my years, I’ve collected a seriously potent kit of tools, but… nothing could prepare me for the two little words: Dessert Room.

I was delighted and ashamed, all at the same time! I nervously shuffled over to the dessert room. I turned the corner… and there it was. It was a large bright and strangely lit, chocolate coated, icing dipped dessert Bacchanalia, clearly inspired by the movie stylings of Tim Burton.

I have another guideline I blog by, which is to be free to discuss healthy food in all its glory, but not to romanticize carby vittles in my writings. I think it’s safe to say that people know a fresh piping hot cauldron of spiced Mexican hot chocolate with homemade strawberry marshmallows is likely to be scrumtrulescent. I don’t really need to delve into its particular nitty-gritty. Doing so won’t really help anyone.

Let’s just say that the dessert room was adorned and littered with all manner of decadent treats and treasures. I was a kid in a candy store.

Remember back when airplanes showed movies to everyone on long flights, but they’d take whole scenes and cut them out due to haughty excessive mayhem? This is that moment in my blog post.

*snip*

Use your imagination, my friends…

Christmas morning, I awoke with espresso crème caked in my hair, the foot from a gingerbread man in my hand, and a POUNDING migraine. Shame. Shame and misery. Oh, I felt awful. Puffy. Slow. Foggy. Mad at myself.

The rest of the week occurred in a carby haze. I’d fallen off the wagon… hard.

Once off, it was ON!

Sooooo… yeah. I’m officially back on the wagon and have been for 9 days. I’ve already lost my holiday weight (huzzah!), but… the regrettable memory of that carbohydrate filled holiday week continues to sting, igniting a fresh new fire under my rear.

Maybe it will for you, too?

Hey, at the very least, at least you all know I’m human!

More content than you could read!

On a more productive front, if you’re anything like me, you’re trying to be extra good in 2018… hopefully forever. And, that’s great! You should! Adopt new habits, pick new recipes and work towards a healthier personal system.

If you need help, or need more information, need some deeper creative input, want a wider variety of recipes, or desire tips, hints, discounts and more… please read on.

I was honored to have been invited to participate in the 2018 Keto Bundle, presented by Jeremy and Louise Hendon. I feel so honored! I mean, just look at the people participating…

That’s seriously like a massive who’s-who of the Keto/Low-Carb/Paleo community. And… look. Right there. In the circle on the right. It’s me! I’m a who, now, too!

In all seriousness, I’ve seen these bundle/collection things before and they’ve always seemed a bit scammy/spammy to me. However, I’m quite familiar with the Hendons and know well their reputation. I’m also very much aware of all the other people on this list. Not a slouch in the bunch! Finally, I also know that my own newest book can be found in and amongst the list. While I’m clearly biased, my new book is a fun, informative and solid read with quality photos, illustrations, a professional design and detailed editing. It’s not something I just whipped up in notepad and published. It was a major project; one I’m enormously proud of!

I know that many of the other books and pieces of content in this bundle are of comparable quality. My point? This sale is no joke…

Here’s the sales pitch: You Get 31 Keto Cookbooks, Meal Plans, Weight-Loss Guides, The Entire Keto Summit, and Much More (Plus 10 Bonuses)…

…at a Huge 96% Discount!

This runs for 4 1/2 more days. The basic idea is, each of us bloggers, writers, doctors and influencers all work together to promote this bundle, during this short collective window. It’s a fantastic way to help thousands of people right at the top of the year, delivering them quality, informative and supportive information. From my perspective, it’s a great way to get noticed by audiences who may not know me, yet. So, I put my best foot forward. I’m sure it’s the same with the other authors. There’s a lot to love, here!

There’s something like 100 different elements to this bundle, from books and videos to discounts to products and more. It’s a massive MASSIVE chunk of quality content… for less than $40.00. Not to overmine its value, but the cost for this bundle is actually less than the cost of my first book.

I’m not your typically spammy guy (or at least, I hope not… ). If I promote it, I stand firmly behind it. This is a substantial amount of honest-to-goodness quality content at a fraction the cost to collect this independently. This collection will be available until 11:59pm EST on January 14th, 2018, at which time the sales page will disappear, and all the bloggers will go back to their regularly scheduled programs.

For now… grab it. Today! There’s no risk. You can always return it if you don’t like it (within 30 days), but… I highly doubt that’ll happen!

Now, on to the last bit of last year’s recipes!

Blackberry & Mascarpone Butter Log with Sweet Parmesan-Almond Crackers

This is a crazy recipe. It may be one of my best recipes. It’s certainly one I’m most proud of, which is funny in that it comes from a place relatively outside my personal culinary sphere. For whatever reason, I see the traditional cheese log as being something… well… More >

Goat Cheese, Mushroom and Cranberry Tartlets

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I whipped up some carrot pies and absolutely fell in love with the pie crust. I made some minor tweaks, just to clean up the appearance and eliminate the sweetener. I wanted a savory hand-held tart, perfect for any social gathering. What I made were delightful… More >

Cranberry BBQ Turkey Meatballs

This recipe stems from my mothers own quintessential holiday recipe. I remember as a kid, that she’d always cook up these sweet and sour meatballs and bring them along to the company holiday, picnic, gathering, etc. I don’t really know what it’s called, but she’d bring along a large rectangular … More >

Take a look at my books!

The Fakery

An Easy Guide to Grain-Free Quick Breads

Taking Out the Carbage

AKA The Big Book of Bacon

STANDARD FTC DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please note, I only ever endorse products that are in alignment with my ideals and I believe would be of value to my readers.