Fun Facts About Hippos + Pineapple Pie

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

Did you play Hungry Hungry Hippos when you were a kid?

My memory of that game is that it hurt my ears - it was SO LOUD. I wonder if every parent in the 70s disappeared their child's HHH game and acted innocent when confronted. I would have done it. I'd do it today! 

But hippos are just so darn cute, I can see why they turned into an iconic game.

My entire life, I've viewed every animal as a potential pet - and even a lot of bugs. So I had this vision of hippos as potential pets - sweet and tame. But they probably would not make a great pet. They are actually quite fierce - but then again, so are cats and dogs. 

So I thought I'd bring you some fun hippo facts today.

Hippos can't swim! When you see them in the water, they're walking on the bottom. They have super sensitive skin, so they stay in the water during the day to protect it, and then leave at night to graze for a few hours. SO - if you don't want to run into a hippo, you should stay inside at night!

They can hold their breath for up to seven minutes - but they have an instinctive pattern of surfacing every few minutes to breathe - even sleeping hippos will surface and breathe without waking up! 

They are super territorial about their water and can be very aggressive - so never stand between a hippo and the water, should you be wandering around in hippo habitat. 

They are the third largest land mammal, and their closest relatives are whales and porpoises. Because of this - they live a long time - 40 years or so. The origin of their name is the Greek word for river horse - BUT - never attempt to ride a hippo! :)

I have a sweet hippo for you today - remember my flamingo video?  That same illustrator has some adorable new floral images out today - and one of them is this hippo! I love all her floral/critter mashups. Here's a link to another one I painted.

I painted this one with Daniel Smith Watercolors, after stamping it with Fadeout Ink.

Hippo Botanical 4x6 – The Rabbit Hole... [ THR ] Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink [ INK ] Escoda Versatil Brush - Travel Round,... [ BLIC ] Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors -... [ BLIC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #3... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #1... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #2... [ CTC ] My Sweet Petunia [ MSP ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Storage Envelopes, Medium 25pk,... [ ELH ] CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear... [ CHC ] Extra Large -50 pk, Avery Elle Stamp... [ ELH ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]

This weekend, I made a delicious new pie - pineapple pie! One of my fave vegan blogs posted the recipe, and I modified it a bit and it was amazing - I was afraid it would be too sweet but it wasn't at all! I have my notes in here for what I would do next time.

Enjoy!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off at Sweet Sentiment with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

VIDEO: Blue Without You + Recipe

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

Life is slowly returning to my yard, and I'm astonished at the resilience of the plants that survived our horrific winter storm. The advice our local gardening expert gave to wait until May was so valuable, because plants I thought were DEAD for two months after the storm are sprouting. It's amazing to watch. 

I went from a death toll I thought included: 

• my orange tree 
• four HUGE ornamental gingers - one was two feet taller than our fence!
• five blue plumbagos 
• a butterfly bush 
• mint 
• catnip 
• sage 
• Gregg's mistflower
• a MASSIVE selloum that has been in my yard since before we bought this house
• wandering jew
• my purple flowering ground cover that I don't know the name of
• two lantanas
• 10 monkey grass plants
• two rosebushes
• a newish datura

To:

• three blue plumbagos
• a shrimp plant 
• a mexican seedum

I talk about this in today's video - patience is as important as water and sunshine in your garden for sure. It hurts me to think of all the viable plants that were probably thrown out by disappointed gardeners here. Our yards have looked horrible, but to be rewarded with beautiful flowers and little green sprouts was worth that little bit of heartache. Some plants seem to have needed a freeze - like my roses and other roses on my street. 

I've been taking careful notes - I find it super interesting that this long row of trees in my neighbor's yard all died just over the fence from us, AND that a pex pipe on that wall froze and burst, nearly destroying her house and touching off a horrible series of contracting scams and insurance nightmares. So that clearly is a very cold, vulnerable space just feet from the side of our house, which is so puzzling. But it's good to note things like that, because it certainly won't be the last winter storm we have. 

I even have tomatoes already! So the storm PTSD isn't gone, but it's fading a bit. 

Literally, the second the snow melted, the first thing we saw were scads of our beloved bluebonnets, so that's the subject of today's video!

I did a loose watercolor underpainting, with detailed wet on dry painting on top of that. There are tiny bees flitting in and out of this beautiful stamp image. This set does have a coordinating die, but I didn't use it for this card because I knew I'd be painting outside the edges of the image for this project, but I did buy it. They also have a clearance sale going here, if you're over there picking bluebonnets! 

I used Daniel Smith watercolor from my split group and cold press watercolor paper.

So here is today's video - come back for a delicious vegan recipe!

Blue Without You Bluebonnets Clear... [ PRC ] Bluebonnets Die PPRS-D222 - Prickley... [ PRC ] Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors [ BLIC ] Lanaquarelle Watercolor Blocks |... [ BLIC ] Escoda Versatil Brushes | BLICK Art... [ BLIC | UTR | BLIC | INK ] What's New [ PRC ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #3... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #1... [ CTC ] Understand Blue Card Making Bundle #2... [ CTC ] My Sweet Petunia [ MSP ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Storage Envelopes, Medium 25pk,... [ ELH ] CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear... [ CHC ] Extra Large -50 pk, Avery Elle Stamp... [ ELH ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] Prickley Pear Clearance [ PRC ] Amazon.com : Fiber Gourmet Pasta –... [ AMZUS ]

Pandemic shopping is not much different for me - actually it's not different at all. I've been a passionate Instacart customer for 7 years - that's how long it's been since I've been in a grocery store. I have not only saved thousands of HOURS - which, as a self-employed person is huge - but thousands of dollars. I was so afraid I'd spend more, and I have to say I'm SHOCKED to pay about 60% of what I used to pay for groceries. Impulse buys are real, y'all. 

But pandemic availability is different. With a lot more people cooking instead of eating out, now everyone is like me - eating 100% of their meals at home, so that means I have less to choose from. Produce has seemed particularly spotty, although it's so much better than it was last year! So I've started using veggies in different ways. For example, our new salad green is cabbage! Why have I eaten lettuce for so long? Cabbage makes such a crunchy and delicious salad. So last week I had some napa cabbage and green cabbage for salads, and I decided to try some okonomiyaki, which I searched for after watching an episode of Maron's Kitchen - BTW - she looks so much like my niece!

Cabbage pancakes (okonomiyaki)  - adapted from this recipe

PANCAKES

• 2 eggs

• 1/2 cup water 

• 1.5 Tbsp Coconut Secret Coconut aminos, more for sauce

• 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 

• A few cups shredded green cabbage - I just eyeballed this. 

• 1 carrot, grated with a microplane

• 3 green onions, sliced

• 2 Tbsp avocado oil for frying 

• Seasoned rice vinegar & coconut aminos for dipping sauce

Dipping sauce - 2 parts seasoned rice vinegar: 1 part coconut secret coconut aminos. Recipe called for sriracha mayo, which I don’t like and seems too heavy for this delicately flavored pancake, but you do you.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, water, aminos, and sesame oil until smooth. Begin whisking in the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until it forms a thick, smooth batter. 

2. Using your finest micro plane, shred your carrot. This turns them into a fine carrot dust that just blends in and adds so much flavor.

3. Add the cabbage, carrots, and green onion to the batter and stir until the vegetables are mixed and everything is battered. This is where I just added the cabbage a bit at a time until it looked right

4. Add oil to a skillet over medium heat. Once hot, the vegetable and batter mixture for the size pancake you want, flattening a bit.. The first pancake seemed to brown faster than the subsequent ones, so watch that one. Put a cover on the skillet to hold in the steam, which will help the cabbage soften as it cooks. Cook the pancake until golden brown on the bottom, then flip and cook until golden brown on the second side. Two spatulas is a tremendous help. You might need to add oil as you fry.

5. The pancakes are basically unseasoned, but the dipping sauce makes them perfect. If you don’t plan to use this or another dipping sauce I recommend salting your batter before adding veggies. 

Serving suggestion - I did cold peanut noodles with this peanut sauce.

These are so delicious and I've been eating them left over this week - just heat uncovered on a cookie sheet until hot. 

And I could eat cold peanut noodles daily for eternity. Have you seen these low carb noodles? I cannot tell the difference between these and regular pasta. Really awesome.

Happy Earth Day!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off at Sweet Sentiment with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE