Yummy Treats for Rainy Days

I am suffering through the third straight day of rain and cloudy grey skies.  I was all ready for warm weather.  I already got sun burned from trying too hard to photosynthesize, I was a plant in my last life and I still try to live on light and water when the opportunity presents.  Well I was premature, and now I have to deal with the weather change funk, I don't mind the rain, but I do mind when it just shows up unannounced to rain on my parade.  Yeah, maybe I should actually look at the weather forecast in the future so I won't be taken unawares, but that would involve effort on my part, so...

At least the cold days bring me back into the kitchen.  I have made some very tasty things in recent days including a nice lemon rosemary chicken with ginger coconut lentils on Sunday and a butternut squash soup with apples and pink jasmine rice last night.  I was also in the mood for something sweet yesterday so I made a batch of sunflower seed brittle.  It turned out delicious!  I used Martha Stewart's Nut Brittle recipe but substituted 2 cups of roasted salted sunflower seeds for the nuts.  This is super quick and easy because you make it up in the microwave.  My 9-year-old son won't usually eat sunflowers seeds and he gave this a thumbs up.

Rainy days are also perfect for a cup of tea and I have been meaning to share with you about a tea I picked up recently.  When I attended my first SCA event a few weeks back I did a little shopping and my favorite items all came from one merchant, sadly I cannot remember the name to save my life.  I checked the merchant list, and I think it may have been the Domestic Goddess, but I can't be sure (I even found a picture of her shop in the background of one of my photos, but I can't see a name).  Sorry to the lovely purveyor of the shop for my lame endorsement here, but I'll do better the next time I see her for sure.  Anyway she had wonderful prices and a fun assortment of items including jewelery, crystals, treats, and teas.  I picked up this neat Chinese black tea stored in a dried mandarin for $1.50!  It is delicious and fun to use.