Diva Weigh

Eat your veg!

2012-01-31T08:00:00.000-06:00

texture by Kim Klassen

Radishes have become a new, surprise favorite snack of mine. I never particularly liked them before.

Last week, when I was doing Dr. Oz's 48-hour cleanse, radishes were on the list of snack veggies. Radishes, cucumbers and green beans were on the list. I could handle cucumbers and green beans but I thought radishes were going to be a problem.

The ones I used to get at the store were in a bag, already trimmed and washed. I think that was the problem. I started getting them in bunches. I had to do the trimming and washing but I found the taste to be better.

I ate all the radishes I got for the cleanse. I finished them off after the cleanse was over.

I bought another bunch this weekend for afternoon snacks.

My arm candy wants to grow a vegetable garden this year and I suggested that radishes would be something he could grow.

Who am I? Who goes from radish snob to radish grower?

Have you surprised yourself with a new veggie love?

today's image has 2 layers of Kim Klassen's simplicity, 1 soft light and 1 multiply at 50%, text is Lucida Handwriting

linked to Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday's

Focusing on Life

2012-01-30T09:00:00.000-06:00

There's been a disturbance in the force, a presence I've not felt before.

Three very talented and creative women came together and aspired to share their passions and dreams with others. They wanted to inspire and encourage creativity in everyone.

A new blog has come to the blogsphere.

"Focusing on Life" is born today.

It is a collaborative blog "where one of us will share with you, challenge you and most importantly, INSPIRE you to follow your dreams and live your life more focused on seeing it's true beauty."

I encourage you to stop by and see what Focusing on Life is all about.

Good Morning!

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

I have a pretty reliable internal alarm clock. My eyes pop open almost every morning at about 5:30 am. This is a good thing because it gives me time to get a workout in before the girls (or girl) gets here for the day.

When it's raining or too cold, I take the workout inside.

I much prefer to take the workout outside. I am walking 3 to 4 miles every day. Sometimes I'll jog a little but usually it's a walk. (foot issues, and I hate my current shoes!)

A benefit of this time is it gives me a chance to clear my head a bit, to enjoy the sights and sounds of the early morning.

And the smells. Most mornings, my neighborhood smells like dryer sheets! Just an observation.

It is early when I get out there and, in the winter, it is dark when I get out and dark when I get in.

I see the same people out there everyday. There are quite a few out at that early hour too. Runners, walkers, dog walkers, singles, couples, groups, some you can hear talking as they approach, others you can just hear their footfalls as they come up behind you. We greet each other with "good mornings!" as we pass.

It's really a perfect time to get in a workout, before work, before the kids get up for school, there's hardly any traffic in the neighborhood at that time. Just get up, get out, get a shower, get the day started.

One weekend, recently, I set out 15 minutes before sunrise-about 7:15 and saw this amazing sky.

This is my favorite thing about early morning, outside workouts. Sometimes when the sky is not painted with brilliant hues, the clouds will be in amazing shapes. Even now, in the dark, the stars and the moon can be so bright in the sky.

As summer approaches, the sun will rise earlier and I will be able to witness these lovely sights everyday.

I can't wait!

What's your favorite thing about working out?

Riley's ballet shoes

2012-01-24T08:26:00.000-06:00

texture by Kim Klassen

I never took ballet. When I was little, I asked if I could take ballet. My mom had taken ballet when she was a child and didn't like it.

When my daughter was 5 she asked to take ballet. ~~I was so excited I threw her in the car and signed her up for a class that day!~~ I was thrilled and signed her up. She loved it. She loved to dance and took different kinds of dance classes and joined a performing dance troop and her high school drill team. I spent many years in dance studios and at performances, competitions and recitals.

I loved every minute of it.

When my daughter had a daughter of her own, she could hardly wait to enroll her in ballet class.

Riley now takes ballet and her mom (and I!) spend time at dance studios and recitals and performances.

But most important of all, Riley and her mom spend time dancing together.

today's image is linked to Texture Tuesdays at Kim Klassen Cafe.
texture used-aurora at soft light

Only for 48 hours

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

This was the first time I ever drank something that was green and it wasn't beer and it wasn't on St. Patricks day.

It wasn't bad.

It wasn't great.

This weekend, my DD and I embarked on a 48-hour cleanse. The Dr. Oz 48-hour cleanse. Seemed like a good idea to me. I could do anything for 48 hours.

I thought it would be good to get all those antioxidants.

I looked at the menu and shopping list. Everything on it was something I was familiar with. It was all really good food. Yeah, I could totally do this!

Oh, but there was the matter of needing a juicer if you wanted to make the detox drink with kale, otherwise it was pomegranate juice and a blender. My DD bought a juicer for us to use! yay! kitchen gadgets!

So I cooked all the soup, together we juiced all the fruits and veggies and we were good to go.

Day 1-neither of us was a big fan of the quinoa brekkie, but we got through it. It did manage to keep us filled up for quite a while. We both had a detox drink before lunch. That is the green drink. Palatable. I did not care for the kale in it actually and probably would prefer the pomegranate drink.

Lunch was a smoothie. We both liked it.

Another detox drink and some veggies for afternoon snacks. We were both wanting something else to eat, DD thought her baby's cookies were looking good and I had to get of Pinterest because pictures of food kept popping up!

Dinner was the veggie soup, which was good, and a side of sauerkraut and apples. I like sauerkraut but only with sausage. I was not a fan of this side dish.

Water, water, water. And I did have my morning coffee.

By bedtime, I needed a little something and decided on a glass of rice milk.

Day 2-after my morning walk, I only had time to get ready for church so brekkie was a cup of coffee. (sorry quinoa! you're no oatmeal!) Then after church, my 5 yo granddaughter wanted to go to Red Lobster. How could I say no?

Well, you can guess what happened next.

So, what did I learn from all this? I learned that the Jack LaLanne juicer is the bomb!

Have you ever tried a cleanse?

The old penny

2012-01-20T13:08:00.000-06:00

textures by Kim Klassen

Just when you think it's gone forever, it turns up.

I was sure this blog was a goner. I couldn't find it, I thought I had deleted it, I thought google ate it, I thought it was gone forever. Then, I needed to update my google mugshot and surprise!

It's a good thing. I have been lurking in all your blogs. There is always lots of inspiration there and I am always amazed at the perseverance I am seeing! wow!

So, we're going to go through a little re-construction over here but things will pick back up.

I'm still eating, working-out, watching grandkids and taking pictures of it all.

Watch out.

The Diva's back.

I do, now can we go inside where it's cool?

2011-07-11T07:55:00.001-05:00

Did I mention I live in an oven?

Yeah, I spend a lot of time cooking and putting my head in the oven in the house, but, as much as I love living here, it gets freaking hot outside in the summertime.

Freaking hot, like 100+ degrees! Already over 20-something times this year! We're either in a drought-like now-or a flood-stay tuned.

And I love summertime!

The best way to enjoy summer ~~and not wither and die~~ is to spend it consuming and being consumed by water, like in a pool or at the lake. (but please don't consume that water!)

We used to be the proud owners of this

didja notice the lake out back?

now that's what I'm talking about!

It took us over 20 years to find and buy a lakehouse and the one we got was right next door to my DH's sister's in-laws place. Sounds convoluted, I know!

Used to be 'cause we sold it in 2005. We were going through some tough family times with MIL and FIL so we had neither the time or inclination to tend to this place anymore. DH had done a complete remodel on it. It looked noting like it does now when we got it. But anyway, sometimes I miss it.

This weekend, there was a wedding at what is now my SIL's place next door. And we went. Beautiful setting, ~~sucky~~ extreme temperature.

now that's getting walked down the aisle in style!

how adorable is the daughter of the bride/flower girl?

I became obsessed with taking pictures through the lattice! (OCD much?)

they did something like a unity candle with these tequila bottles. they are filled with sand, blue sand and white sand. (I was wishing they were filled with tequila! ;))

I loved everyones "formal" footwear!

love these!

Of course it was only 97 degrees during the nuptials. Practically winter!

Summah-time

2011-07-01T19:13:00.000-05:00

Nothing says summer quite like bare pigs in green grass.

July 1. How did that happen? And where have I been?

Well, I've been immersed in Grammy day-care for one and my new title is Grammy-razzi since I spend a lot of time with a camera pointed on the girls. The 5yo quite often says things like "Grammy, please stop taking pictures"

the 10mo doesn't say anything but has learned how to ham it up when the camera is out.

I am taking a break from French Fridays. I am taking a break from cooking in general. Weekends are meant for grilling so that is when and where the cooking has been taking place. It's also a good place to enjoy this.

You know, the grill is hot, ~~it's like an oven outside~~, it's hot outside, it's important to hydrate.......

The Pioneer Woman introduced me to this

If you missed it on her blog, you need to go there immediately.

I'll be over on Instagram when you get back.

There's nothing quite like summer!

(CWF)-Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Orange Marmalade

2011-06-30T14:52:00.000-05:00

O-la-la! It's time for another round of chocolate deliciousness with Chocolate with Francois! This month it's Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Orange Marmalade.

I have been excited about this since I saw it come up on the "to make" list!

Susan at Baking with Susan picked this one. Great choice!

This recipe has all the bases covered-dark chocolate, cheesecake, sable breton but the orange marmalade was striking out with me.

I was never a fan of orange marmalade. The thought of it brought back memories of chunks of chewy orange rind on burnt toast. I almost went to the bullpen for a relief ingredient. Or just toss it out of the game altogether.

But I didn't. As I read the recipe and noticed there was ~~an enormous amount~~ zest of 2 oranges that was to be incorporated into the filling. And the ingredients for the filling are remarkable similar to the ingredients for a Martha Stewart cheesecake recipe I have and adore. So I surmised that the combination of orange and chocolate could be devine even though it reminded me of a piece of candy from one of those candy boxes that you don't know what you're gonna get till you take a tiny bite so you can put it back if it's yucky.

But I digress....

I used low-fat cream cheese and low-fat sour cream. I had 4 ounces of 60% chocolate and used 4 ounces of milk chocolate. I am the only one around here that likes dark chocolate so I have to cut it back in recipes or no one (but me!) will eat it. That would be a bad thing here!

The cheesecake cooked up like a dream! It was cooked in a water bath and there was no cracking in the crust! The Martha Stewart cheesecake cooks in a water bath too and you're supposed to turn off the oven and leave the oven door ajar to let it cool and I always do that and the cheesecake is always cracked. This recipe does not require the door ajar cooling. Nice!

The sable breton was easy peasy to make. I made the full recipe and saved half to make some cookies with.
I still cannot force myself to pay ~~unreasonable~~ such a high price for almond flour so I did the finely ground almond trick.

The making of the cheesecake and then the crust was something new to me. It all seemed to go together well but with the addition of the marmalade to the sable breton then the cheesecake on that, the pieces kinda came apart on the plate and slicing a piece was a nightmare! I totally destroyed the piece! Hence no pictures of slices!

I think the sable breton crust was actually my favorite part of the whole thing! Not that the cheesecake was bad! Because it was actually very good! And very filling!

Since I did the grinding of the almonds, I decided to sprinkle some almonds over the top of the cheesecake. What a genius! (hahahaha!)

I thought the flavor of the orange zest was lost in the cheesecake. And the orange marmalade was lost in there too. The 1/2 cup I spread on the sable breton seemed too little. whatever.

I was happy to make this! So happy I put a picture of it on Instagram and labeled it chocolate with francois! (Instagram is my new addition!)

It makes a pretty picture! It's makes a tasty, though filling treat!

Thanks Susan!

Check out what the other bakers at Chocolate with Francois came up with!

Till next month!

(CWF) Yogurt Parfaits with Chocolate Granola & Bananas

2011-05-31T04:59:00.001-05:00

Yum!

Just the name of this makes my mouth water!

And this one doesn't disappoint!

A big thank you to Julie at Little Bit of Everything for choosing this! Go see her for the recipe! Be sure to stop by and see what all the other intrepid bakers concocted this month! You can get to them through the Chocolate with Francois blog.

This is a very simple recipe. Making the granola was quick and easy and it made the house smell chocolaty. My DGD came over while it was cooling and kept asking what that good smell was.

The taste of the chocolate granola reminded me of the Cracaos. It has a nutty, cinnamony flavor. The toasted coconut is a nice surprise. I had lots of chocolate granola left over. My DH likes to sprinkle it over a bowl of ice cream!

Cooking the bananas made them so soft and gooey! A good companion to the crunchy granola and creamy yogurt! Next time I might add some cognac to the pan!

That's really all there is to this treat. The assembly of the parfaits is to layer the ingredients. First the bananas on the bottom followed by yogurt (I used my favorite Greek yogurt) then the chocolate granola.

Really yummy! Really easy!

Till next month!

CWF-Chocolate Tiramisu

2011-04-30T19:36:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's already time for another outing with Francois!

Sandy of Seattle Pastry Girl chose this month's adventure.

Great choice, Sandy! We loved this!

Not so pretty but oh so delicious!

Sometimes Francois' recipes can be ~~a pain in the arse~~ a tad difficult for me. This one was not too bad! With the exception of all the folding of the various ingredients into the meringue and the preparation of the ganache. I'm getting better at folding. I'm always afraid of deflating the meringue! And you'd think I'd be able to successfully make ganache! What's so hard? I dunno! But I had to make this one twice and it still wasn't as good as it should have been! Taste wise it was good, looks wise-not so much.

anyway...

As the tiramisu is assembled you are to pour strong coffee over the cake that will be absorbed into the cake and add flavor. Well, I was just a smidge short of the required amount of coffee so I added some Tia Marie to get it where it needed to be. Just a smidge. or two. or.....

I let it sit, covered, in the frig for a day. Then we had some with our dinner ala French Fridays. It was the perfect way to complete that delicious meal!

Back in the fridge the tiramisu went for another day.

Day 2 it was even better!

Make this! You won't be disappointed!

And be sure to visit the other intrepid bakers at Chocolate with Francois

Till next month!

.

French Fridays-Bristrot Paul Bert Pepper Steak

2011-04-30T19:32:00.000-05:00

This week there were 2 fabulous chefs in my kitchen. It was the perfect storm.

Last week's Celebrity Apprentice featured Omaha Steaks and had Star Jones extolling the virtues of a petit filet in her preparation of a "healthy" meal. Kinda put me in the mood for a good steak.

Dorie suggested Bistrot Paul Bert Pepper Steak.

The recipe lists filets mignon. My local grocer called it tenderloin. There was at least 10 tenderloin filets in the case. I chose 2 beautiful filets that came in at just under a pound. Perfect for the 2 of us!

This is a very simple recipe. But, of course, I could not follow directions. Instead of cracked peppercorns, I used Montreal Steak Seasoning. ~~I'm a cheater!~~ I love that stuff! And it does have cracked peppercorns in it! I did apply it in the same way as the recipe directs you to apply the peppercorns!

A quick pan sear on each side then on to a warm platter whilst you ~~drink the~~ deglaze with the cognac and prepare the sauce!

I left the meat to sear about 4 minutes per side.

"Blue" meat is a new term for me and one that I actually heard twice this week. The first time on Chopped then again in the preface to this recipe.

While mine were not blue, they were perfectly rare! Just melt-in-your-mouth perfection!

Of course I had to try the les frites. Who doesn't like french fries! These are so good!

Steamed broccoli and a cold dark ale rounded out this delicious meal.

And the other fabulous chef in the kitchen this week suggested dessert-Francois Payard.

Chocolate Tiramisu?

Yes! Please!

French Fridays-Vanilla Eclairs

2011-04-15T07:11:00.001-05:00

Or, in this case, Vanilla Eclairs with Thick Ganache.

This recipe was actually fun to make. It is 3 recipes in one but each recipe can be made independent of the others. This suits my schedule very nicely. I can concentrate on each recipe then once that is complete I don't have to rush into the next one. My 8 month old DGD#2 doesn't believe that anything on the stove or in the oven is more important than she is! And, well, neither do I!

Dorie does a good job, as usual, in her preface to the recipe and recipe instructions. There are so many "Bonnee Idee"'s with this one it was hard to chose which one I wanted! Plain vanilla? Chocolate and chocolate? Coffee and chocolate? Coffee and vanilla? Coffee and coffee? Vanilla and Chocolate? Lemon curd? Profiteroles? And all the choices there are in that category!

I have made a pate a choux before with some success. It is an interesting technique. Piping the dough is always fun! This time I used a very sophisticated piping bag!

I decided to only make half this recipe. I was able to get 7 full size (maybe a little larger) and 1 mini eclair.

I thought they looked very pretty! This time I followed the recommended baking time. I usually deduct a minute of 2 from baking times and lately have had mixed results. I think I may need to get my oven calibrated. ~~Or a new fancy-pants oven would do quite nicely!~~

I was quite surprised when I sliced the eclairs in half, in preparation for the filling, and discovered how light they were. Translation-holey!

Look at that! More room for the filling! And the filling! Vanilla pastry cream! yum! Like the pudding your mom used to make on the stove! Well, maybe YOUR mom did! Mine was more of a from the box cook! I admit I even briefly considered using the instant stuff! ~~cause I'm lazy~~ I quickly dismissed those thoughts! And I'm glad I did! It was not hard to make the vanilla cream. Even though I under-calculated the amount of milk and produced a ball of pudding. Thankfully the addition of the missing milk and whisking the hell out of it alleviated that and created the desired (and delicious!) results.

In the past, I have had mixed success with the making of ganache. This time the only problem I had was there was too much! What to do with the extra? Besides eat it out of the pan?

I went with the spreading of the vanilla cream. Because then I could lick the spoon!

This is my mini-eclair. I originally thought I would only eat this one.

I was wrong.

Now my dilemma is which kind to make next?

French Fridays-Garlicky Crumb-Coated Broccoli

2011-04-14T19:03:00.000-05:00

I'm late to the party again. I made this a week ago and it was a hit.

I used flowerettes instead of whole stalks. We don't eat the stalks so this gave us more edible broccoli.

I added about 2 extra tablespoons of bread crumbs to the butter because the mixture became a ball, it seemed too moist. The butter/garlic/bread crumb mixture then spread out in the pan an roasted nicely.

The only problem with adding more bread crumbs was I had left over butter/garlic/bread crumb coating. Even after tossing in the broccoli and sprinkling some over the top. Then my dilemma was what to do with them? I'm still pondering that one! Maybe next time I will just use less butter since I had to toss the extra crumb coating in the trash! I hate to throw out food! Even crumb coating!

The broccoli was well coated and delicious. The broccoli was slightly crunchy, the crumb coating was buttery, crunchy and garlicky! I like garlic! My taste tester gave it a forks up! I was worried because he is not a garlic fan like I am!

I served it along with mini-meatloaves and mashed potatoes! An All-American dinner for sure!

This was simple to prepare and I will make it again!

Ketch-up

2011-04-12T20:18:00.001-05:00

It's April what?

12th?

whoa! How'd we get here?

The last thing I remember is trying to please, for the love of god, just get through January!

March was a tough month for me. I was really not feeling the "watching what I ate" thing. I was even bad about drinking water! I was a real slacker in that department! I was really motivated for about the first week of March because of a great loss in February. I'm a once a month weigher. Well, I do weigh more often than that but the one that counts is the one at the end of the month.

The end of February saw a 6 pound loss. 6! Woo-hoo! I was on fire! I could surely do that again and get to my goal by Memorial Day!

Then the ho-hums settled in and I was less than cautious with eating the last 3 weeks of March and had a gain of a pound.

A Pound. NBD but not the direction I need to go. So I'm re-focusing, taking each day as it comes, watching food intake, making good choices. yadayadayada... The one thing I am good about is the daily exercise. It's the 4 at 5 everyday. 4 miles at 5 am. Sometimes 7 or 8 am on the weekends but still 4 miles.

We've been busy working on our backyard now that spring has sprung around here. Our backyard is very shady. We had 21 trees back there. We don't live on acreage, just a slightly larger than standard neighborhood lot and 21 oak, elm and Texas ash trees that were very happy and had gotten very large. The canopy had grown together and was so thick that it was like walking into a room whenever you went outside. So most of the grass had died. Big, shade trees are so nice when summer comes but trees that are so big nothing will grow under them and their branches are rubbing on roofs (ours and neighbors) are not so nice. We had 5 trees cut down and 7 pallets of new grass put down. It's still shady back there and eventually we will have to cut more trees down but for now it's perfect.

With all the landscaping fun I have not been very good with the participation in the online photography classes I'm part of. That and Picture Inspiration really makes you think about the prompt. I've thought about them all. I haven't posted any pictures yet but I have taken a few. And the ones I have thought about require me to take a trip into the big city. I've got my eye on a really tall condo building in downtown Austin. Hopefully I can get there this week. My daily charges will be visiting their other grandparents in Ohio for a few days so might give me some free time.

Mastering Manual Mode ended and this is what I submitted for the final critique

2 little pieces of my heart! The cuteness factor is over the moon in my mind!

And speaking of the moon

did you see the super moon in March?

I plan to take pics of the girls in the bluebonnets tomorrow before they fly away. The bluebonnets this year are really sparse. I checked out the field I used last year for this pic

The cute tot will be there again but most of the bluebonnets have decided not to join us this year.
I only hope the few that returned this year will survive the night so I can get some shots of the tots tomorrow!

French Fridays-Quinoa, Fruit and Nut Salad

2011-04-01T08:54:00.001-05:00

If it's Friday, I must be French! Or at least be wearing pearls!

Or be cooking along with the French Fridays with Dorie group, attempting to create a delicious dish from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.

If you haven't tried anything from this cookbook, you should, you really should. And if you haven't checked out French Fridays with Dorie, you better or I'm sending Guido over!

This week the chosen recipe was Quinoa, Fruit and Nut Salad.

Ever had quinoa? You should! It's a nutritious grain. Really nutritious. Don't take my word for it, ask your mom!

And everything else in this salad was nutritious too! Really!

And tasty! Really!

And easy! REALLY!!

You know I like EASY! ~~cause I'm lazy~~

I cooked the quinoa in chicken broth. I always do. I just do. Rice too. whatever.

I used golden raisins, craisins, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, walnuts and pistachios. I wanted to use pumpkin seeds but couldn't find any. Funny because there usually is an abundance of them!

I topped it with a dollop of Greek yogurt cause that's what I had in the frig. ~~and I was too lazy to go to the store~~

I served it alongside a baked chicken breast. It can be served alone. It is that hearty. It really is. Really!

I had a bowl of it for lunch the next day, even better, really!

I served it with salmon the next night.

My taste tester loved it. So did I. Really!

I will make this again and again!

Really!

(CWF)-Charlie's Pudding Cake

2011-03-31T08:28:00.001-05:00

It's time for another installment of my kitchen adventures with Francois Payard.

Baking along with the Chocolate with Francois group has become something I look forward to. It's sometimes challenging and always fun. I learn new things and see the delightful creations of the other members.

This month's exceptional confection is Charlie's Pudding Cake chosen by Peggy of Pantry Revisited.

In my mind I had something completely different pictured. Pudding cake to me was something similar to a lava cake or chocolate filled cake. A cake that would have something creamy and chocolaty ooze out when sliced into.

I read the introduction and I read through the recipe. I believe there is a picture of it on the following page. A slice sitting on top of the slice of Charlie's Afternoon Chocolate Cake, with nothing oozing out.

The baking instructions indicate that, once properly baked, the cake would be set on the edges and very loose in the middle, like pudding. OK, maybe I will get my oozing cake!

I popped it the freezer for the allotted time and prepared the glaze.

I'm bad at glaze. Mine was thin and lumpy.

I poured the glaze over the cake and since it was so thin, it mostly ran off the cake. What little remained was absorbed by the cake. Not necessarily a bad thing. Just not what I was going for here.

So, I sliced into the cake, waiting for the oozing to begin, and, nuttin'. No oozing. Solid cake. Too solid.

Like fudge.

Is this how it's supposed to be?

I re-read the introduction and recipe and noticed in the introduction Francois mentions that this cake is baked in a water bath. Nowhere in the recipe and instructions is there a mention of baking in a water bath. I did not bake in a water bath.

Was I supposed to assume a water bath? Did you bake in a water bath?

Taste-wise the cake was very good. Not too sweet, very chocolaty and rich.

I used semi-sweet chocolate chips. Francois indicates in the book that 50% cacao is semi-sweet chocolate and that's what I had so.....

I think I'm going to give this a do-over. I would like the middle a little softer. Maybe baking in a water bath would help!

Till next month!

French Fridays-Scallops with Caramel-Orange Sauce

2011-03-25T20:32:00.000-05:00

I am not acquainted with scallops. I have never prepared them and may have only eaten than as part of a sauce poured over something else. If then. So I had no reference point for this recipe (other than the sauce sounded mah-velous!) and that made me more than a little worried about it.

What is a scallop? Is it a shellfish? I've had oysters, bleugh! I love shrimp! And crawfish are delish!

I really dragged my heels getting this done! I knew the local grocery store had scallops. When I finally asked for them I was asked if I wanted bay or sea scallops.
me: Which are best?
he: Sea scallops.
me: How much are they?
he: $14.99/lb
me: (faint)
me: I'll take 1/2 lb.

What if I hated them?

And there's only 2 of us that will be eating this anyway.

The scallops waited 3 more days to be prepared.

But prepared they were.

Yes, I used black pepper. I have yet to get white pepper.

First I'd like to say that I love the attention to detail that Dorie has put in every recipe. Her description of the cooking stages was more than helpful with the preparation of this recipe. From the color of the caramel to checking the scallops for doneness. Just what I needed to get through this one.

Now let me say that the sauce IS the star of this! It is really good. Sweet and tangy. We both loved it.

I took Dorie's advice and made Spiced Butter-Glazed Carrots to accompany the scallops. (even though the asparagus in the picture looked devine!)

BUT no cardamom. Not a fan. I've made these before, they are simple and tasty. I need to bump up the garlic and ginger since I don't use the cardamom.

The whole meal came together quickly and easily. Just the way I like it. The scallops cooked very quickly. And they were quite good!

Once again, the sweet/tangy combination caused my taste buds to crave a spicy element. Perhaps some chile flakes next time? Or how about a Cajun rub on the scallops before the pan fry?

I guess you could say I'm a believer!

French Fridays-Salted Butter Breakups

2011-03-22T20:32:00.000-05:00

So it's not Friday yet but since I didn't get this up last week here she blows.

I was eager to make and try these. The recipe reminded me of shortbread.

mmm...shortbread!

I also had some ideas of ways I wanted to serve it.

But first I had to make it.

The recipe was simple, as all the of the recipes in Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table are. Mix butter, sugar, flour, pat into a square and refrigerate. Then after an hour, roll it into a 1/4" rectangle. The best part was Dorie tells us not to worry about your rectangle being perfect. sweet!

Dorie suggests to score the top with a fork in a criss-cross pattern. It makes a very attractive presentation.

But, of course, I had to try something different. It was St. Patrick's day last week when I made this and I thought it would me cute to make little shamrocks in the top. But I had nothing that could make those. I was also wishing for one of those pie crust roller things to score it with. But since I don't have that I used a meat tenderizing mallet thingy and made little holes in the top.

I put it in the oven and set the timer for a time between the recommended baking times. This is what I always do.

When I was about 3 minutes from the end of the baking time, I could smell that it was beginning to burn. great.

The edges were very dark. very dark. (sigh) At least there was still plenty that was not too dark.

I got busy with the grandkids and dinner preparations and left it alone for several hours. Once I got my hand on it and tried to break off a chunk to shove in my pie hole, it was hard. hard as a rock. I tried to take a bite. It was like eating rock candy. great.

Epic FAIL!

I broke it open near the center and it was less hard and almost edible. I had to taste this! Some part would be edible and I was determined to find it!

One of the things I wanted to do with this was serve it with a smear of Nutella.

mmmm! Nutella!! Can we have a moment of silence for Nutella.

I do think this disaster was all self inflected. I should have used the shortest baking time. I will make it again and I will check it before the shortest baking time! Just to be sure! This is one of those things that can be had in so many different ways! Not only was I going to serve Nutella with it, I wanted to dip the bottom of part of it in chocolate. I thought it would be a nice accompaniment to ice cream. It would be so good crumbled on top of a yogurt and fruit bowl.

But for this week, I'll just take my Nutella straight up.

That's the best way to eat Nutella anyway isn't it?

French Fridays-Beggar's Linguine

2011-03-11T07:38:00.001-06:00

Another French Friday has rolled around!

I love Fridays! I get to wear pearls and pretend I'm sophisticated and French. oui. and zat I am ze Michelin-starred chef of ze Chez Diva zomstimez creating a pate sable crusted creation for a patisserie window.

So zis week ze chosen recipe is Beggar's Linguine.

wait, where am I?

oh yeah, not French.

Dorie suggests this will make 6-8 starter servings or 4 main course servings. I halved the recipe and got exactly enough for 4 generous starter/side servings.

So to the list of ingredients I go and made a substitution on the very first ingredient listed-linguine. In it's place I used 7 ounces of Fiber Gourmet Light Fettuccine. Then the remaining ingredients were used except for the herbs for serving. Although, the addition of the herbs would have given it another bright color source making it an even more attractive dish. Yes, I used real butter. The pasta substitute was the only concession to lower fat/calories (higher fiber) I made in this recipe. You whittle where you can!

warning-skip this part if you have a delicate constitution!

You have been warned!

As I was making this dish, I realized that it really wouldn't be terribly difficult, right up my alley! I didn't realize that certain members of this household would attempt to sabotage my culinary efforts! The butter was melting nicely! Foaming just a bit and starting to turn a light amber color when all of a sudden the baby (DGD#2) had a blow out diaper. OK. This must be attended to but as I was making my way to attend to this situation, the dog indicated she needed to go out(by scratching on the door) OK. dog-can wait, baby-must be attended to, butter on stove-must be removed to prevent burning. The baby required a complete change of clothing as well as the blanket she was playing on, as I was picking up the last of the baby mess, there at my feet was the lake that the dog just left me by the door. OK. Baby-clean and happy, dog-in the doghouse! Dog lake cleaned up as well as the mat by the door. I now had more than a load of disgusting laundry awaiting me! But first-back to the linguine(now fettuccine)

I re-heated the butter and when it was the proper color, I added the dried fruits and nuts. I noticed as these were being coated with the ever darkening butter there was some large lumps! What could that be! Oh, it's the raisins! They got all plump in the hot butter! It didn't take long to complete this dish and I served it as a side dish with broccoli and tuna steak. I cooked the tuna steak with chipolte/raspberry sauce. I thought that would accompany the sweet pasta nicely.

I liked this beggar's linguine. I really did. My taste tester agreed. He thought it was really good. It was sweet and salty. The pasta was comforting and held onto the nuts and fruits perfectly. The occasional touch of Parmesan and the tang of the orange rind was very pleasant. The butter pulled everything together nicely. Browned butter. Who doesn't like brown butter?

Dorie suggests that this dish cannot be reheated. Sadly, I must disagree. (sorry, Dorie! (tear)) I nuked some of this for lunch the following day and it was as good as the day before.

Dorie also suggests this as a starter or a main course. I'd like to suggest that this would be good with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. Just to give it a little zing. I know the French don't like anything fiery in their food but sweet/salty and spicy! Yes please!

Or how about adding some shredded rotisserie chicken to this and serving it as a main dish. Shredded rotisserie chicken and some craisins.

Now that's what I'm talking about!

So maybe I'm not French and maybe I'm not sophisticated but I'm still going to wear my pearls when I cook!

Bon apetit!

Migh Fotos

2011-03-09T07:34:00.002-06:00

All of my favorite things begin with the letter-"F".

(Don't go there)

food, family, friends, Fridays, footwear, Fiestaware, fabric, fiber-arts and fotography.

Maybe fotography is a stretch but, hey, there is a little town near where I live named Pflugerville. The "P" is silent.

Anyway, these days finds me taking pictures of all kinds of things and participating in 3 online classes. Just this week I was playing around with my fancy-pants (another "f" word!) lens and was taking macro pictures of Lego's. When I put them on the computer screen, not only could you read the word "Lego" (how cool! and who knew?) on every little bump but you could also clearly see all the little pieces of dust and dirt that have accumulated between those little bumps! I never saw the memo about scrubbing the Lego's before taking pictures of them! Well, now I know!

disgusting!

2 of the 3 online classes I am taking are photography classes. All are through Big Picture Classes.

Mastering Manual Mode has taught me more about my camera and helped me feel confident in using manual mode. We recently submitted a photo to be critiqued. This is what I chose to submit.

I knew there were all kinds of problems with this photo but I really liked it. I was taking pictures at my DGD#1 5th birthday party-a mani/pedi party-and this little girl kept popping in front of my camera. Here, she was getting her nails done and was lying on her arm. The room was pink. Everything in the room was pink. She was wearing a pink robe and was lying on a pink table. I think it's her eyes that draw me to this picture.

One Word Project is a year long class. It is about selecting a word and exploring that word in different ways and creating a scrapbook along the way. I don't scrap. I'm a bad scrapper. I'm a wanna be scrapper cause, what the heck am I gonna do with all these pictures! I have all the class material that is available to date and all the supplies needed to date but nothing has been put in a scrapbook, to date. One of these days I'll get a wild hair and get 'er done.

I have chosen a word and taken a picture of it.

and I took a selfie in January

kinda blurry

Picture Inspiration is my other online class. It is another chapter in the "Picture" series classes by Shutter Sister Tracey Clark. I took all but 1 of her "Picture" series classes and hope to pick up the missed one this summer. In those classes, a daily prompt for photo inspiration is sent to each participant for a month. We take a picture based on our interpretation of the prompt, load (or not) the picture in the gallery. The community in these classes was incredible. Lots of supportive comments on my images and lots of beautiful pictures from others! Nothing but inspiration there! When the "Picture" series came to an end, we were all sad. Tracey created "Picture Inspiration" to continue the journey. This time we get weekly prompts, for a year! I am enjoying this class. Our first prompt was to update our profile pictures-another selfie. Since I already had a recent picture on my profile, I took a selfie for fun and part of a little project I have imposed on myself

Me and DGD#2

My self imposed project is to take daily pictures of both DGD's. Daily as in the days I have them, Monday-Friday usually. I thought this would be a good idea since they change so quickly, especially the baby. Sometimes this is not as easy as it sounds! And sometimes, especially lately with the cold, dreary weather, it's not too exciting to take pictures inside everyday. It's a challenge to make them different each day.

This is a recent picture of the girls. I used textures on it to (hopefully!) make it more interesting. I'm a newbie to textures but find them to be incredibly beautiful additions to pictures. The textures I used here came from Kim Klassen. (She's a Shutter Sister too!)

Although I still have much to learn, the journey has been so much fun!

Sometimes it's just capturing little moments in my sometimes, crazy, busy life! Taking a minute to smell and take a picture of a flower along the way!

French Fridays-Savory Cheese and Chive Bread

2011-03-04T07:07:00.001-06:00

It's Friday! That means it's time for another kitchen excursion with Dorie Greenspan's From My French Table.

For me, Friday's are not the only day that I have Dorie in my kitchen. I cook almost exclusively from this cookbook. It is always on the counter and it is full of little tabs indication recipes I love, want to try or the French Friday group has chosen for the weekly adventures.

This week Weight Watchers chose this book as it's book of the month! For real!

OK, OK, back to French Fridays-

This week's recipe is Savory Cheese and Chive Bread.

I had high hopes for this one! I love bread! Even though this is not really a bread. There is no yeast. Even better, I thought! No waiting around for rising! Dorie describes it as a "cake". A "savory cake". OK. Sounds interesting.

I had all the required ingredients on hand. I keep plenty of Gruyere in the frig now, it is a new favorite cheese! I decided to use a low-fat cheddar for the other cheese.

Chives! The chives smelled so good after I chopped them! The thought of chives and cheese in bread was almost too much!

Walnuts? Kinda weird, I thought but I'll go with it. Walnuts are good.

The ingredients went together easily. Then into the oven it went. I set the timer for the middle of the recommended cooking time-40 minutes-and tried to distract myself as I waited by taking some pictures of a bunch of tulips I recently brought home.

The oven did not emit the wonderful baking bread smell. I probably should not have strained my olfactory to try to locate it.

When the timer went off I rushed to pull the pan from the oven. I could barely wait for it to cool! I really wanted to try this!

It is a very nice looking ~~bread cake~~ whatever. There is lots going on in this ~~cake loaf~~ whatever. Flecks of green chive, dots of orange cheese, chunks of brown walnut. I anticipated the Gruyere would melt right into this and give off it's wonderful flavor!

I am so sad to report that I did not like this ~~bread cake~~ whatever. It just didn't tickle my tastbuds. At least not in the way I expected. Perhaps I should try different herbs and/or cheeses. And perhaps I should leave out the walnuts. I dunno. I do know that I love beer bread! Which is similar to this in consistancy just minus all the cheese/herbs/nuts and add in stout beer! (hello St. Patricks Day!) hic!

My taste testers do not like chives so I didn't even offer it to them to try. No, in fact I must report that this very pretty loaf met it's demise in the container that resides by the curb that the men in yellow suits empty once a week. (tear)

RIP Savory Cheese and Chive ~~Bread Cake~~ Whatever!

Better luck next week!

Birthday Month

2011-03-02T07:59:00.002-06:00

I thought it was about time for a little update on the comings and goings on around these parts. Health, wealth, stealth, hellth, whatever.

February is almost a non-stop birthday month. Starting about mid-month there's my b'day, my brother's b'day, #1 DGD b'day, my dad's b'day and throw in Valentines day and Girl Scout cookies and you've got the makings of a 5 pound weight gain. It's a mine field of cakes and dinners out and lunches with friends and cute little girls coming to the door and waiting outside of every store with cookies.

This year my DD treated me to lunch 2 days before my b'day at California Pizza Kitchen. I chose that restaurant because I knew there was something on the menu I could order that would not be detrimental to my waist line and because it is conveniently located next to Sur la Table. At the restaurant we did have a slice of red velvet cake. Delicious. Then off for some self gifting. My DD surprised me and paid for the items I wanted at Sur la Table. What a sweetie!

Then on my actual b'day, the whole family had lunch at Buca de Peppo. I made it a point to eat a small serving of pasta and when the leftovers were sent home with me I sent them to school with my DS. My DD make red velvet cake balls. Yes, I had some of these and sent what remained to school with DS.

me, DH, DGD#2

no, this is not my plate! it's what we had left over!

how could I say no?

#1 DGD had a mani/pedi party with 8 of her friends. I took pictures so I was too busy to eat cake. yay!

5 years old! I can" believe it!

giant, edible polish!

uh-huh!

Valentines day was in there somewhere. I did get some beautiful roses, no candy. Works for me!

There have been several boxes of Girl Scout cookies in this house but very few have passed these lips. Most get sent back to school with DS! What am I going to do when I don't have that outlet anymore!?!

The month ended with another dinner out and an evening enjoying Jerry Seinfeld. The food was good, the comedy was better!

I continued my daily 4 mile walks through the month unless it was too cold or rainy. 20 out of 28 days. Pretty good.

The good news is I have not gained any weight! In February I was able to wear a pair of my "skinny" jeans for the first time in 2 years! And comfortably too!

Paying attention to what I eat and paying attention to portion sizes and not telling myself that I cannot have something works very well for me. Planning works too. Planning for a meal out, planning what to order and planning to work out.

And now it's March and the birthday's slow down a bit.

And hopefully the weather will warm up into spring!

(CWF)-Cracaos

2011-02-28T07:17:00.001-06:00

This months baking adventure with the lovely ladies at Chocolate with Francois was chosen by Astheroshe of Accro . Cracaos.

I loved these! My DH loved these! The kids (adult and grand) not so much. eh

I am very seriously trying to lose a few pounds and when I saw the first ingredient listed was 14 tablespoons butter, I almost cried! My thoughts swirled between using fake butter, less butter, margarine, applesauce(?!?).

But I managed to talk myself off the edge and just went with it. After all, when baking there is no substitute for real butter. And after all, I don't bake everyday and I will not eat all these by myself!

But I wanted to! They were that good.

I enjoyed the preparation of then. The size of the rectangle gave me some trouble. My first attempt became too flat and wide so I had to push it back in to a smaller size. That created a very lopsided rectangle. Once I got the correct size, it was off the refrigerator to chill. Once chilled, I measured and cut the cookies. Since I had a lopsided rectangle to start with, I had more than a few lopsided cookies. I don't think anyone noticed though!

They were chocolaty and nutty and crisp and buttery and just a little sweet but the cinnamon really gave them a little extra something!

These would be a really nice treat with a good cup of tea!

Till next month!

French Fridays-Pancetta Green Beans and Short Ribs in Red Wine and Port

2011-02-25T07:44:00.002-06:00

It's a two-fer this week!

I saved last weeks recipe (pancetta green beans) for this week to make alongside this weeks recipe (short ribs in red wine and port) and I'm glad I did!

First the pancetta green beans-

I have made green beans in this way before but used bacon instead of pancetta. So this time I went out to the local grocer for pancetta. There is was in the deli case. After I picked myself up off the floor, which was where I landed once I saw the price per pound, ($12) I decided that I would use bacon in this yet again.

(side note: be prepared to pay more per pound for bacon in the US come April)

The other difference in this dish opposed to the one I make, is the addition of butter to the pan to saute the green beans in. What a difference too! This was tender crisp, and salty. The butter tied everything together nicely. Super easy! A definite dish to prepare again and again.

and now the short ribs in red wine and port-

Since I was preparing this for just 2 of us, I halved the recipe using 6 short ribs. Once again instead of a bouquet garni with fresh herbs, I dumped dried herbs in the pot. Also, instead of a port wine I used additional red wine. I did have plenty of a very nice syrah on hand.

The preparation of this recipe, and several I have made, fit nicely into my daily schedule. The long, slow cooking and preparing it the day before it is to be served. I am able to start a process, tend to the grand-kids, return to the kitchen in time for the next process then return to the kids. I let this sit in the refrigerator overnight.

The only drawback to the long preparation is the incredibly good smells that come from the stove! I think my DH was a little disappointed when he came in from work and could smell the deliciousness in the air, and even peeked in the pot that was on the counter cooling a bit before going into the refrigerator, then realizing we were having something totally different that night!

Good things come to those who wait?

Patience is a virtue?

Well, for sure, good things came to those of us who waited until the second day to eat these short ribs!

Getting this to the table the second day was very easy. I appreciated the fact that the fat was so easily removed from the top of the lovely sauce!

Simple glazing of the ribs, pop under the broiler, grate some orange zest, combine with chopped garlic and parsley and viola! Fantastic, super-delicious, melt in your mouth food!

This one got rave reviews all the way around!

Even though I only made 6 short ribs, there was still a few left-over, though, nobody is complaining about having to eat this again!

I have marked this recipe as a repeat! I don't think anyone will tire of eating this!

French Fridays-Orange-Almond Tart

2011-02-11T07:07:00.001-06:00

Oh yes!

Dorie tells us that this tart is usually served with nothing else on the plate. She suggests that whipped cream is never unwelcome. While I would normally never turn down a dollop of the white deliciously creamy stuff, this tart would be the exception! I can't imagine how anything could enhance the flavors of this flavorfull tart!

Since I do not own a tart pan (but now must get one so I can make this over and over!) I used a pie pan. And since ~~I'm cheap and lazy~~ didn't have any almond flour and didn't have time to peel and carefully section oranges, I made my own almond flour using a cup of sliced (and toasted) almonds and canned mandarin oranges.

(yes, that looks like quinoa next to the bag of sliced almonds! trust me, it's my processed almonds!)

If you've never turned almonds into flour, just toss some blanched almonds into a food processor and pulse. Beware that the end result will be courser than flour and beware that too much processing will give you almond butter which is not necassarily a bad thing but not what you wanted!

My tart/pie needed to bake about 15 minutes longer than what was stated in the recipe. I find that my oven cooks slightly lower than whatever oven was used for the recipes in this book. I set the timer for 55 minutes then checked at 5 minute intervels until the knife came out clean.

The almond cream was to-die-for good! The crust was perfection!

Since I am greedy and could not wait to try this, it was barely at room temperature when I cut into it for a slice for my DH and for me. I found that allowing the tart came to room temperature and allowing the tart to stay at room temperature, allows the orange flavor to develope. Maybe next time I'll exercise some self-control. ~~or just have another slice~~

Dorie really has this dessert thing down!

I must thank Allison from French Whisk for extolling the stylish blogger award to me. Merci!

Stop by her blog and see what her whisk has brought this week!

Just another day

2011-02-07T07:51:00.002-06:00

This past week's arctic blast was really something! A big storm that much of the country dealt with. This storm put a screeching halt on my daily 4-milers. My goal for this winter is to walk everyday, even when the temperature dips below freezing. I have been able to do that until this storm. This storm brought teens and twenties for temperatures with wind chills of 5 to 10, and a little snow. This was something I did not consider when I set my goal.

It had been a 4 days since I ventured out. I stopped on Tuesday when the front blew in. I was able to resume my walks Saturday. As I started out, I felt like I was going really slowly. I felt a little stiff and it took a while to get my rhythm. I quit thinking about that and looked at the clear blue sky above me and enjoyed the warmth of the bright yellow sun.

The last of the snow was melting off rooftops. There was a few slushy areas in the shady parts of the sidewalks. Every now and then I could smell a fireplace burning somewhere.

There were lots of birds chirping everywhere. Lots of scurrying around, jockeying for position, nest building and dating going on in the bird world these days!

I saw the slumping remains of snowmen, struggling to stand tall in the sun.

One, still snow covered car, was heading down the road. Still snow-covered as in still had snow covering the windshield except for a small sliver on the drivers side. I moved way over to the opposite side of the road and stopped and carefully watched as this car approached. Seriously? We don't have scrapers in our cars here but we do have spatulas in our homes and defrosters and wind-shield wipers come on our cars!! Was this snow on the windshield too much for this driver to deal with?

There was only a few other people out, a couple of runners and another walker. And I watched 2 little boys, one wearing glasses and carrying a big yellow tractor and the other wearing a backpack, walk from one house to another house and kick all the slushy snow they came upon and I heard one of them say "I love snow".

Then there were 2 teen-aged girls picking up the last bit of snow from a shady spot on a lawn. Trying to make one last little snow ball.

And a sports car with 2 men inside passed by, with the top down.

It felt good to be outside again.

I missed my walks!

French Fridays-Basque Potato Tortilla

2011-02-04T07:14:00.001-06:00

I was amused that this dish is called a tortilla. Living in the southwest all my life kinda defined the word tortilla for me. I was relieved to see that there was no instructions for making a tortilla in this recipe! That is quite the undertaking by itself!

Mine is not as browned as the picture in the book. A little more time under the broiler next time perhaps.

Then I thought it would be like a quiche because there were eggs but discovered there is no crust, so not a quiche.

Then I thought it was like a fritatta. I think that may be the one. I make quite the yummy fritatta! Perhaps I could combine the two! Now that would be a bonne idee!

Lots of potatoes and onions in this, very much like eggs and hash browns like Dorie mentions. I like all the variations of this that are listed with the recipe.

The taste test crew liked this. I did have a little left over but it was no problem storing it and nuking it the next day. There was no loss of flavor!

Till next time!

(CWF) Chocolate-Nut Loaf Cake

2011-01-31T08:17:00.001-06:00

It has been a while since I baked along with the Chocolate with Francois group. I've missed them and Francois. These recipes always challenge me. This one was no exception.

Leslie at Lethally Delicious, chose this month's recipe. It really is a great pick. This is a tasty treat!

This loaf-cake is full of nuts! That was the only thing I had a little trouble with. Although hazelnuts are not too hard to find, and I'm sure they are available peeled and ready-to-use, the ones I got needed to be peeled. So I par-boiled them and rolled them in a towel and the skins were still on so I did it again and same result, finally on the 3 try, the skins came off. Learning curve?

Francois suggests a chocolate glaze. I had the ingredients to make this glaze sitting on the counter and ~~got lazy~~ decided that since I really wanted to serve this not too sweet, chocolaty nutty-loaf cake with vanilla ice-cream, I should skip the chocolate glaze and just use chocolate syrup. (Sorry Francois!)

So yummy! Perfect with ice-cream!

Since it is a LOAF-cake, I'm thinking of toasting a slice to have with coffee. Or perhaps making a chocolatey-nutty french toast with a slice and sprinkle that with some powdered sugar! Oh the possibilities!

Till next month!

French Fridays-Chicken B'Stilla

2011-01-28T08:12:00.001-06:00

Dorie warns us that this dish takes time to make. For once, I followed directions! And I'm glad I did.

Well, kinda followed directions. I used boneless-skinless chicken breast instead of chicken thighs. I don't feel too bad about that minor substitution since Dorie tells us this dish is traditionally made with pigeon, or parakeet, or whatever.

Oh, and I only had 1 onion. I used 2 shallots in place of the onion I did not have.

I prepared the chicken and sauce one afternoon and let it rest in the refrigerator while I scoured the town for filo dough! I had been on the lookout for some for several weeks and it's usually available in the local grocery store but the word got out that I needed some and there was a run on it or something!

Truth or dare time; truth-I have never used filo dough and didn't know what I was doing when I purchased it. The recipe said "8 sheets". The packagee at the store said "2 rolls". I bought 4 packages. MynotrealizingwhatIwasdoing?

anyway.....

Making this ahead worked well for me because I was able to do the marinating then the cooking in between grand-baby care and grand-pre-schooler snacks and Old Maid games.

This smelled really good as it cooked!

The crust looked beautiful when it came out of the oven. Nice and golden brown.

Serving suggestion is that it needs no accompaniments. And it's a finger food? Well, there was no sauce oozing anywhere but I would prefer a a fork, please. Thank you.

I served it with a tossed salad.

The taste test crew enjoyed it very much. I have always enjoyed sweet and savory and this filled the bill. Not too sweet despite the dusting of cinnamon sugar on the top. Really good. There was lots left over and it was covered and stored in the refrigerator. The next day the crust was soft but the overall taste remained delicious.

This one is a keeper!

In the meantime, I'll be wallpapering my house with filo dough.

Till next time!

Stark Raving (fill-in-the-blank)

2011-01-24T08:20:00.001-06:00

crazy

Lemme splain.

Picture Winter continues to challenge and inspire me in different ways. The student gallery is amazing. I always refrain from browsing the gallery until I have chosen my interpretation of the daily prompt and added it to the gallery. I am always amazed in the array of talent, creativity and artistry I see in the photos of the other students.

Last week we received the prompt-Stark Raving Magnificent. The accompanying photo was breath-taking. At least to me. It was a picture taken out of an airplane window of the black sky with a brightly colored horizon and a crescent moon in the upper corner. The suggestion given was keep it simple.

I thought it was really beautiful It was stark. It was magnificent. And it got me raving. It was a picture I have seen myself out a plane window but never had the foresight to have a camera handy or to snap a photo or to even know how to snap a photo and capture it's magnificence.

So then, how was I supposed to respond to this prompt? Short of capturing the birth of a planet, what could I get a shot of that would fill the bill?

This rolled around my head most of the day and I finally came up with something I thought would at least fit the simplicity part. I set it up, shot it, posted it then perused the gallery. The gallery was filled with pictures of beautiful landscapes and incredible show scenes and stately trees and stunning sunsets and sunrises.

What I saw in the gallery was again amazing. And nothing like what I shot. And suddenly what I shot was so totally wrong. I needed to get it out of the gallery before anyone saw it and replace it with something more suitable.

Too late. It's already been seen.

(sigh)

Why didn't I post this?

or this?

or even this?

OK, so maybe not this last one. But is is stark raving delicious! Click here to read all about it.

The reason I did not chose any of the above or any other photo in my archives is I am trying to think outside the box with this class. Stretch my photographic wings? See things in new ways. yadayadayada?

My goal with this class is to take a new picture, based on my interpretation of the daily prompt. No matter how crazy, lame, different, weird or not what was intended by the prompt. This collection of photos is supposed to represent me, my thoughts during this month.

But no! I posted this;

(face palm)

The most ironic part is that the very next day, I shot this;

It's funny how things happen sometimes!

French Fridays-Sweet and Spicy Cocktail Nuts

2011-01-20T09:45:00.000-06:00

This is a selection from December.

This selection from Nibbles and Hors D'oeuvres was simple to make and tasty to nibble on.

My test crew loved them!

This recipe reminded me of a recipe I have for sweet and spicy pumpkin seeds. The use of an egg white was new to me though.

I used a can of Planters mixed nuts. I followed the recipe as written but...I didn't let the excess egg white drip off the nuts before the baking. It didn't look like there was excess egg white to shake off! A little mistake on my part!

What happened as the nuts baked was the excess egg white ran off the nuts and hardened on the baking mat between the nuts! Not a major problem but it resulted in me having to break the nuts apart and break off the excess, now baked, egg white.

Lesson learned, shake off the excess egg white before baking because I will make these again!

A little sunshine please.

2011-01-17T07:51:00.000-06:00

Is it just me or does January feel like a really long month?

We are halfway through the month and usually I think-"sheesh! the month is almost over!" But we are halfway through January now and I'm thinking-"when is this month going to end?"

It's probably because I am looking forward to spring. And last week was typical January weather. Cold, cloudy then rainy. This didn't bode well for my daily 4-miles. This year I am determined to walk 4 miles everyday. Last Tuesday was when the cold front blew in. The temperature was tolerable when I went out for my walk but by the time I was nearing home the temperature had dropped and the wind was blowing.

I may have had frostbite on my fingers!

Consequently I missed 5 days in a row. I did return to the pavement this morning.

I can't remember the last time we had a sunny day.

Please let the sun shine today.

This past week wrapped up our sons Christmas break. I always enjoy having him home. We always like working puzzles together so I took out a 2000 piece puzzle last week and both of us spent hours putting it together. It's like a sickness! We can't walk away! We stay up late, we don't eat! We did get it finished but 1 piece is missing! He headed back to school yesterday. It is already too quiet in the house. I will really miss his help with the girls! Today I get them solo!

I am still cooking almost exclusively from Dorie Greenspan's "From My French Table" and haven't had too many disappointments. I am able to make these dishes fit into my food plan quite easily. Most of them are already diet-friendly. Many dishes use Gruyere and I don't substitute anything for it. Mainly because it is such a delicious cheese and the amount is never more than a sprinkling. Compared to the truckload of cheese some other recipes call for!

I am a little behind in my Picture Winter class. With the cold, rainy weather we have had lately it's been hard to find something to shoot. I rented a 100mm macro lens on Friday. Hopefully that will help me get caught up. I am anxious to try it out.

That and if the clouds would break and let the sun shine!

French Fridays-Gnocchi a la Parisienne

2011-01-14T09:57:00.003-06:00

When I read Dorie's serving suggestion for this dish and she compared it to macaroni and cheese, I took that to heart and was expecting a pasta dish. I have never made or tasted gnocchi, so in my descriptions to my family about what we were about to introduce to our oh-so-savvy taste buds, I described it as mac-cheese.

wrong-o!

Not macaroni and cheese! And not meant to be a side dish! Dorie did warn me about that though.

I am loathe to report that my pictures of this dish are atrocious. Either way too bright or way too dark. Novice photographer here. sorry. (sad face)

I prepared the dough as directed but sis substitute a butter blend for the real thing. It rested on the counter for a couple of hours then the party began. Since I'm hard-headed, I made this as a side dish with baked mahi-mahi and steamed brussels sprouts. Good thing I chose 2 light dishes to accompany this one!

The dusting of the dish with Parmesan was brilliant! I loved that step and may try it with other things.

I baked it as directed but it needed to brown a bit so it spent a few minutes under the broiler and when it came out it was a pretty dish.

But it was not mac-cheese, or pasta. (which I discovered after tasting a gnocchi after boiling them) It was a dumpling, and a very tasty dumpling too.

Bechamel sauce I am familiar with. I have made it before. I felt that there was way too many gnocchi for the amount of bechamel so I used half and froze half. I liked the flavor of the gnocchi so much that I will use the frozen gnocchi the next time I make chicken and dumplings.

Needless to say the taste test crew really liked this dish.

Cheesy dumplings? Yes please!

Raiders of the Lost Arts

2011-01-10T08:21:00.000-06:00

Recently I received a thank-you card from a woman I don't even know. The kind words in this card meant a lot to me.

When I was still a newlywed, back in ~~the stone age~~ the 70's, my mother-in-law got a new sewing machine. This meant I was the lucky recipient of her old one. It was an about 1945-ish model Sears Kenmore cabinet. It has a knee lever, is dark brown and heavy. The cabinet is nice because is folds out so you have a nice work area. Anyway...I was not a seamstress of any measure at that time but the gift was still very much appreciated.

Being newly married and living on a very discretionary income, there was no money for new clothes. Being employed full time meant wearing something besides jeans and t-shirt everyday. I found out that a pattern and some fabric was significantly less expensive than ready made clothes. Sewing suddenly became something I was very interested in.

I was able to successfully create clothing that was suitable to wear to work and soon I made all my clothes. When our children arrived, I made most of their clothes. When my daughter wanted to decorate her room I made bedding and draperies. When I wanted a new table cloth or napkins, I made them. There was almost nothing I couldn't or wouldn't at least try to make.

About the time our first grand-child arrived, I discovered a wonderfully soft fabric called Minky. I made baby blankets and burp clothes with that fabric. By this time I had purchased a fancy pants machine that had an embroidery module so I could put a name or design on the things I made.

Then when friends and family members would have a baby I would make some for them.

These were always very popular gifts . I understood that the fabric was oh-so-soft but what really made the new moms happy was having something with their baby's name on it.

I have received plenty of thank-you notes from the recipients of the Minky blankets over the years and each one is appreciated. That someone will take the time out of their too busy-hurry up-I need it yesterday-email-evite-ecard-texting world to actually sit and write a card is special and I save every one.

My DD has asked for me to make these blankets and burp clothes for her expecting friends. One friend, when handed the package said "oh, no! you shouldn't have!" then once the package was opened she said "oh! I was hoping it was this!" and another friend that had just found out she was expecting said to my DD "you know what I want at my baby shower!" I love these comments!

No, I really don't know this woman. Her husband works with my DH and they just welcomed their first child and when my DH wanted to know what we should get for the new baby I of course suggested the blanket and burp cloths and made a set in blue camo for their new little one. What made her thank-you note different was the words she chose to convey her thanks.

She said "...please give a big thank you to your wife for such a wonderful art piece she created..."

Art piece.

wow

who me?

did I do that?

French Fridays-Paris Mushroom Soup

2011-01-07T10:26:00.000-06:00

Oo-la-la!

Another simple and tasty soup! I don't think I'll ever tire of that!

I did not make the salad that goes with this because DH is not a fan of scallions but he never knew there was anything missing.

A dollop of Greek yogurt was substituted for he creme fraiche.

I almost didn't want to puree the soup! It was so full of mushrooms!

I'm thinking of freezing the leftover soup and using it in recipes that call for canned cream of mushroom soup. I'll add some fat free half and half. This soup has to be an improvement over the canned version in any recipe!

French Fridays-Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux

2011-01-04T20:14:00.000-06:00

This was a November recipe. I made it before Thanksgiving and intended to post about it November 19. Better late than never?

Oui. I am part of les paresseux.

And I can prove it, I didn't have any bread, it would have required me to pick up a loaf as I walked by the display when I was in a grocery store (and I'm in a grocery store almost everyday) and, who has the energy? So I didn't add any bread to the bottom! doh! I wish I had and next time I will!

Dorie's trick of flipping the bird after the roasting makes such a difference! But, since I'm lazy and putting the bird on another plate/platter/whatever, and tenting it with foil would mean I had to wash said plate/platter/whatever, instead of taking it out of the pot and doing that, I just flipped it over in the pot and put the lid back on the pot.

I thought it cooked quickly, tasted so good and was very moist. All the taste testers like it too and they are not big fans of roast chicken.

The little that was left over made a delicious chicken salad!

I will make this again. With the addition of a piece of bread for the bird to rest on! And me to nibble on!

The perfect dish for lazy people. Like me!

And...we're back.

2011-01-01T18:38:00.000-06:00

Back in the saddle so to speak.

I never really left. I was always lurking and learning. I had to stop writing because I was boring myself to death. I workout, I eat oatmeal, I cook, I don't lose any weight or lose weight very slowly, rinse, stir, repeat. (sigh) (face-palm)

I was stressing myself out about little things and focusing too much on what I ate and what I weighed. Bad combination.

Since it's a new year, let's recap:
2007-highest weight ever, purchased an elliptical and began using it
2008-lost 70 pounds-continued using elliptical and added weight training
2009-gained 20 pounds-began running and alternated that with elliptical
2010-lost 20 pounds-running then switched to walking

So, now for 2011 in the weight category, I will lose 30 pounds. How? Sensible, unstressed eating. Moderate fat, high fiber, watch those carbs, very little drinking. There is no food that is excluded. That leads to trouble.

In the exercise category, I will continue to walk 4 miles almost everyday. I say almost because it does rain too hard to go out with even an umbrella but I will go out in sprinkles and on cold mornings. I like to go out at 5-5:30 in the morning.

Cooking wise-I attended a cooking class in October with Dorie Greenspan and she made a few recipes from her cookbook-Around My French Table. I joined the online group French Fridays (which I have made every recipe and taken pics but have not been very good at blogging about them! mybad?) I love this cookbook and have been cooking almost exclusively from it. I can easily adapt the recipes to suit my style-fat and calorie wise.

Life wise-we welcomed our second grand child-a girl-in September and I became full time Grammy Day Care for her and her 4 yo sister in November. Full time work to be sure but I love every minute of it! I have taken several online camera classes and really enjoyed them. I really love taking pictures and am slowly learning how to look at things in new ways. Remember those pictures that were all colored dots and you were supposed to look at them and suddenly a picture of something would jump out? Didn't you just love those! I hated them! I could never make anything jump out! They were nothing but a bunch of colorful dots to me! I tend to see things as they are. So I'm hoping to teach an old dog some new tricks with these online photography classes!

So, life is good!

2011 is here and ready to be lived.

What's your plan for 2011?

Picture the Holidays

2010-12-31T21:01:00.001-06:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

French Fridays-Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans

2010-11-12T17:41:00.001-06:00

This week I made Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans. The flans I am accustomed to are sweet, served as dessert, so when I read the ingredients for these I noticed the absence of sugar. These flans would not be dessert! I do like pumpkin! Pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin pie creme liqueur and canned pumpkin in my oatmeal to name a few, but all these concoctions have cinnamon and/or nutmeg in them. These flans had no such spices. And Gorgonzola is good. Kinda tangy and salty. I wondered how these flans would taste.

These flans were very easy to put together and bake. They were very tasty too! I served them as a side dish to our supper of chicken and dumplings. My DH liked them too!

Once again, I used fat-free half and half in the recipe and topped them with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a splash of maple syrup.

These flans would make a nice, light lunch or supper served with Vanilla-Vegetable Salad!

Till next time!

French Fridays-Potato Gratin

2010-11-05T18:53:00.000-05:00

I spent a very pleasant few hours with Dorie Greenspan a couple of weeks ago. She stopped in Austin on her book tour. We were treated to her wit and style and of course several of the tasty dishes from this book. And if that wasn't enough, we received a copy of the cookbook. I scanned the book as soon as I was able and began trying recipes. I found this group-French Fridays-and knew this would be a good place to be.

So I jump in now with potato gratin.

I have made potato gratin before but not this simply. I always added onions, and green chile and cheddar cheese and sometimes sausage.

Why?

My concern with this recipe was the garlic. I am a garlic lover but hubs is not. The garlic was not overpowering, the dish was very good. Even my DH agreed.

It is very filling! I used fat free half-and-half(the person that invented this should be sainted!)

We do have quite a bit left over but our son will be home from college this weekend so.......

Till next time.

Be back soon

2010-10-31T16:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween!

Why don't you stop by for a spell!

Scale-a-tics

2010-07-07T08:15:00.001-05:00

This post was ready to go yesterday. Then yesterday got in the way. It was one of those days where everything I thought would happen didn't and everything I never imagined would happen did. Things like scorpions and bare feet, painting estimates and unfulfilled expectations, mothering and 31 yo pregnant daughters who almost faint at work because of not eating dinner but had ice cream then fruit pizza for brekkie, painting "families" with an infant, ice water, kiddie pools and angry red hornets. Not too mention a broken air conditioner and a broken water heater.

Everything is rainbows and unicorns today so without further ado, here is yesterday's delayed post.

It's July so that must mean a visit to the scale goddess. Last weigh in was June 1. July 1 rolled around and I forgot! WTH? Well I did remember but it was later in the day and too late by that time. Gotta follow the weigh in rules! You know-nekkid, potty visit, first thing in the morning. I like the monthly weigh in thing too much! But I did remember to hop on the scale on July 2 and I saw a 4 pound loss.

Yea! I know it's only 1 pound per week but it looks better seeing 4 pounds opposed to 1 pound. I'll take it.

So why did I lose 4 pounds in 1 month on my own and 4 pounds in 5 months while attending WW?

Good question I asked and answered myself.

WW is a good tool to use to lose weight. I have lost weight using that. I have lost 5 pounds in a week before. Always the first week and always because I had previously been eating fat filled, fried and not so healthy food for months and years. Of course I would lose weight when I changed my eating behaviour. This is what WW wants you to do. It's a good thing.

My eating behaviour has been in place now for at least 3 years. No more daily indulgences that got me so fat. I am usually good about the choices I make and the portions sizes. Another point that WW makes that is a good one.

My exercise has also been in place for at least my adult life which is another WW point and another good one.

So what was different this time for me?

For me, WW has become food pushers. There was free samples at meetings, the leader would talk about how she needed to have the WW shake every night before bedtime and the WW popcorn every afternoon and she lost a gozillion pounds and at every weigh in, I was surrounded by food. WW has created their own version of everything, even gum.

I am a marketers dream. If I see/hear/read that some food is so super good then I MUST have it and NOW! So of course I wanted everything I saw while I was weighing in and everything I saw at the store that said WW on it.

Just because it says WW doesn't mean it's calorie free. It still needs to fit in my daily plan or things go wrong. This is where I was struggling. I HAD to have some of that everyday because it was good for me, right? and the leader lost weight eating it, right?

I'm all for meal planning and I do that but something about all the WW food talk made me think about it and thinking about it made me want it and wanting it made me think about it and yadayadayada!

Something had to give. I had to stop thinking about it and to stop thinking about it I had to quit looking at it and hearing about it.

Not to mention the added stress every week stepping on the scale and seeing ounces falling off!

It's a good program, it didn't work for me this time.

But I seem to be doing fine on my own, except for the little ice cream incident last week!

I'm hoping to see less of me in August!

How crazy are Jake and Vienna?

Box of Chocolates

2010-07-01T09:07:00.000-05:00

like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"

God bless the USA!

Have a fun and safe holiday weekend!

Once upon a very strange day....

2010-06-30T09:17:00.000-05:00

Since we sold our lake house, our weekends have been leisurely. Leisurely in that we don't have to work our a$$es off painting, building, cleaning, mowing, installing, wiring, demo-ing something and whatever else we had to do because we were renovating that house.

We have started taking walks together on weekends to get a little exercise. This is a bonus for me since I already get my sweat on Monday through Friday. DH sits at a desk Monday through Friday and doesn't get a workout in until the weekend. This can be a bad thing, something I have mentioned to him. (I am no expert, but I have been a consistent exerciser for over 30 years now so I have picked up a few tips over the years.)

My DH has always been a kinda guy who does everything full tilt. He just doesn't know how to do anything just a little bit. It's mach 10 every time. He wants to go out for our 5K walks but he wants to do it after he has slept in, eaten brekkie, had coffee and read the paper. Sometimes it is after 11 AM by the time he is ready to go.

I usually wait for him. I always encourage him to get up and get out there early. Especially now because it's summer and it's hotter than hades out there. Dangerously hot.

This past weekend, I didn't wait for him. On Saturday, I got out and did the 5K walk by myself, at 7 AM. It was 75 degrees, 90% humidity, the sun had just risen. On Sunday I waited a bit, but got out and did the 5K by myself at 9 AM. It was 85 degrees, 75% humidity and the sun was blazing.

On Saturday, he decided to go to the local elementary school about noon to shoot some baskets and do some pull-ups and a little running, about a mile. Too hot to be outside doing anything. There is no shade at the local elementary playground. Saturday evening he said he was feeling really tired.

On Sunday, he decided to go for a bike ride. He used to be a cyclist-used to be as in about 20 years ago. I warned him that it was too hot out for that. He pooh-poohed me and grabbed his helmet and bike and told me his route. I told him to drink water (he didn't) and take plenty of water (he took a Gatorade).This was about 11 AM. It was 90 degrees, 70% humidity and the sun was blazing.

At about 11:30 AM, I got a phone call. It was an officer from the local police department calling to tell me that he was with my DH and could I come get him and his bike, he was suffering from the heat and the fire department was on the way.

OMG!

The adrenaline kicked in. Heat exhaustion is extremely dangerous. Deadly, in fact, because it can become heat stroke.

When I got to where this was all happening, about 2 miles from home, my DH's bike was leaning on a fence in the shade, with the Gatorade unopened in the carrier thingy on the bike, there was a police car, a fire truck and an ambulance but no sight of my DH. I went to the police car and the officer told me my DH was in the ambulance being attended to. The officer said he was driving by and noticed him sitting in the shade and he looked very pale and was vomiting so the officer turned around to check on him.

Thank God for that.

Had he not stopped to help my DH, I'm sure my DH would have attempted to ride the rest of the way home and things could have been so much worse.

After the paramedic got my DH feeling better and released him, the paramedic helped me load the bike in my car. My DH gets in the car and the first thing he says to me is "sorry".

Sorry? Seriously? For what?

For being stubborn and hard headed?

Then when we get home, he wants to unload the bike and hang it back up in the garage.

Why?

I made, no I forced him to go in the air-conditioned house and take a shower. I was more than capable of getting the bike out of the car and hanging it up in the garage myself.

I made him some food, I made sure he had water, when he didn't have water, I asked if he needed some more. When he said he'd had plenty, I gave him more anyway.

He spent the rest of the day on the couch. In the evening, he had a headache and said his head felt hot.

As if this day wasn't already FUBAR, as we were watching the TV in our den, a bird flew smack into the window. A Mourning Dove, which is about the size of a pigeon. Scared the rest of the cr*p outta me.

Please pay attention to the heat index before attempting anything outdoors.

Please drink plenty of water.

And please pass this on to my DH and anyone else who thinks they are invincible!

Almost weigh-day!

2010-06-29T08:44:00.000-05:00

It is T minus 2 days to weigh-day. This once a month weigh-day feels better. I am feeling none of the manic-dreading-loathing-general craziness that I felt when I was weighing in weekly. There is actually some anticipation. I know my clothes are fitting better. So, we shall see.

After my calf strain last week and Helen's good advice to take a rolling pin to it ~~as opposed to taking a rolling pin to my DH,~~ I started back working out, on Saturday. On weekends we do what we like to call a "death walk". Actually, that's what my DH named our 5k walks. He says I always start fast and stay fast the whole way. Interesting since I was never able to keep up with his pace in the past! Anyway, the calf still had a teeny little tightness when I started out on Saturday, and I was afraid I would have to cut my walk short, but as I got going the tightness went away and I was able to finish. I went out again on Sunday. No pain. Monday I resumed my walk/running.

Yea! I'm back in the saddle!

This morning's excursion was a walk. Starting out at 5:30 I noticed a few bats out snagging the last of their nightly feasts. They are creepy in the way they fly. It's just so random, you never know which way they're going. It's like drunk flying! I suppose they may be a little inebriated as it is the end of their "workday"! As long as they stay well above me, I'm good. The morning sky was so beautiful as the sun was rising. Another perk to being out there so early.

A couple of reasons why I like to go outside and walk/run so early are 1)so I can get my workout/shower/brekkie done before my DGD comes for the day, and B)because the temperature is bare-able, as in no dangerous heat index, even at 5:30 AM these summer days, the temperature is 75.

The temperature may be bare-able but the humidity is high and I am a sweat hog so by the time I get home my t-shirt weighs 10 pounds! (talk about smelly laundry! P-U!) The sweaty, heavy t-shirt and smelly laundry don't bother me, what bothers me is when the sweat rolls down between my fingers. Not between my fingers at the end of my fingers but between my fingers at my palm. It collects on the top of my hand then runs down between my fingers. EW! I hate that! I'm going to invent a thing you can wear between your fingers (like those things you put between your toes for a pedicure) that will absorb that sweat!

My food choices and portion sizes were good this past week for the most part. The exception was an over-indulgence of the demonic Happy Tracks. If you live in Texas, you know Blue Bell ice cream. Happy Tracks is their newest lure to the dark-side. It worked on me. But after I woke up from my ice cream stupor and the pint container was mysteriously in the garbage and I had fudgy chocolate on my chin, peanut butter cups breath and a tummy ache, I chalked it up to another lesson learned, the hard way yet again!

I was not a good tracker. I haven't been in the mood to cook much so I have made simple meals with mostly fresh veggies. Lots of grilling, lots of fish, lots of yogurt and lots of oatmeal. The protein experiment is now a part of my daily food plan. It is working well for me. No ravenous hunger between meals or as I am preparing a meal. Yea for that. It is helpful to track my food. Just to be sure I'm getting enough calories and enough of the other nutrients that I track. I need to improve in this area.

Are you a sweat hog? Or do you just glisten?

Box of Chocolates

2010-06-24T07:30:00.000-05:00

like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."

George Bernard Shaw

The best salsa

2010-06-23T09:11:00.000-05:00

Remember the episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and George are opining over how salsa has over taken ketchup as the #1 condiment, and George asks why and Jerry says "because people like to say sal-sa!"

People like to do more than just say "sal-sa". The grocery stores here have almost an entire aisle devoted to salsa. It is at least equal to the ketchup aisle. But, seriously, how many different ways can ketchup be made?

There's red salsa, green salsa, mom's salsa, hot salsa, mild salsa, chunky salsa. Pace alone has about a dozen different varieties.

But there is no green chile salsa. My version of green chile salsa is not on the shelf. You can only get it here and I'm gonna give it to you!

Warning: this is the best salsa you will ever eat. you will not be able to eat any of the store bought salsas again.

My version involves roasted New Mexico green chile. Remember when I was a crazy women last summer and you all went WTF? This salsa is part of the reason.

The Best Salsa

2 - 14 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes with juice
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 heaping tablespoon sugar
1 heaping tablespoon salt
1 heaping tablespoon cumin
1/2 lime, juiced
10 whole green chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded, deveined and chopped

Put all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it is the consistency you prefer. Usually about 10 pulses.

makes about 1 quart

Fire roasted tomatoes give this salsa a subtle smokiness.

Anaheim chile can be used in place of New Mexico green chile. Prepare them the same way. The Anaheim chile will be milder than the New Mexico chile. If you want to raise the heat add some jalapeno or other hot chile.

You're gonna need the scoops for this one!

Or maybe just pour it in a glass and add a shot of vodka for a salsa-tini!

Or a shot of tequila for a salsa-rita!

I'll take mine straight up, please!

It's time to cheer USA to victory! Gotta grab my vuvuzela and rolling pin!(thanks Helen!)

Have a salsa-rific day!

What a bummer!

2010-06-22T09:57:00.000-05:00

There is 1 more week to go before I meet the scale. I feel good about the way eating and working out have gone this month. I have also noticed my clothes are feeling looser and hip bones and ankle bones have re-appeared.

I'm hopeful, anticipating July 1 and the weigh-in and I'm going to keep on with what I've been doing all month.

Sorta.

Yesterday morning on my run, when I was on the last half mile, I noticed my right calf was tightening up. This was making it painful to continue jogging so I slowed to a walk. Still painful so I slowed my pace a bit more. Finally my calf loosened enough to allow me to walk at a moderate pace. No power-walking or jogging to finish off the morning workout.

Three years ago, when I was 70 pounds heavier, I strained that same calf one day when I was out for a walk. It was so painful that sometimes it was difficult to walk. And it took a long time to feel good enough to resume power walking, or even walking in general!

It feels just like that but not as severe. I can walk but I am definitely favoring that leg. Great. Just when I was feeling good about my running and getting almost 20 miles a week walking/running.

I'm going to rest it for the rest of the week and see how it feels next week. I'll start off with walking then move up from there if I can.

bummer

Something I noticed this morning that I wondered about was how hot I felt as I was running a few errands. On a normal day, I get my morning workout in and that involves lots of sweating, shower, and get on with the day. Running errands makes me warm but not sweaty like this mornings errands did. Since I had no workout this morning, I was wondering if there is some connection between tolerance to temperature and exercise.

Workout-heat tolerance
No workout-no heat tolerance

Have you ever noticed this?

Box of Chocolates

2010-06-17T06:49:00.000-05:00

like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"

In case you missed this-

Buggy

2010-06-16T07:47:00.000-05:00

Since I have started weighing once a month, there will be no tales from the scales today. That will come on July 1.

There will be tales from the trails though! (I can see you are on the edge of your seat! not)

I managed a few workouts before the beach vacay but really nothing, except walking, while on vacay. There was lots of walking around the aquarium we visited and moderate beach walking. This week I have gotten back into my daily early morning, outside running.

Yesterday I encountered 2 baby blue jays just out of the nest. They were on the ground near the sidewalk and I didn't see them till I was almost to them. As I approached, they started squawking and running and flapping their little wings. Mama blue jay was in the tree above keeping a close eye on them and was squawking right back. I'm pretty sure she would have dived bombed me had I made any attempt to get near her babies.

Only a few yards from the baby blue jays I encountered a large turtle. This turtle was in the grass between the sidewalk and a pond. His head was poking out but he was not going anywhere.

These are the types of wild life I enjoy.

Today I was a running bug zapper. Do you know what a bug zapper is? It's one of those blue lights in a wire mesh cage you hang in your backyard and it's supposed to keep the bugs away because it ZAPS! them when they fly into it. I think it attracts more bugs than you had in the first place.

Can flying insects see? Or are they just randomly flying around hoping to fly into food or a girlfriend?

As I started out on my run this morning, all of a sudden a June bug (big brown flying beetle thing) came out of nowhere and flew straight into my thigh-SMACK! Come on! Where my thunder thighs so huge there was nowhere that bug could go to avoid them?

I thought that was a random occurrence but then another bug smacked into my upper body then another almost flew into my mouth!

I thought about trying to keep my mouth closed but there's no way that's gonna happen. So next time, I'm wearing snorkel gear!

Food wise this past week has been very good. Despite the vacay. I packed a lot of the food we ate to cook at the condo and we had fresh fruit and veggies as well. Most of the restaurants near the beach offer sea food and grilled sea food is what I chose and I was not disappointed. Yes, I did indulge in a few adult beverages. But only a few. There was no slamming down cold beers like I was able to do in my youth.

The protein experiment is still going on and is serving me well. I found a soy protein powder that I add to my morning bowl of oats. The additional protein at mealtimes is keeping me full longer and when I do get hungry it is not that GOTTA-GRAB-ANYTHING-AS-FAST-AS-I-CAN-AND-SHOVE-AS-MUCH-OF-IT-AS-I-CAN-INTO-MY-MOUTH-AS-FAST-AS-I-CAN hunger. It's a gentle kind of hunger that says; hey, it's time to eat. I like that.

I do still like to bake. Shannon wonders how I can bake and still lose weight. My thinking on this is that it is not the baking it is the eating of the baked goods. I enjoy the process of baking. I enjoy learning new things. and I enjoy creating something for my family that they enjoy. I do occasionally enjoy some of the things I make. But only occasionally. Usually just a bite. I never keep the things I bake even if I have to throw it away (which I hate to do but better in the garbage where I can't get to it). I also believe that no food should be off limits. That sets me up for a binge. If I know I can have anything I want, then I really don't want it. And, also, I believe that if I want some kind of baked goody then I must allow for it in my diet. I must do something like pass on the bread or rice or pasta or whatever other carb is in my diet so I can have the baked goody carb.

Anyway, probably more than anyone cares about but it is what it is.

Do you make any edible trade-offs?

(MSC) Strawberry Cupcakes

2010-06-15T08:08:00.000-05:00

This month's cupcake adventure with the Martha Stewart Cupcake club is Strawberry Cupcakes chosen by Sherry at Sherry Starts Cooking.

Because I just got back from vacation and there is a mountain of laundry not too mention a list a mile long of things that need to be done, I almost didn't make these.

But then I took another look at them and decided that since it was National Strawberry Shortcake day yesterday, how could I not?

I followed this recipe verbatim. (I know, shocking) These are not low calorie or low fat. Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow. And I did eat one. (somebody has to do a taste test) ~~maybe two~~

The recipe makes 34 and since that is way too many for us, I halved it and made 17 which is still too many but most will find other homes. Cupcake, anyone?

Finally, this Martha Stewart cupcake batter has vanilla! Most of the Martha Stewart cupcakes I have made did not. I think vanilla should be in every cake, cupcake and sweet treat. I love vanilla! ~~I like to dab a little behind my ears~~

This batter has chopped fresh strawberries in it. Yum! The strawberries are plump and juicy right now. Nice touch, Martha!

The inside is sweet and moist. It's almost like eating strawberry jam!

I made half the recipe for the Strawberry Meringue Buttercream too. It is not buttercream like I am used to making. This one is slightly cooking egg whites while whisking then adding pureed strawberries and the whole thing is supposed to fluff up and look like frosting. Before adding the strawberries the buttercream is supposed to hold stiff peaks.

Mine wouldn't hold stiff peaks. *FAIL*

I don't know why.

But I was determined and added a teaspoon of egg white powder and whisked the h*ll out of it and VIOLA! Got a consistency that looked like frosting!

I should have made the whole recipe so my cupcakes would have the mound of frosting on top like the picture but even with my little smidge on top of each, they were very good.

This was not too difficult to make. I would make it again.

Thanks for choosing these, Sherry!

Till next month!

Back to business as usual

2010-06-14T07:43:00.000-05:00

I am back from 4 days of happily lazing around the beach.

And I'd go back today if I could!

We stayed in a condo on the beach. We have been to this one before but have not been here for almost 13 years! It's the only way to do the beach as far as I'm concerned. No sand in your car issues and no packing and unpacking your stuff from your car and you can come and go as you please.

And you can pack in all your food and cook in the condo and do laundry in the condo(if you want to)! nice.

Our unit was on the 8th floor and that gave us a great view of the Gulf and made it easy to watch the birds fly by. The pelicans were so neat when they flew by!

The weather was hot and unusually windy which made the waves bigger, but it was still nice to sit near the water and listen to the sound of it and watch the birds and people.

You can hire someone to come out and show you how to build a sand castle. (?) I saw someone do this and, yes, they had a spectacular sand castle but spent the whole day building it then once their trainer guy left, they played horseshoes for a while then packed up and left. The next morning the spectacular sand castle they paid money for and spent the whole day building, was a lump of sand.

There was more than a little bit of seaweed on the beach and in the waves. This is an annual event. The seaweed grows on the ocean floor near Africa and when it dies and floats up it gets carried by the Gulf Stream to the Texas beaches. It is considered unsightly by some but I found it fascinating. This seaweed has traveled so far and once it is on land, it eventually becomes part of the sand dunes that protect the areas beyond the beaches.

Isn't Mother Nature just incredible!

Besides listening to the waves, my favorite part of the vacation was the not having to do anything followed by not having to do anything and finally not having to do anything.

Of course I was able to get several workouts in. There was lots of arm curls (a fork going into my mouth) and occasionally some weight training(lifting beer bottles). Lots of stretching (for the remote control) and walking in sand (when it was time for arm curls and weight training).

I really watched what I ate too. I saw every bite I put in my mouth. (all 9876354896 of them)

No, really, that was someone else. Not really, it was me, maybe. Yeah, it was.

There was internet in the condo but I never hooked up to it. Surprising. But very relaxing and nice to enjoy the company of the people with me.

Way off on the horizon of this picture, you can see oil platforms. I have been going to Texas beaches my whole life. Occasionally there will be tar balls on the beach from the oil platforms. They are usually very small but really sticky and yucky. I can only imagine the horror of what is happening on the beaches to our east with all that oil. (don't get me started)

There was no tar on the beaches, yet. Should a hurricane travel into the Gulf that could all change.

It was nice to get away and relax with my loved ones. But now it's time to get back with the program. I've already been out for my morning run and I've got my bug cup of water half drained. sigh.

Who wants to go to the beach?

Box of Chocolates

2010-06-03T09:08:00.000-05:00

like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"

your job won't take care of you when you're sick, your friends will, stay in touch

Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal with pears

2010-06-02T13:02:00.002-05:00

Happy National Running Day!

This morning I was out pounding the pavement at 6. I'm still a little skittish after my encounter last week. I did have another encounter today but with a much different animal. There was a baby owl sitting on a fence and as I came by it turned it's head almost all the way around to watch me then flew away. I think it was a baby because it was small, about 6 inches tall.

When I get back from my early morning runs and after I shower, I sit down for my brekkie. I go through phases where I only want a certain thing for breakfast day after day.

Right now I am back in my oatmeal phase. That one recurs most often. There really is lots of ways to fix oatmeal. Enough ways to keep it from getting boring. My favorite oatmeal is steel cut oatmeal. It takes longer to make than traditional rolled oatmeal or quick cooking oats but it is worth the wait. Sometimes I cook them overnight in a slow cooker. I've read that some people cook them in a rice cooker. I am always interested in different ways to prepare them.

I like other breakfast foods too. Eggs, pancakes, waffles, cereal, tacos, yogurt, smoothies, yadayadayada.

Several years ago Martha Stewart had a show where her mom made a delicious pear french toast. I made that recipe a few times. It's a tad labor intensive (as most of Ms Stewart's recipes tend to be) but well worth the effort. A very tasty breakfast, but loaded with calories. The pears were the star of this recipe. Warm, sweet, soft pears with a touch of cinnamon.

I recently came across a recipe for baked steel cut oatmeal. I of course had to change up the recipe and combined some of the Martha Stewart pear French toast ingredients with the baked steel cut oatmeal recipe and managed to come up with a very tasty breakfast.

Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal with pears

cooking spray
1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
1 small, ripe pear, peeled, cored and diced

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Spray a small baking ramekin with cooking spray. Layer half the pears on the bottom.
3. In a small dish mix the oats, cinnamon, salt, vanilla and almond milk and pour on top of the pears.
4. Bake uncovered, for 30-35 minutes.
5. Top with remaining pears and a drizzle of honey or maple syrup.

serves 1

While this was baking away my DH came through the kitchen and asked if we were having cinnamon rolls! I think he was a little disappointed that we were not!

Bananas would be good in place of the pears. And maybe a bit of cocoa to the mix! And a dollop of Nutella on top!

Or peaches would be really good in place of the pears!

The possibilities are endless!

Is oatmeal comfort food?

just maybe!

Randomness

2010-06-01T10:16:00.000-05:00

Long weekends are my favorite. All day yesterday I had that Sunday feeling. Then The Bachelorette came on and my mind came back to reality. Hey, it's Monday!

I'm not watching The Bachelorette. Thanks to Reality Steve, I've got the whole season explained already. All the cheeze, sleaze and fake stuff.

There was lots of grilling and thanks to farmers everywhere, lots of really good corn. There is plenty of corn on the cob everywhere and good prices. Long ago, I would buy barrels of it and freeze it. So good to pull an ear of corn out of the freezer long after the season has past! Lots of work and I ~~'m lazy~~ don't have the time to spend doing that anymore.

Our local Sams club has some really good mangoes. Really good and sweet and juicy. I'm having one everyday in my morning bowl of oats with a dusting of cinnamon and a drizzle of honey. Delish!

This weekend, DH and I managed 3 walks of about 3.3 miles. We went for our personal best yesterday and finished in 52 minutes. Almost as fast as I can run it!

The only problem with the walks was the time we went out to do them. DH likes to sleep in, have his brekkie, coffee and read the paper, so that meant we didn't get out the door till 11. That would be almost fine in a normal climate but we live in ~~an oven~~ central Texas and it gets mighty toasty. It was upper eighties by the time we got out and the sun was shining. There was plenty of shade along the way, thank goodness. It is 70 degrees, and the sun is not up yet, at 6 AM when I prefer to go out.

Since it's June 1, and I want to start monthly weigh-ins as opposed to weekly weigh-ins, I stepped on the scale. No change from my last weigh-in at the Dub-Dub club about 3 weeks ago. OK. There has also not been any manic behaviour. I have been at peace about food and working out. I'm going to take measurements today so I can track that every month too.

The kids are out of school here so summer has officially begun!

Remember the first day of summer vacation?

(CWF) Chocolate Blinis

2010-05-30T10:29:00.001-05:00

Welcome to this months chocolate adventure with Francois, hosted by me!

When it came time for me to choose, it was fun to really get into the book and see what looked good. Francois has a variety of baking skill levels and types of chocolate confections throughout the book and knowing that this would be Memorial Day I wanted to choose something that wasn't too difficult and something that might please a crowd.

That's why I chose Chocolate Blinis.

Not that I'm expecting you to make these today! But if you wanted to, I'm sure no one would object.

Francois says "these blinis are not like normal pancakes. They are incredibly light and fluffy. ..... You can serve them for brunch or even dessert, varying the toppings"

Well, thank you, Francois, I think I will try them several ways.

My first attempt was to serve them as brunch with fresh whipped cream. (cause you just can't put Cool Whip on these little beauties!) They are incredibly light and fluffy!

Do as the recipe says and cook them on low heat. They will burn easily. But even on low heat, they cook quickly.

Light and fluffy, nice rich chocolate flavor. Really very good. Maybe a bit too rich to serve alone for brunch. Francois suggests dried fruits as a topping. I would like to suggest fresh fruits as a topping. I also served them with toasted almonds. Very nice. Toasted hazelnuts would be very good also as the recipe calls for hazelnut flour. I made mine with graham flour and still found them to be delicious. The recipe makes a bunch. Sorry, I neglected to make a final count! But I was able to put at least 12 in the freezer.

Today, I am going to pull the frozen ones out, and serve them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It is Memorial Day after all and everyone should be eating ice cream!

I can't wait for next month's adventure!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Blinis

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup hazelnut flour or ground blanched hazelnuts
8 ounces 72% chocolate, chopped
2 sticks unsalted butter, plus extra for serving
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
4 large eggs
4 large egg whites
4 large egg yolks
vegetable oil or butter for the pan

Over a bowl or piece of wax paper, sift together the flour and hazelnut flour. Set aside.
Fill a medium pot one-third full of water and bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat. Place the chocolate and butter in a heat-proof bowl that will fit snuggly on top of the pot. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Place the confectioners sugar, eggs and egg yolks in a medium bowl and whisk until the mixture turns a pale color and increases in volume. Stir in the chocolate. With a silicone spatula, fold in dry ingredients until just combined.
Place the egg whites in a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whip on medium-high speed until they hold stiff peaks. With a spatula, gently fold the whites into the batter until just incorporated. The egg whites will inevitably deflate a little bit, but try to minimize the loss of volume by being very gentle when mixing. Refrigerate the batter for 30 minutes. Keep a eye on it: the batter should not become too cold.
Heat a cast-iron skillet or a nonstick pan over low heat, and grease it with a little vegetable oil or butter. Drop about 2 tablespoons of batter at a time onto the pan, for blinis that will be about the thickness of pancakes. If necessary, use the back of a spoon to gently flatten them. Cook on one side until the blinis start to bubble at the edges, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the blinis over and cook for another minute. Remove the blinis from the pan and place on a plate. Cover with aluminum foil to keep warm while you continue cooking the rest of the batter.
Place 2 or 3 of the warm blinis on each plate and spread them with a little bit of butter.

Box of Chocolates

2010-05-27T09:34:00.000-05:00

like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"

"If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves"

Thomas Alva Edison

Snakes! Why'd it hafta be snakes!

2010-05-26T08:16:00.001-05:00

The thing about haunted houses I never liked wasn't the dude moaning in the costume with the head half off and blood gushing out. Or the cheesy, screechy music with the gongs. It was the dude in the Freddie Krueger costume that jumped out at you as you came around the corner. It wasn't even the costume that did it, that dude could be wearing a cute fluffy bunny costume for that matter, the second he jumps out in front of me and makes me jump is when I hate him.

I hate that feeling. That heart jumps out of my chest, sweat spews out of every pore, adrenaline kicking in moment.

I may have mentioned sometime before, that I fear stepping on a snake (among other things) during my morning workouts. I almost stepped on one last week. I didn't even realize it was a snake till I looked closer. It was so small I thought it was an earthworm. Still hated it and wanted to step on that one!

For some unknown reason, our local library keeps a snake in an aquarium, behind a window, so the children can see it on their way to and from storytime. Her name is Miss Roxanne. The librarians bring her out so the children can "pet" her every year on her "birthday".

How long do snakes live anyway, this one should die soon, I'm hoping.

My DGD always wants to stop at the window and look at Miss Roxanne on our way out of storytime every week. We usually have the following conversation:

she: aw!! she's sleeping! she's so cute!

me: uh-ha

she: remember when I got to pet her?

me: uh-ha

she: I want to do it again!

me: you know Miss Roxanne is a special snake and you should never touch any snake, ever, for any reason, ~~ever, ever, ever~~

she: but why?

me: because snakes are not friendly

she: but why?

me: because that's the way God made them

she: but why?

And that segways into a whole other conversation. I don't want to put the gear of God into her about snakes (or maybe I really do!) but I want her to at least have my words in her head should she ever encounter one.

What would happen if my 2 worst nightmares-stepping on snakes and being startled, came together to form the perfect storm?

I found out yesterday.

My morning routine takes me out of the house around the neighborhood on roughly the same path everyday. I start with 5 minutes of walking to wake up and gather my wits (I need to keep all the remaining wits I have) and contemplate my jump to light speed. ~~or in my case, my jump from snail pace to turtle speed.~~

I started out about 6:30, it was a cloudy morning but it was light enough to see. I was thinking about how the crepe myrtles should be in full bloom right now but because of the winter we had, they are a little delayed. They are a favorite landscape plant here. I was going to pay attention to the ones I passed to see when to expect their spectacular displays. I'm about 3 minutes into my warm-up, looking at crepe myrtles, when I see one and almost immediately jump from the sidewalk into the middle of the street. My heart came flying out of my chest and ran back home saying "see ya! wouldn't want to be ya!" every pore was excreting gallons of sweat.

There, draped across several branches in a crepe myrtle right next to the sidewalk, was an at least 4 foot long snake.

A dead snake, but still a snake. And in the moment my eye caught sight of it, my brain did not have time to process the fact that it was dead. My brain did remember that snakes can also dangle from trees, processed that little scrap of information and engaged the run for your life process.

Bloody hell! Who would do something like that? Or was this snake killed by a bird while in the crepe myrtle? It didn't matter, it scared the bejeezers out of me.

I quickly left the scene of the crime ~~because I needed clean underwear~~ and had a really good time for this mornings workout. Funny how that happened!

On my way home, I stopped to IPhone-photograph the lowly viper.

So now I have to add another thing to my list of things to watch out for on my morning workouts-stepping on snakes, tripping on turtles, getting sprayed by a skunk and never going under or anywhere near crepe myrtles!

Tuesweigh Confessional

2010-05-25T08:12:00.001-05:00

Still no tales from the scales over here. This past week went well. Eating wise and workout wise. But first, there is something I have to get off my chest.........

Bless me, readers, for I have sinned, my last confession was (whenever). Since then I have yadayadayada, and cancelled my membership to Weight Watchers.

Yeah, I know, mortal sin. One I have committed before, numerous times.

The times before were different. Different because I quit before because I didn't want to eat that way anymore or I wasn't losing weight fast enough or I was bored with the whole thing. lame, I know.

This time I quit because the weigh-ins were really stressing me out. I would lose a few ounces then gain a pound then lose a few more ounces. Week after week. still lame, I know.

They give you stickers and celebrate in class when you have lost your first 5 pounds. Then for 10 pounds then for 10% then for being a member for 16 weeks and when you make your goal. It's all good. It's all encouraging and motivating.

Except when you have only lost 4.6 pounds after 18 weeks.

My 16 week celebration came. At the scale the lady asked me if I was going to stay for the meeting. As I broke out in a cold sweat I told her no. She said that's all right, we can celebrate next week!

I couldn't deal with getting applause for making it 16 weeks then have the leader enthusiastically ask "tell us how much weight you have lost?"

This probably contributed to my weekly stress-out about the scale.

It wasn't because I didn't follow the guidelines and track what I ate and always overate my points. Or did no exercise.

I don't know what it was. But whatever it was it was enough to make me go see the Dr and have some tests run and talk about it.

All tests are normal so I can't use that for an excuse. I mentioned before the interesting advice about protein that I got while at the Dr. Another thing he said was I should be eating 1800 calories a day.

I almost spit out my gum when he said that.

1800!

I was lucky to have been getting 1500 and that was on days that I went over my points.

So, in addition to my protein experiment, I am striving for 1800 calories a day. That's a lot. That's a lot of good, real food. It's easy to do when you eat crap.

I am on my own again, which isn't such a bad thing. I lost 70 pounds on my own.

There will probably be monthly weigh-ins because that is what I did when I lost those 70 pounds. That will mean a weigh-in is due next week. Get ready! There should be a massive amount of weight lost especially after the near-death experience I had this morning! I'll tell ya all about that tomorrow! Stay tuned for tales from the trails!

"for these and all the sins of my past life, especially against the imaginary commandment(thou shalt not quit Weight Watchers) I am heartly sorry"

Box of Chocolate

2010-05-20T08:57:00.000-05:00

like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"

No matter what situations life throws at you....

No matter how long and treacherous your journey may seem..

Remember there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

No weigh!

2010-05-18T09:55:00.000-05:00

Another week away from the scale. So there's no news. Right now, no news is good news for me. My mood has improved since I've decided to ignore Scale-Biyatch Square-Pants and the glowing number that emanates from there.

That doesn't mean the workouts and eating/tracking part has been left on the side of the road! I was out and about the hood 5 times last week. There was even 2 days where DH and I went on long walks. He wants to get out and move more so that was especially good for him. His job requires long hours and lots of them are sitting.

But I have switched from tracking points to tracking at the Sparkly place. I like getting the breakdown of fat, fiber, protein and what ever other nutrient you want to track, everyday.

I also visited the Dr last week for tests and chat about the frustration I have with the scale. So far the tests are normal. Our conversation about diet/exercise was mostly an affirmation of things I already know. Sometimes you just have to hear them again. But I got one piece of information that was new to me. That is to have 25-30 grams of protein at breakfast. Interesting. Especially since I've been focusing on protein. I have not been having that much at breakfast though. The reason that lots of protein at breakfast is good is that not only do you stay full longer but it helps get your metabolism going. Carbs at breakfast get stored as fat and you get hungry sooner than a protein filled breakfast. Protein doesn't get stored. Your body either uses it or eliminates it. I knew that part. It's a bit of a challenge to get that much protein at breakfast but I'm working on it. So far I easily get 20 grams. Protein is my new hero!

I'm hanging in there and marching forward! I don't think I'll ban the scale forever. My curiosity is already beginning to build!

Are you an everyday weigher? How long could you go without weighing in?

(MSC) Tres Leches Cupcakes

2010-05-17T09:04:00.000-05:00

This month's ~~stalking~~ baking adventure with the ~~club that I don't belong to~~ Martha Stewart Cupcake club was Tres Leches Cupcakes.

It was chosen by Lisa at Smiley's Sweets and Creations

Tres Leches, translated from Spanish to English means-three milks. So it is no surprise that 3 different types of milk are used in the recipe.

Here in central Texas there is a Mexican restaurant on every street corner and a few taco trailers in between each restaurant. Almost. There is no shortage of Mexican food here and no 2 restaurants/trailers prepare the same food in the same way.

Mexican desserts are usually a mild, soothing finish to a spicy meal. Flan, praline, and tres leches cake are usually offered.

I have had tres leches cake from a few local Mexican restaurants. I am no tres leches expert but I wanted to try these cupcakes and see how they compare. Could Martha compete with people who have been making tres leches cake for generations?

She did pretty good.

The recipe is easy. For once I followed the recipe. No crazy diva substitutions this time. Once the cupcakes are baked, they are pierced with a skewer and the 3 milks are poured over each one. The recipe said to brush the liquid over each cupcake but ~~since I have no patience~~ I used a tablespoon measure to pour the liquid over each cupcake. I started to get a little worried when I was up to 4 tablespoons of liquid per cupcake! But is soaked in nicely and made a very custard-like treat. The finishing touch is real whipped cream dolloped on top with a dusting of cinnamon.

Not too sweet, very creamy, a perfect finish for a Mexican meal.

~~Since I have no patience~~ I was anxious to try one. Once they were cooled and the real whipped cream applied, I dusted one with cumin! I only realised this mistake as I was taste testing and could smell the cumin! rats! wasted cupcake!

A second attempt was made using the correct spice. The successful dusting was made using a cinnamon spice grinder. Ever tried one of those?

Thanks Lisa!

And thanks Martha!

Yum-O!

Lemme just say this...

2010-05-14T08:13:00.000-05:00

Things around here have been a bit whiney. A bit grumpy. A lot how I don't want to be. I've had a case of the wah-wah's, the poor-mes, the everythingiseverybodyelsesfault's.

Sorry about all that.

I don't wanna be that blog

Oops, wrong link!

I meant, I don't wanna be this blog

huh? no! not this blog,

that blog,

What the.....

What I mean is I don't wanna be that blog

Seriously? I don't get it. Or maybe I do. Or not. But I really do.....not.

Or maybe I do.

I get it. For real. Pinky swear.

Have a great day and remember to give thanks....

Cats are so dramatic!

Now, if I made you smile,

pass it on to someone else!

(the smile, that is, all that pinky swear crap can stay in the blog)

Have a nice weekend!

Box of Chocolates

2010-05-13T08:43:00.000-05:00

Like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get!"

try to make at least 3 people smile everyday

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Oatmeal Muffins

2010-05-12T07:31:00.000-05:00

When I saw my friend Mags at The Other Side of Fifty had made these tasty looking muffins, I knew I had to make them too.

Mags is a legend in her own kitchen. She dishes up lots of things I have tried and want to try. Everything has been very easy and very tasty. Her photography is so good there may or may not be signs of drooling on my keyboard!

Just look at those muffins! Chocolate and oatmeal. And chocolate!

Chocolate should be a food group. We should be required to eat a lot of chocolate everyday to stay healthy and slim!

I love chocolate! Can you tell?

I love oatmeal too.

Oatmeal should be consumed everyday.

Chocolate and oatmeal? a match made in heaven!

Just like the match made in heaven of chocolate and peanut butter! I like chocolate in my peanut butter and peanut butter in my chocolate.

Wait! Why not ~~piss Mags off and~~ change the muffin recipe around, just a tad? The recipe already uses Splenda instead of sugar and Brown-sugar Splenda instead of regular brown sugar. Very good substitutions for those of us watching our waistlines.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Oatmeal Muffins (the Diva Weigh)
(adapted from Mags the Other Side of Fifty-Chocolate Coach's Oatmeal Muffins)

1 3/4 cup boiling water
3/4 steel cut oats (or regular old-fashioned rolled oats)
2 1/2 TBSP Dutch processed cocoa
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar Splenda
1 cup Splenda
1/2 cup egg beaters
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup unbleached white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners and spray liners with cooking spray.

In the bowl of your stand mixer stir together the boiling water, oats and cocoa. Let sit for 20 minutes.

Add the sugars and mix on low speed until combined well. Add the applesauce, egg beaters and vanilla and combine well.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to the batter and mix on low speed just until combined well. Stir in the peanut butter chips.

Fill cupcake liners a little over 3/4 full. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of each muffin and using a knife, gently press them into the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 23 minutes or until toothpick inserted in muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes in pan before removing muffins to a cooling rack.

makes 18 muffins

(These muffins are 3 points each)

A perfect companion to a cup of coffee! Nice, chocolaty flavor with a hint of peanut butter. The steel cut oats give this muffin a soft crunch and a subtle nutty flavor.

Thanks Mags!

Tuesdeigh

2010-05-11T09:47:00.000-05:00

Many thanks for all the kind words regarding my little incident last week. Yes, I was the "woman" who slipped and fell. I'm fine. Just a gynormous ugly and sore bruise on my right shin.

The thing that made that whole thing stick in my craw was the fact that at least 2 adults witnessed it and pretended nothing happened.

I was shopping with my DGD in the cart, headed to the checkout when I passed 2 women who looked like the old woman who lived in a shoe because they had the big giant shopping cart with children sitting in front, children sitting in tha back, children dangling over the sides and children strapped across the front of their bodies. Just after I passed them, I slipped on the water. My right leg hit the cart and kept slipping, my left leg started going in the opposite direction. The splits were coming and everything went into slow motion. My first thought was "oh, no! I'm going down!" then "oh, no! those women can see this!" so I started listening to see if I could hear any gasping, or any "oh no's!" or any sound of anyone coming towards me. Nuttin. chirp chirp chirp It was like I was alone in the store. Finally I bent my left leg and went down on my knee to stop the slipping. I popped back up, checked inventory-sore right shin, wet left knee, embarrassed and red-faced, and turned to the women. When we made eye-contact, they turned to each other to resume their conversation about the stupid thing their husband did last night in their best valley-girl voices. Like totally!

My red-faced embarrassment turned into red-faced anger.

I was fine but why could they not acknowledge what just happened? Are the words "are you OK?" not part of their valley-speak? Am I being self-centered to think I deserved some kind of showing of concern?

So I continued to the check-out and told the woman there about the water so it could get cleaned up and no one else would slip on it. Someone could have gotten seriously hurt.

As far as the 2 women, I am not superstitious but I do believe that you get back what you put out. If you put out negative energy, you will get negative energy back. Karma. Or something. Someday those 2 women will understand.

I don't know if that incident was the beginning of my pissy mood but I skipped my weigh-in last week. So no news here. When my weigh-in day came around I had worked myself into such a crappy mood that I was ready to ditch the whole thing. All kinds of negative thoughts swirled around. I was tired of working out, tired of watching what I eat, tired of cooking, tired of doing laundry, yadayadayada.

I am taking a mini-hiatus from the scale. Not from the Dub-Dub club and not from the lifestyle. Just the scale.

Sometimes I give too much value to the number on the scale. Sometimes I let it influence my mood. I need to get that back in check. It's just a number after all. Isn't it?

Thursday Box of Chocolates-5/6/10

2010-05-06T08:13:00.000-05:00

like momma used to say:

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!'

If you are ever out ~~shopping at Target~~ and ~~the woman~~ anyone ~~walking just in front of you, a little to your left,~~ suddenly slips and falls, stop and ask if they are OK, don't just keep talking to your friend and shopping like nothing happened.

Wildflower winner?

2010-05-05T08:50:00.000-05:00

I signed up for a little online photo class. It was for the month of April. I am hoping to figure out how to use my camera. I am hoping to learn how to compose better shots. That explains the mess of photos on the other page.

I have been the only picture taker in the family. This is the main reason there is a lack of pictures with me in them! There's other reasons for that but we'll save that for another day.

There have been numerous in my life. Disposables, very handy. Take pics, turn in the camera, pick up the pictures. The pictures from these camera are just OK.

Then a 35mm came along.  It got used a lot through the years. I never really understood exactly what that camera could do. I used it like a point and shoot and it never failed me. I took lots of good pictures of my kids as they grew up.

I was ready to give up the 35mm camera, mainly to get out of the having to buy film and having to send it in the develop it. A digital camera was what I wanted.

I got my first digital camera several years ago for Christmas. A compact point and shoot that took very good pictures. I liked it but always wished it could zoom a little more.

So began my savings for a DSLR. Finally, a Canon Rebel entered my life.

My favorite subject to photograph is my DGD.  I have learned a lot just photographing her.

There is a phenomenon that occurs in this part of Texas every spring. When the fields are full of the state flower, the bluebonnet. People swarm to take pictures in these flowers. Some people seriously take their life in their hands because they will stop along a busy highway to take some photos! Our highways are blanketed with wildflowers thanks to the efforts of Lady Bird Johnson. She tirelessly advocated native flowers. If there is ever a good time to come to Texas it is in the spring when the wildflowers are in full bloom. It's breath-taking.

Of course, I am no different than the slew of folks who want pictures of loved ones in the bluebonnets. I found a beautiful field close to my house and far from a highway! and took my DGD there for a photo-op recently.

Then the local paper had a Wildflower Photo Contest. Of course since I had the cutest tot in a beautiful field of bluebonnets, I entered.

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw my picture was a finalist! In my mind it was a winner but to be a finalist when there were almost 1200 other pictures entered was an honor and a surprise.  It was up to all the readers to vote on their favorite.

this is the photo I entered

It's very exciting to be a finalist! It's even more exciting to win! Which I found out that this photo did! It was chosen the winner in the portrait category. The local paper will publish the winners on Thursday, May 6. It's the Austin American Statesman, if you're interested. You may be able to see it online. Look for the wildflower photo contest.

I loved this picture from the moment I saw it. It was taken on day 2 of my "bluebonnets with my DGD picture taking event 2010", at about 9 AM. It was a beautiful, clear sky day. I didn't do any editing to it except for a little crop.

But, of course, who wouldn't vote for this little ball of sunshine!

Weekly weigh

2010-05-04T08:18:00.000-05:00

The dust is settling from the quick sale and last minute finish-up of our lake house. We are recovering and enjoying some down time.

DH is organizing his tools. He has discovered that he now has 4 of everything! This happened because he would be in the middle of some part of the re-hab and need a tool and DOH! it's at the other house which is 60 miles away! so it's quicker and cheaper to just go to Ace Hardware and get another one!

We won't even talk about how many dishes/pots/pans I now have in my kitchen, and various other parts of the house.

I got 4 runs in last week. Down from my usual 5 but I was decompressing. Sometimes you need to just rest. I did. At least where workouts were concerned. I still watched my DGD everyday. That is a workout in itself sometimes!

The weekly weigh-in showed no change from the week before. I'm fine with that. There was more eating out than usual. Things were a bit off eating wise for me. Our weekends have certainly changed!

Yesterday, there were some peeps running when I was out! yay! It's not so lonely out there! There were a couple of ladies that were jogging and chatting away! And a few men and a few dog-walkers and a woman dog jogger! New peeps to me!

This new normal is starting to feel normal. I'm still holdin' on and hangin' round!

How was your week?

(CWF) Chocolate Mousse

2010-05-03T08:23:00.000-05:00

This month's baking adventure with the intrepid bakers at Chocolate with Francois is Chocolate Mousse.

It was selected by Moogie at Moogie & Pap. We were encouraged to create something unusual with this recipe.

But first, I had to experience the mousse as it was.

Can I say, yum-O!

Really, chocolate mousse? What's not to like!

The recipe was easy and didn't take too long to make. The mousse is creamy and smooth, chocolatey, very chocolatey!

But Moogie wants us to create something unusual with this delicious mousse. So I thought, and I thought, and I thought some more.

Ever had 2 really good friends that you really liked, but they didn't know each other and you thought they would really like each other and you wanted to introduce them to each other?

Me neither.

But I kinda do in my own little corner of cyber-space. My friends Martha Stewart and Francois Payard. April's Martha Stewart Cupcake assignment was Creme-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes and April's Chocolate with Francois assignment was Chocolate Mousse. I thought I would introduce Martha to Francois!

This time I followed the recipe and made Martha's chocolate cupcakes. Instead of filling them with the marshmallow creme filling, I filled them with Francois' chocolate mousse.

The cupcakes were filled then refrigerated so the mousse could set up a bit.

The combination of the MS chocolate cupcake went perfectly with FP's chocolate mousse! Chocolate and creamy chocolate.

And since I can't leave things alone, next time, can I just add my own fudgy buttercream frosting?

That would guarantee a chocolate coma!

Tune in for next month's Chocolate With Francois. I'm hosting!

Thursday Box of Chocolates-4/29/10

2010-04-29T08:14:00.000-05:00

Like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get!"

when you wake up in the morning, thank God for giving you another beautiful day

What a week!

2010-04-27T08:52:00.000-05:00

This past week has been a busy one. We sold our lake house and have been busy with that. It is a house that we did extensive remodeling on. Things like removing a wall to open up the kitchen area into the living area, completely redid the kitchen-new cabinets, counters, appliances and built a kitchen island, retiled the entire house and replaced carpet in the bedrooms, painted inside and out, removed the popcorn from the ceiling and poured a patio in the front and built a pretty awesome deck out back, if I do say so myself. My DH is quite skilled in all of the construction aspects of remodeling and is especially skilled in the design and building of the deck. We listed it thinking we would have at least a couple of months to finish off a few little things and enjoy it a little while longer but we quickly got an offer and the buyer was wanting to close fast.

It is a good thing/bad thing. We were happy to get a motivated buyer but, dang! we are wiped! My house is now full of the things I brought back from the lake house and I new have to find places here to store it all! And forget about the garage! My DH loves tools as much as I love kitchen gadgets! He's got his work cut out for him getting all that put away so we can again park both our vehicles in there.

With all this flurry of activity, my cooking has been very simple. No new recipes, just old stand-bys and sometimes I have even made the dreaded Hamburger Helper for DH because he loves it so. (I usually have yogurt with fruit when he has the dreaded HH.)

I have managed to get out for morning runs or walks 5 times last week. Still pretty much just me out there. The weather has been really nice. Don't know where all the peeps went.

Last week's weigh-in was down .6. Still losing ounces but still losing.

My protein experiment seems to be serving me well. I find I am less hungry in the times between meals when I eat lean protein. When I include protein in my afternoon snack it helps get me through dinner and the evening without any out of control eating. I will continue this. I do include plenty of fiber with each meal too. That may be helping with keeping me full too.

Hopefully things will return to normal around here soon. I'm taking an online photography class and have fallen a bit behind in that and I'm anxious to take pictures and catch up and return to my mad scientist cooking!

Thursday Box of Chocolates-4/22/10

2010-04-22T08:42:00.000-05:00

Like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get!"

Leave it all on the field.

My DS had a soccer coach that used to say that to the team during a game. It didn't matter if their toe hurt or they got a bad grade on a test that day or their girlfriend is texting some other dude, he wanted them to give it their best effort so that at the end of the game there would be no "what if's" or "if only's". Focus on what is right in front of them, right now.

He wanted their best effort. Not the best they could do, the best.

I'm taking this statement and applying it to myself. I'm leaving it all on the field everytime I workout, everytime I eat. My best effort. Not the best I could do. My best.

Yesterday's blog post has really made me start thinking and there were some really good comments there too.

Are you leaving it all on the field?

Fear of losing

2010-04-21T11:48:00.000-05:00

Last week I heard/read something about dieting. That going on maintenance is a good way to start a diet since maintenance is the most important part of a diet.

Say what?

My interpretation of this statement is that maintaining your weight is as important as losing it. OK. I get that.

Learning to maintain your weight is as important as learning to lose it.

Maintaining your weight is the great balancing act. Learning how to eat/exercise to maintain your weight seems like the key. It's the magic pill everyone is looking for.

Learning to lose weight is not so easy.

Or is it really simple? If you eat a half gallon of ice cream then you have to run on the treadmill all weekend. But the question here is why would you eat a half gallon of ice cream in the first place?

It should be really simple. Most of us know what foods to stay away from. What our trigger foods are. What we ate over the weekend. If we over-indulge, we have to make up for it another way or it will show itself on the scale. You weigh what you weigh. There is no allowance for water weight, heavy clothes, full bladder, whatever. The scale tells it like it is, we like to justify what it says. We know what we did and what we didn't do.

It sounds so simple, so why is it so hard?

More importantly, why am I making this out to be so hard? Why am I fighting against it and myself right now? I know what it takes to lose weight. I've done it. It is hard somedays and easy some days. It is worth it everyday.

I've heard lots of people who reach their goal weight are then scared about entering the maintenance part.

Why is there so much fear with regard to weight?

I'm doing pretty good on the maintenance before beginning a diet part, I'm scared about entering the losing weight part. This is what I'm working on. Where is the fear of losing coming from?

Last weeks WW weigh-in was up .2. No crazy person rant and whine this time. It's only a smidge.

I'm still trending downward. I need to build the bridge and get over it already.

What am I waiting for?

Martha Stewart's Chocolate Creme Filled Cupcakes

2010-04-19T09:13:00.001-05:00

This month's Martha Stewart Cupcake ~~stalking~~ baking adventure was Chocolate Creme Filled Cupcakes.

They were chosen by Jess from Cookbook Habit .

I have to admit, I really wanted to make these. They look just like Hostess Creme Filled Twinkies. And I love me some Hostess Creme Filled Twinkies. Love, love, love!

Some of my fondest memories of college are of me ~~taking full advantage of the learning experience~~ sitting in the student union building ~~sharfing down~~ enjoying some twinkies and coffee ~~when I should have been in class~~ with friends ~~who should have been in class~~.

I had to make these! (Did I mention that I love twinkies?)

But.......oh, dear Martha........you use too much butter! And some of your cupcakes have been, ah, brick-like? brick-ish? like a rock?

So let me take matters into my own hands ~~since suddenly I think I know more than Martha Stewart~~ and make a few changes to the recipe!

First, I used applesauce instead of butter.

Then I used Splenda instead of sugar.

And egg-beaters instead of eggs.

And I used an unbleached white whole wheat flour.

The results?

meh

Next time I'll use sugar, and add some vanilla to the batter. The splenda gave them an artificial flavor. The cupcake still was a little dense. It had a good chocolate flavor, not as chocolatey as I would have liked.

The creme filling was oh-so-good!

hello! marshmallow cream!

The filling was my favorite part!

my taste tester liked the filling!

But.......

The filling melted into the cupcake!

And oozed out of the middle!

By the second day there was no filling! Gone! Evaporated! Or something!

hmmm! (scratching head) Holy I-can't-believe-it's-not-there-anymore Batman!

Do I have gremlins?

Anyone?

Till next month!

Thursday Box of Chocolates-4/15/10

2010-04-15T07:58:00.000-05:00

Like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get!"

No one is in charge of your happiness except you

Italian Sausage and Pepper Pasta

2010-04-14T08:12:00.000-05:00

This recipe is from WW weekly 2/14-20, and it's another good one.

Of course, you know this by now, I made a few changes to the original recipe.

Italian Sausage and Pepper Pasta (the Diva Weigh)

1/2 lb raw Italian chicken sausage, casings removed
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow pepper, cut into 2 inch long thin strips
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup red wine
1 1/2 tbls minced garlic
28 ounce can crushed fire roasted tomatoes
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp table salt
8 oz uncooked whole wheat fusilli
1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Meanwhile make sauce. In a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, cook sausage, stirring and breaking up meat until cooked through, about 3-5 minutes. Remove to a plate.
Heat oil in same skillet. Add peppers and onion, cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 2 minutes.
Add zucchini and mushrooms, cook, stirring frequently, until zucchini and mushrooms are crisp-tender, about 2 minutes.
Add wine and garlic, cook until most of liquid evaporates, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, red pepper flakes, salt and browned sausage, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and simmer until vegetables are tender and sauce is heated through, about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, add pasta to boiling water and cook according to package instructions. Drain pasta, return to pot. Add sauce and basil, toss to mis and coat.

6 servings, about 1 1/2 cups per serving

4 points per serving

I used Fiber Gourmet Light Rotini in this.

It is possible to divide this dish into 8 servings, about 1 cup each, for 2 points per serving!

This dish is simple to make and very good. The fire roasted tomatoes give it a nice smoky taste.

Use more or less red pepper flakes to suit your taste.

My DH had about 3 or 4 servings of this! He loved it and didn't even know it was a WW recipe! He thought he was eating Italian pork sausage! and was very surprised when I told him it was Italian chicken sausage and a low-fat and calorie recipe!

I think this is what we're having for dinner tonight!

What's all the fuss?

2010-04-13T08:24:00.000-05:00

Another week with the Dubs, down .8 this time. I'll take it. I'm going on week 16 now. That's a marker at WW. They believe that if you can hang on 16 weeks, you have created a habit. Or you've learned to live without that $40 every month.

This journey with WW for me is about getting to goal. I will do it this year. So far I am losing very slowly. But I am losing.

Something that has been tumbling around my pea brain is all the chatter about intuitive eating. A little of that chatter comes from WW. They encourage you to pay attention to your body, and the signals it gives regarding hunger. But a big distraction from that intuitive eating point comes via TV, internet, radio, magazines. Everyone is trying to get you to eat certain things. Eat this for your metabolism, eat this for your heart, eat this for your cholesterol, eat this to lose weight faster, eat this for more energy.

It makes me crazy.

Sometimes I wonder how we survived as a species without acai juice?

These past few weeks, I've been taking a close look at the foods I eat. I've decided to strip away all the "healthy" food from my diet. Anything that is touted to be a wonder food, something to "cure" something is suspect. But not the real healthy food. I'm still interested in real food.

Breakfast has always been easy for me. I love all breakfast food and there is plenty of good breakfasty food to choose. I must limit carbs though. They have proven to not be my friend. Bread, pasta, potatoes, tortillas-those types of carbs. I've also been trying to have a more substantial lunch. I eat more calories and more calories from protein foods at lunch than at dinner. This has helped keep me from getting that munchy feeling at 3 pm. That munchy-I-want-to-eat-everything-I-can-find feeling. That munchy-I-want-to-eat-everything-I-can-find feeling that spills into dinner then continues after dinner till bedtime. It allows me to eat a smaller dinner. It allows me to feel satisfied with a smaller dinner.

If I should need a snack mid-afternoon, I've been chewing on some beef jerky. Beef jerky! It's surprisingly low in calories, takes a while to chew, tastes pretty good and satisfies that munchy-feeling! I think it has a lot to do with the chewing part!

Who'd a thunk that would happen?

So, we'll see how this little experiment with protein plays out for me. I'm not trying to bulk up any muscles and I don't think I will since there's no weight training going on over here, just some running.

My own unique version of running which may or may not be anything like actual running!

How do you fend off the munchies?

Rogue Runner

2010-04-12T08:31:00.001-05:00

Last week saw me out, pounding the pavement, 6 times. I ran one day then walked the next. I have been experiencing a little soreness in my legs. I've had soreness before, this is just in a different place. Not that I'm a seasoned runner by any stretch of the imagination! I can only attribute the soreness to the fact I am pushing the time I run a little longer each time. Just a little. I'm in no hurry.

There was an annual event in town this weekend called The Capital 10k. It has a very large turnout. Over 20,000. The local paper publishes the race results the day after, broken down by age. I like to read that. I like to read how fast people ran it and how fast the people in wheelchairs did it and how fast the people older than me did it. All that is very inspiring to me. There was only 1 wheelchair participant and she did it in 51 minutes, 8 seconds! Amazing! The winning female did it in 35 minutes, 36 seconds, she is 33 years old. The winning male did it in 30 minutes, 33 seconds, he is 29 years old. The Masters winners did it in 32 and 39 minutes at ages 49 and 43. I can't even squeak out a 5k in 39 minutes! The oldest runner (listed among the age categories, I didn't scan the entire list which only included the top 3700 participants!) was an 87 year old man who ran it in 1:22:44. Amazing! Congratulations to all the participants!

The fact that 20,000 people participate makes some really nice pictures. Pictures of the mass of people running along the roadways. The fact so many people participate in races like this one is amazing but not that inspiring to me. As a matter of fact, it kinda makes me less inclined to want to do it.

I'm a newbie runner. Running was something I never did. I always thought I hated to run. I tried it once, over 30 years ago, and hated it. Once I lost some weight about 2 years ago, I was walking a lot and decided to try a little running. I only officially completed the C25K in April of 2009, about 1 year ago. Since then I've participated in three 5k races. Those races had only about 3000 to 5000 other participants. I didn't enjoy them. Although the one race that had kegs of beer and pizza at the finish line was a little better! I might do that one again!

Some of the participants bring their dogs. I really don't like that. First there was dog fights at the starting line then there was trying to manuver around people with dogs. Sometimes the dogs are out of my field of vision and I practically trip on them or the dog makes a sudden change in direction and I almost trip on them or they act like they are going to attack me and rip my throat out.

I don't like the crowd. I'm not a fan of crowds in general. I don't like having to manuver around people and constantly look over my shoulder if I want to move toward one side or the other to make sure nobody is there where I want to be cause somebody surely is.

I like to run by myself.

I don't even think I could run with a buddy. I've run with my DH a few times but it bothers me.

Is that weird or what?

I don't care that other people are watching me.

I don't care how fast or slow I go or if I walk and other people see me walking.

I like seeing my random other people from the hood out and about-just not along-side me.

The only manuvering around people I want to do is when I have to move to the side to pass a random person from the hood on the sidewalk and I don't have to look over my shoulder to make sure I don't run into somebody.

When I am by myself, I don't have to watch dog fights and try to manuver around dogs that may or may not be in my field of vision.

I can concentrate on my run.

And whether or not there are any skunks, turtles or snakes in my path.

Thursday Box of Chocolates-4/8/10

2010-04-08T08:54:00.000-05:00

Like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get!"

Drink 16 ounces of water before every meal-

-It will help you get you daily water requirement
-It will help you to eat less at the meal

Chicken Lo Mein

2010-04-07T09:40:00.001-05:00

This latest adventure with the Dub-Dub club has brought some new recipes into my world. I enjoy trying new recipes, new spins on old favorites and sometimes something completely different.

There is more than 1 Weight Watchers cookbook in my house. There is at least 1 from the early 80's, 1 from the early 90's and 1 from this century.

Although I have been familiar with WW since the early 70's, I have no cookbooks from that time period. However, Mimi at Skinny Jeans Project fills in that gap nicely. You really need to go see what she is cooking up over there. 70's style. You won't believe some of the things she makes from her cookbook! Some things look pretty good, some things look not so good but turn out to be good and some things make you go hmmm.! It is a fun look back! (Bee Gee's not included!)

The Weight Watchers cookbook I use the most is one from 1994 called Weight Watchers Favorite Homestyle Recipes. I have several recipes marked to try and have used several others. They were written by WW members and staff and have been very good and easy to prepare.

This is a recipe I have made several times.

Chicken Lo Mein

2 tsp peanut oil
2 tsp ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
5 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch strips
1/2 cup carrot, julienned
1 cup bean sprouts, drained
1 cup bok choy, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
4 scallions, juliened
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbl low-sodium soy sauce
2 cups cooked Chinese egg noodles or thin spaghetti

In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil; add ginger and garlic and cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Add chicken and carrot; cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until chicken is lightly browned, about 2 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients except noodles; cook, stirring constantly, until carrot is tender-crisp, about 3 minutes. Stir in noodles and cook until heated through, about 1 minute.

makes 2 servings

When I put this in the recipe calculator, it says 6 points per serving. I thought 6 points? seriously? It's probably because of the pasta. But 6 points makes a good meal. You really don't need anything else if you have this.

The recipe says julienne carrots and julienne scallions. Julienne? Not over here, ~~cause I'm lazy~~ at least not when I'm in a hurry! I do try to cut them into small peices or thin slices so they will cook quickly.

I have made this using cooking spray (PAM) instead of peanut oil. You can do that but have to keep the temperature lower and be careful not to burn the garlic, cook the garlic and ginger for a shorter time then add in the chicken.

I used whole wheat spaghetti in this. Hungry Girl has talked about some soy noodles that are lower in fat and calories than spaghetti noodles so that is worth a try.

This makes a really good stir-fry. It is tasty and cooks up really fast. It's a filling meal. Try adding in some other veggies. Like zucchini or water chestnuts or spinach. Whatever you like!

Remarkable discoveries

2010-04-06T09:03:00.002-05:00

This past workout week was good. Not very good, just good. And fun. I went out to run 4 times and took a short walk with the dog and DGD 4 times.

Although I don't know if I can technically call walking with the dog and DGD working out. We were ouside, and we were walking, we were having fun so I think that counts for something! We were on a "mission" each time. We were "exploring" and DGD was looking for "clues" and "tracks". All very mysterious. There was lots of stopping and discussing the various rocks, leaves, bugs, sticks and poop we found along our way. There was also a lot of discussion about the sounds we heard along the way. Barking, tweeting, sometimes a loud car or lawn mowing. There was also a lot of collecting of the various articles we "discovered" along our way (except the poop, unless it came from our dog) and I was of course the designated carrier of the collected items which meant they got chucked as soon as we got immersed in the next "clue".

There's only so many leaves and rocks and sticks I can carry while I am holding a leash and a poop bag.

But back to the workouts-
The early morning runs are still quiet. Quiet as in there are not a lot of people, if any, out there with me. I did notice someone really running fast on Thursday. They were off a bit in the distance. It wasn't my usual fast running older guy. It seems that there is a new fast running guy in the hood.

Yesterday I was able to go out to run in daylight, about 8 in the morning. Quite a rarity for me. The reason I run so early is because it gives me time to get it done, get showered and have some brekkie before my DGD comes over for the day.

That's my full-time job now and it's the best job I ever had.

I did not spend much time with Ms M this past week. Only 2 days. The long answer is I do the DVD with my DGD and she has lost interest in it. Being 4 she says she wants to do it and 5 minutes in she is "tired" and "needs a rest" and starts to wander off. I'm in charge of her so I must wander off with her. If she would just be "tired" and "take a rest" and stay next to me, I could finish.

The short answer is "meh".

And now for something completely different.

After my crazy person rant last week, you are probably ready to hear another crazy person rant. So here we go!

Last week the weigh in was a loss of 2.0 pounds.

There was serious scrutinizing of the previous weeks food journal and serious thought into food choices this past week. It was more thinking about when, where, why and what food I eat than I normally do. And I think about food a lot!

But it paid off. I'm hoping to maintain this week or squeek out another couple of ounces.

So no crazy person rant today! Just the meandering little tale of me and my DGD exploring the neighborhood observing, discussing and carrying poop!

It is such fun to watch her discover new things. Snails, rollie-pollies, flowers, big leaves, dog-prints in cement, whatever, it's all new and exciting to her. That makes it new and exciting to me too. She is a great teacher.

But, really, making workouts into an adventure is a whole lot of fun! Don't ya think?

Stuffed Cabbage Stoup with Grilled Cheese and Spinach Sammies

2010-04-05T09:59:00.000-05:00

This recipe is courtesy of Rachael Ray. She made it on her 30 Minute Meals show several years ago with a Grilled Cheese and Watercress sammie. It was a St. Paddies day meal.

I have made it many times since. Many times other than St. Paddies day. It is a good hearty "stoup". A "stoup" is her word for food that is thicker than soup but not quite stew. It is thick enough that you can stand a spoon up in it! It is really good. (Of course I had to alter it just a bit)

Stuffed Cabbage Stoup (the Diva Weigh)

1 quart chicken stock

1/2 pound ground turkey

1/2 pound ground chicken

1/2 tsp allspice

1 1/2 tsp coriander

2 tsp smoked paprika

salt and pepper

1 bay leaf

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot, thinly sliced with a vegetable peeler into strips then finely chopped

1/2-3/4 cabbage, thinly sliced

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes

1 cup tomato sauce

Heat a deep pot medium high heat, add meat and begin to brown, stir and brown for about 2-3 minutes. Season the meat with allspice, coriander, smoked paprika, salt and pepper.

Add bay leaf, onions, garlic and carots.

Cook veggies 2 to 3 minutes to begin to soften them, add cabbage and let it wilt down a bit.

Add tomato sauce and enough stock to cover, bring to boil, reduce to simmer and simmer for about 10 minutes

makes 6-8 servings

The carrot technique used in this stoup was a new one for me. I like how it makes 1 carrot seem to go so far.

I have used several different types of cabbages in this stoup and all have worked fine. The stoup in the picture has purple cabbage in it.

Grilled Cheese and Spinach Sammies (the Diva Weigh)

1 cup spinach leaves, stems removed and rough chopped

2 tbls dill relish or sweet red pepper relish

8 slices pumpernickel or marble bread

1/2 pound of you choice-Muenster, Havarti with dill or Leyden(Gouda with cumin seeds) thinly sliced

4 tbl butter, softened

Preheat a griddle or large skillet over medium heat.

Make 4 sandwiches of sliced cheese, chopped spinach and relish, distributing the ingredients evenly among them.

Butter the outsides of the sammies with softened butter and cook in preheated pan until golden and cheese has melted.

makes 4 sammies

The original recipe uses watercress but I have always used spinach. I don't chop it very much, big pieces of spinach on my sammies. I pile it on the sammies too! Usually more than 1 cup for the 4 sammies!

I have used dill relish, sweet relish and homemade chow-chow on these sammies with equally tasty results.

If you would like to, butter spray on the pan instead of butter works fine.

Sorry about the cruddy pics.

The stoup is thick and hearty. The addition of the smoked paprika really shines through. If you have never tried it, it really makes a delightful impact in this soup. Nice smoky flavor.

The sammies are to-die-for good! The salty cheese goes nicely with the sweet pickle relish and pumpernickel rye favor. These are perfect along side the stoup.

Thursday Box of Chocolates-4/1/10

2010-04-01T08:58:00.000-05:00

Like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get!"

George Foreman USB iGrill

Thinkgeek.com, an online retailer of gadgets and geek toys, debuted the George Foreman USB iGrill, the "low-fat, high-bandwidth solution to your networked cooking needs":

The George Foreman USB iGrill conveniently connects to your home or office PC using USB 2.0 technology, and provides a sophisticated web-based cooking interface. Download recipes, enter in the type of food, weight and desired degree of doneness, and the iGrill handles the rest. Did you know that a medium rare 1/4 lb. hamburger made from 80% lean beef takes 1 minute and 45 seconds less cook time than an identical patty made from 95% lean prime Black Angus? The iGrill does. As your meal cooks, the subtle glow from under the unit increases brightness and pulses faster until your meal is perfectly done.

(CWF)-Chocolate Canneles

2010-03-31T08:14:00.000-05:00

This month's Chocolate with Francois recipe was Chocolate Canneles, chosen by Sarah of Teapots and Cakestands

This recipe was not too hard. The ingredients went together easily. The batter needed to rest overnight or up to 4 days in the frig before baking. (I chose the overnight rest period cause I have no patience)

Cannele molds were suggested. I have no idea what those are or where to find them. I used some Martha Stewart individual bundt molds that I had.

The recipe said to let the batter rest in the mold so the flour would sink and they would not rise. Well, mine rose, but not enough to spill out and make a mess.

The cooking time was reduced to almost an hour which was short of the recommended time by about 15 minutes. I should have reduced it a bit more as they were a tiny bit burnt in places.

The little introduction to the recipe says these canneles will be crisp on the outside and chewy inside. I was skeptical about that. I could not imagine a chewy cake-thing.

These canneles were crispy outside and chewy inside. Very surprising. The chewy inside was actually very pleasant. Not chewy like taffy! Just not what you would expect when eating a cake-thing.

I am beginning to appreciate the layering of flavor that Mr. Payard has put in these recipes. Being such a novice, I am learning quite a lot.

There is a nice chocolate flavor, with a hint of the dark rum at the end. Not too sweet. Just good enough to make you want another bite, then another. So as to experience the mix of flavors.

I could see myself making these again.

Maybe some berries and cream with them next time.

Till next month's intrepid baking adventure!

Stop the merry-go-round!

2010-03-30T09:34:00.000-05:00

This week's weigh-in is brought to you by the letters W, T, and F.

Go ahead and turn the channel now and tune in tomorrow ~~if you don't want to hear a crazy person rant~~ when we will resume our normal programming.

After the great workouts I've been having lately, I felt for certain I would have a great weigh-in. I've been tracking and watching what I put in my pie-hole. I left lots of bonus point on the table. So imagine my dismay when this weeks weigh-in shows a gain of 1.2.

A frickin' gain!

My body is so stingy! It only wants to let go of ounces but when it gains, whoa nelly! let's grab a pound or more!

Nevermind all the work-outs! Nevermind all the on plan eating! Never mind all the breaking-of-the-arm-patting-myself-on-the-back because I walked away from temptation and stared down the hungry monster!

None of that mattered last week! No it's not muscle weight gain, no it's not water weight gain, no I wasn't wearing heavy clothes!

So that little dissappointment sent me into a tailspin. All the self-doubting thoughts swirled around. There were even those thoughts of being a failure. Of how I can't do anything. Of how I have never done anything. Just quit, who cares? It's too hard, you can't do it. On and on. Round and round. Here we go.

It really affected my mood. I went from having a good early morning run to an emotional heap of negativity that was ready to eat the head of the first person who looked at me sideways!

Who went postal on a bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs? I think my points for that day were like 84. Yes, I tracked them once my bender was over. It consumed all the bonus points I left on the table AND the activity points I busted my arse for AND I was still 8 points over!

And, yes, I expect another gain next week as a result. Lesson learned? A bag of wrongs don't make a right?

What is it about that little gain that sent me into crazy person mode? It was only a little gain. I am not a failure, I have lost over 50 pounds. I can do this, it is not too hard. It was only a little gain, I can do better next week.

I was able to talk myself down. I was able to tell myself that the peanut butter eggs made me feel bad, cause they really did! That part was easy!

There were some all-stars out there that really helped me. Jack Sh*t said "the journey is not about the number". Well said, there really is more to weight loss than what the scale says.

Helen said "you gotta know when to hold em". Sometimes you do have to listen to your body and slow things down, give yourself a break, take things a little easy on yourself.

Then Anti-Jared said "the road to success has a lot of failures" There will be failures but it's the getting up and learning and trying again that makes you stronger an gets you success.

Somewhere I read "fall down 7 times, get up 8"

It's all good now. I'm getting back up. For the gozillionth time.

It beats the alternative.

I'll never give up.

People watching

2010-03-29T08:57:00.000-05:00

Another successful workout week. Actually a little more than successful as I was able to add quite a bit of extra movement each day.

5 early morning morning runs, 5 days with Ms M and her Yoga Meltdown, a couple of dog walks and a couple afternoons spent raking leaves for good measure.

The past 2 weeks I have been able to head outside for early morning runs. Early as in 6 to 6:30 in the morning. There have been very few others out at this time. That fact has me scratching my head a bit. Where has everyone gone?

Last fall, it was like a 5K out there. Runners, walkers, dog-walkers and bike riders were abundant. Groups of people, couples were everywhere. People were filling the streets shoulder to shoulder. Lately, just me.

Where's the lady with the border collie I pass on both sides of my loop? Where's the (probably) mom and daughter jogging to the stop sign then turning back? Where's the man who walks really fast and pumps his arms really big? Where's the small lady jogging with the big lab? Where's the skinny older man who RUNS REALLY fast? (really fast! like ZOOM! with flames!) Where's the guy with the headband? Where's the lady on the bike who always carries a plastic grocery bag to pick up trash along her way? Where's the 3 ladies who run shoulder to shoulder down the middle of the street chatting away, 2 with big dogs?

I miss my morning peeps!

It's lonely out there and it makes me kinda jumpy about stuff.

Like stepping on a snake.

Or getting sprayed by a skunk.

Or tripping on a turtle.

In my mind, I am chugging along when I spot a skunk so as I try to avoid it I trip on a turtle, land on a cobra while being sprayed.

(and another piece of the puzzle falls into place)

I need all these other people out there to warn me where the road hazards are and scare off all the critters!

Maybe they don't realize it's tolerable outside again.

I hope they get the memo soon!

Are you able to enjoy the great outdoors yet?

Tropical Carrot Cake (round 2 and 12!)

2010-03-26T09:30:00.001-05:00

The day you ~~couldn't care less about~~ have been waiting with baited breathe for! Round 2 of the cake making craziness that was February! With a bonus Round 12 thrown in!

Please try to contain your excitement.

Carrot Cake came into my life about 25 years ago. A co-worker of mine (a man!) used to bring in the most delicious carrot cake when we would have a pot luck lunch at work. It was always requested that he bring in his famous carrot cake. I asked for the recipe. And asked. And asked. And finally I was rewarded for my persistance.

carrots, sugar, flour, eggs, oil, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt under a layer of cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. OMG!

I made that cake so many times when asked for the recipe, I could recite it from memory.

That was then.

These days I make it a bit differently. But let me tell you, it is still one of the most requested cakes I make!

Vegetables are good for you, right? Mama always told you to eat your carrots!

Round 2 (and 12)of my crazy cake making month, features a Tropical Carrot Cake.

A reduced fat and calorie Carrot Cake!

Even the cream cheese frosting is reduced fat and calorie!

What?

Yes-sir-ee!

We celebrated my dad's 81st birthday and I was in charge of the cake. Tropical Carrot Cake was requested.

Tropical Carrot Cake the Diva Weigh

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 cup egg beaters

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla paste(or extract)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups carrots, shredded

1 small can crushed pineapple in pineapple juice, undrained

1/2 cup coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Add the egg beaters and applesauce and vanilla. Mix well.

Add carrots, pineapple and coconut. Mix well.

Pour into 9X13 pan(or 2 9" cake pans) and bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out of center clean.

Cool completely.

(if you make the 9X13 pan and cut it into 24 pieces, it is 2 points per piece)

Frost with cream cheese frosting-

Cream Cheese Frosting the Diva Weigh

1/2 cup reduced fat cream cheese

1/2 cup reduced fat butter or margarine(such as Brummel and Brown)

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste(or extract)

sift powdered sugar through a mesh strainer to be sure there are no lumps.

In the bowl of a mixer cream margarine and cream cheese.

Add the vanilla.

Add the powdered sugar and mix to combine.

This makes a very soft frosting. It will stiffen up a bit in the frig.

(1 ounce of this frosting is 2 points)

I like to use vanilla paste or vanilla beans in recipes where the little beans can be seen.

can you see the little vanilla beans in there?!

DH has requested this for his birthday. (round 12!)

and here it is!

DH got the low fat cake but the regular (except for low fat cream cheese) frosting.

see the carrots and the coconut!

This is a moist, sweet cake. The pineapple is the star of this cake. The coconut creeps in and there is just a hint of cinnamon. Really tasty cake!

The frosting on this one is whiter in color because there is butter in it instead of the low fat and calorie spread I used on the other one. The Brummel and Brown gave the frosting on round 2 a pretty light yellow color.

Try making this in muffin pans and skip the frosting for a 2 point treat!

Thursday Box of Chocolates-3/25

2010-03-25T08:44:00.000-05:00

Like momma used to say;

"Thursdays are like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get!"

Do you love jalepenos but wish they didn't make flames erupt from your ears when you ate them?

Here's a tip on how to get most of that heat out.

Wear gloves when you work with them. Cut the tops off and then cut them open. Take the seeds and veins out using a spoon. The spoon makes it easy to scrape those veins off, getting rid of more of the heat-factor. Then toss them in a bowl of lightly salted water. Let them hang out there till you are ready to slice, stuff, whatever you want. The longer they soak, the milder they will be.

Here's to no more fire-breathing! (unless you like that sort of thing!)

Martha Stewart's Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

2010-03-24T09:03:00.000-05:00

This month's challenge from the Martha Stewart Cupcake Bakers Club is Lemon Meringue Cupcakes. It was chosen by Megan at My Baking Adventures.

Though I am not an official member, I continue to lurk there and bake along. Although I did not follow the instructions of posting my cupcakes on the 15th of the month (I'm a rebel like that). They were baked and consumed long before that date so there's that.

Since I had some Meyer lemons in the frig, that is what I used. There is lemon zest in the cupcake and Meyer lemons tend to have a thin skin so I had issues with that.

The cupcake batter seemed lighter this time. A nice change from the previous muffin-like batters. The cupcake had a nice lemon flavor from the lemon zest.

There is a layer of lemon curd on top of the cupcake. I have never made a lemon curd. Mine was more like a lemon glaze as you can see it dribbled down the sides. It also soaked into the cupcake a bit making it nice and moist. The lemon curd was very tasty and having that soak into the cupcake part was devine.

The topping is a 7-minute frosting that is piped into a mound then torched (torched!)

It was my 2nd time to make 7-minute frosting. I think I'm getting the hang of it! I'm always on a learning curve with things and have to make then several times to get it right! It was good again. Possibly this is a frosting I cannot screw up!

I liked these cupcakes. I like lemony things. The lemon flavor in these was not overpowering and not sour. Like a sweet lemon drop.

And of course since the kitchen torch made an appearance, I'd make these again!