November is Over--Yay!

Wow, what a month!

I'm so glad that November is over! Its such a busy month and I always manage to get a bee up my butt to try and do NaNo . . . which I failed miserably at!

But there were a few successes:

• my daughter is now a beautiful teenager
• I saw Catching Fire with a bunch of giggling teens and survived. The movie was better than the first one, mainly because the 'world' was already defined
• Ate more cake than any person should eat
• My nephew and I managed to make FIVE desserts for Thanksgiving...see previous blog for the Cappuccino Torte recipe.
• The work on our house is almost finished. Two weeks of banging, pounding and sawing as now changed to the hiss of the exterior paint being applied, with the exception of the area around electrical box. The local Public Service guys have to take the box down and then replace it to inspect it for safety.
• Hubs managed to 'Q-tip' our HUGE crepe myrtles. We do it this time of year since we lost one many, many years ago to an ice storm. It's just easier to clean up.
• Even though we burned the majority of branches--outdoor fireplace, yanno--we still managed to fill over seven large bags of green waste.
• The Christmas tree is up, though there isn't anything on it. It's up and ready for lights.
• We managed to get all the Christmas boxes from the crawl space. And, every year, I'm amazed that we can manage to cram so much stuff in that tiny area--we are nothing else, if not efficient!
• The carboy filled with wine is finally OFF my kitchen counter! The bottles have been filled and corked.

Christmas will seem to come earlier this year since Thanksgiving was so late. We don't participate in the Black Friday madness, but we do utilize the Cyber Monday deals.

And though I will be cutting back on the amount of chocolate candy I'll be making, it doesn't mean that I won't make it. In fact, I just placed a new order for 20 lbs of chocolate--even my supplier is having a special on chocolate!

Today is errands, grocery shopping and put up Christmas stuff day. While tomorrow will be a few errands, I hope to organize my candy efforts and start on a few of them.

I need to work on my new stories. I think the way to do that is to set a number of words to write each day. Once I have a concrete goal, I'll manage to do it, but no goal = no result.

Maybe if I'm efficient with my errands, and there aren't very many crowds, I can sit down and immerse myself into one of the stories.

Here's hoping!

Later, Peeps!

And remember, there are only 23 more shopping days until Christmas!

Weighty Wednesday--Baking time

Happy Wednesday to you!

The last month has been rough for me. I haven't been as dedicated tracking my food. I haven't been diligent marking off my daily healthy checks. And I have been snacking on bad stuff--chips, Halloween candy, sweet-coated nuts, etc.

BUT I have been exercising at least once a day. I have been drinking all my water. I have been making healthy choices. I have been watching my portion sizes. I have been listening to my body when it tells me that I'm full even when there is still food on my plate.

And it paid off this last week as I lost 2 more pounds!

My total weight loss is 32.4 pounds!!! Yay! One of the WW members asked me if I was on maintenance . . . uh, no, I still have 13 pounds to lose before I'm even IN the weight range for my height (132 lbs is the upper limit for 5'1"). I must really hide my weight well. *shrugs*

So, keep on making healthy food choices, it will pay off.

Which brings me to today's topic--baking.

The holidays are around the corner--as I called it in my WW meeting, "October thru March (Halloween until Easter), it's candy season."--and many of us cook and bake. The weather is turning cooler, which makes it more difficult to exercise and simply stay away from the pantry and fridge. So how to bake without nibbling? And it just isn't nibbling, but when you're baking you have to taste to make sure your product is what you are aiming for.

Sorry, I don't have any real answers because this will be my first winter while losing weight, but I have a PLAN. And having a plan is 95% of the battle.

1) drink a lot of water--before, during, and after. If you keep your tummy full, there is less chance of nibbling.
2) though it's tempting to lick your fingers--don't. Wipe them off or wash them--you should anyway, but if your cooking for yourself or family are you REALLY that hygienic??
3) don't lick the bowls. Again, this is tough. But if you have to eat raw cookie dough, then measure it out and COUNT IT! As soon as you scrape the last of the dough, caramel, etc from the mixing bowl, soak it in water. It would be totally gross to try to lick it now!
4) Make smaller test runs.
5) Plan to take the final product to work or give it to someone. Yes, you can have a serving or even two, but remove it from the house so you aren't tempted to eat it over the next few days.
6) if you are making something experimental and it didn't work--throw it down the disposal. It can be rescued from the trash, but not the garbage disposal.

And that's all I have for now. I'm sure I'll think of something while I'm making mini pumpkin cheesecakes . . .

Later, Peeps!

Baking Time!

Since the writing world has been depressing me so much, I decided to start baking again. The weather is cooler and it just feels right. Plus, I wanted to do mini-desserts for Thanksgiving and I'm not about to experiment this year.

So I baked two pecan things yesterday. Neither one of them was very good. They were okay, but not holiday worthy.

1) mini pecan pies--I actually had to roll out the crust for this one. I didn't over work it and it was nice and buttery, but in my mini cupcake pan it was simply too much crust for the filling. And the filling was NOT good. I followed the recipe, but it simply didn't get caramelly enough. I knew this before I filled the little crusts, but I followed the recipe anyway. I should have gone with my gut and started over.
--Sampled one, er, two, but the rest went to work with hubby. I'll rethink how I deal with this.

2) Chocolate pecan tart--Chocolate crumb crust does NOT work well in mini tart pans. Next time, I'll press it out and bake it for about 5 minutes and then CUT little round bottoms to fit in the mini muffin holes. Opted to bake it in a 9-in square tart pan. The filling was more caramelly, but when I added the chocolate it became too chocolatey. Ate a piece. It was okay, too. I need to think out my approach prior to baking next time.
--the rest of the tart is at work with hubby.

Both recipes failed. But I have time to 'fix' them.

Today, I'll try a couple of non-bake things. One is a pumpkin cheesecake with eggs in it. I'll experiment with 1) microwaving the filling, and 2) cooking it on the stovetop, instead of baking.

I'll let you know how it works.

Later, Peeps!