Whew. Oh, hai, last day of November. We made it, y'all, we made it. Fall, you are wearing me out - but sometimes in a good way. Because election hoopla is the world's best excuse to turn off the TV and read, and two eight-hour flights (one of which stretched into a 24-hour travel day...ugh), plus a lot of lazy days in French cafes, offers a lot of time to attack the to-read list. So here's what I've got for you this month as we wrap up November. Enjoy!
 
xoxo,
E

The quest to find new and exciting gluten- and sugar-free recipes marches on. In this instance, it led us to zucchini fries. We had half a hunk of Parmesan cheese in the fridge we needed to use up before going to France, so I was immediately drawn to this recipe. All I had to do was buy some zucchini and a lemon.

I wrote and scheduled this blog post to come to you while I was in France, to give you a little something to do, but technology and I are not friends, because, well, clearly it didn't post. So I'm doing it manually now.

This post begins with a long story, and because I love you all so dearly I'll spare you the details, but a couple of weeks ago I started seeing a functional nutritionist. And after doing some tests and finding out some things about how my body works (i.e., not well), she promptly took me off all sugar and gluten. No potatoes or rice, either.

If you've met me, you realize what a problem this is. I am (was) the dessert/carb queen. The only thing keeping me sane? Up to two 5-ounce glasses of wine a day is A-okay. But still. It's quite the lifestyle change.

We did a lot when we lived in Europe, but just by sheer time and money constraints we still left a lot undone. One of the top places I wanted to visit but never did was Morocco. I'd heard so many good things about it. There was even a direct (cheap) RyanAir flight from the Tours airport to Marrakesh, but somehow we never managed.

Today is a happy, happy day here at olive+yew, because WE ARE HEADED BACK TO FRANCE. The knowledge that this trip was in the works lit a fire in my heart that's been burning for a month now. Even though it's only for a week, I get to go back home.

But first, we've gotta get there.

Some dear friends invited us over for a bonfire, wine, and dessert after their precious littles had gone to bed. While I could have made something boring, I was kind of excited about an excuse to bake something off my Pinterest board.

Even though it was really way too warm for a bonfire (South Carolina is broken. Fix it, Lord), it's still fall, so I landed on these yummy sea-salt caramel-stuffed snickerdoodles. And yes, they're as decadent as they sound. We left the extras with our friends to give to their kids, and I think they approved. Aren't these babies just the cutest!?   

When it comes to our Europe experience, I haven't said a whole lot about London. We only spent three days there, which was so not even close to the amount of time I would need there to do everything I want to do and soak up the culture. But it did make a really big impression on me, partially because it just felt familiar somehow (a lot of books take place in London), and partially because we ate really, really well while we were there.