Whew! Candy Making Finished!

The title says it all. I'm finally finished making candy for the season . . . I hope. The light isn't very good at 5:30 in the morning, so this picture will have to do until the sun comes up!

I didn't make nearly as much candy as last year, but I made more varieties. I made about 30-35 candies for each of the molded chocolates and caramels.

Here's the tally:

2 batches Peanut Brittle
2 batches Butter Pecan Toffee
2 batches of Mag's Decadent Fudge
2 batches of Polar Bear Poop
2 batches of Reindeer Poop
15 Pongos (formerly known as Heart Attacks)
About 70 Turtles

The above candies I decided to bag individually. And yes, I weighed them out to give all the bags roughly the same amount of candy.

Caramel:

Sea Salt Caramel, milk and dark chocolate coated
Brownie Fudge Caramel Bites, white chocolate coated
Devil's Velvet, Cherry Port Caramel
Taste of Gold, Grand Marnier Caramel
Limaniac, Lime Caramel
Devil's Cut Whiskey Caramel
Feel the Burn Caramel, chipotle/cinnamon

White Chocolate:

Cup o' Joe--coffee

Dark Chocolate:

Peppermint Schnapps
Bronx Cheer Raspberry
Soft Butter Caramel
Pom Pucker--pomegranate
Key Lime
Mango Madness
Limoncello
Cranberry Cosmo

Milk Chocolate:

Frangelico
ButterShots
Grand Marnier
Barenjager
Amaretto
Midnight Magic Blackberry
Strawberry Margarita
Black Forest Cherry
Pilgrim's Progress Maple Walnut
Whiskey Toffee Crunch
Cherries Jubilee
Gingerbread
Rum Raisin
Porto

If you want to know how I make my molded candy, click here for a pictorial.
If you want to know how I make my fillings, click here for the basic instructions. Every truffle filling is different, so I tend to 'eyeball' what it looks like and adjust accordingly.

If I haven't listed a link to my recipes, you might want to click Foodie Friday Tab to peruse my selections. Of course, I've been extremely lax in the last eight months and haven't updated my blog. I intend to do this during the Christmas break, before the new year starts.

Today, I need to pack the twenty boxes I have, plus some other smaller boxes for gifties. Yes, I think it will take me at least a day to get all the candies packed as it's like fitting a round peg into a square hole.

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- The Horrible Truth

This will be a tough blog to write, but I feel that I owe it to the readers of my Weighty Wednesday blog.

I've been talking the talk, but not walking the walk.

To be honest with you all, I have been slacking for almost the last year. I fell off the weight loss wagon a long time ago. Maintaining weight loss is so very hard and it's too easy to keep adding food to one's diet until we are in the same predicament we were in first place-- OVERWEIGHT

I haven't been getting my daily healthy guideline items marked off my list.

I haven't been watching my portions.

I've been drinking too many diet sodas, eggnog and wine.

I've been snacking on my candy, namely peanut brittle, . . . and I still have seven flavors to mold before they get boxed up and delivered.

And just recently, I haven't been walking due to the ice on my walking trail.

I've gained more weight than I want to talk about. I'll 'fess up to it next week, but the reality is still to raw for me to actually say the amount of weight gain.

But reality hit me hard yesterday when I actually contemplated putting on my larger pair of jeans.

This is so NOT going to happen!

Yes, I have two pairs of size 8 jeans hiding in my closet, but I really don't want to resort to wearing them simply because I have ZERO will power to stop myself from stuffing my face.

All of us face our demons in our own way. Many times we listen to those demons and indulge to the point of excess, but the problems arise when we continue to listen to them on a daily basis.

Which happened to me.

When I was at goal and on maintenance for the first six months of the year, I got lazy. I would eat a little too much, or slack on my healthy guidelines there was no real consequence . . . at first. I stayed within my goal's weight range.

But after awhile, starting in July, I had to pay my dues for the overindulgence, and now the weight is slipping back on like an actor's fat suit.

With Christmas around the corner, I know I'll be getting some goodies in my stocking, plus the broken leftover candy . . .

It will be tough to resist.

Now that I've acknowledged that I'm not the sparkling mentor that you think I am, I can climb back into the driver's seat of my own reality and take control of my eating issues.

It will be hard, but I know I can do it.

Because I've done it before.

All it takes is conscientious eating, portion control, and getting my daily healthy guidelines in.

I hope y'all will realize that I am simply human. I made a mistake and have a weight gain to show for it.

But I can fix this.

I hope you got my back just as much as I have your back with my pep talk blogs. I might need a little encouragement to get started down the right path again.

True confessions are over for today.

Later, Peeps!

1,000th Blog Post

Wow! Who would have thought that I would write 1,000 blogs?

I sure as heck didn't.

When I started this blog, I had named it "Fantasy Crapshoot" for not so obvious reasons. At the time I was writing THE LEPRECHAUN CONNECTION and it was a crapshoot as to whether or not I could get an agent/editor interested in my writing.

I was unsuccessful.

I'm still unsuccessful in that regard, but I have survived many years blogging when many of my fellow authors have quit a long, long time ago. For, you see, blogging takes creative energy and many writers felt that blogging sucked them dry leaving them but a bitter husk as they tried to make money with their real job of -- WRITING.

FIRST BLOG POST:  April 29, 2008

Page View All Time History: 92,868
I can't say how many of these 'views' are spam or real views, but there it is.

Most Popular Blog Post : Tips and Tricks Universal Studios Florida -- 606 page views. Written on 8/2/2013

The most popular top four posts after Tips and Tricks:

Dogfish Shark Dissection, cont. 5/12/11---- 341 views
Special Guest--Cynthia D'Alba--First Dates--Heaven or Hell  2/20/2012 ---- 297 views
Polar Bear Poop -- the recipe  1/10/2011 ----194 views
GAK! No Clue What to Post!  2/4/2009 ----164 views

The search engine listed the most is Google, followed by Vampirestat.com (NO idea what this is!), followed by Facebook.

The United States gives me the biggest audience hits, followed by China, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom, France, Ukraine, Sweden, Canada and the Netherlands.

Again, I have no idea if these are real hits versus spam hits. It makes me feel better to think of them as real hits, so I will. . . Don't Burst my Fantasy Bubble!

Periodically, I'll get a couple of hits from South America, India or Africa. But I've also had hits from Mauritania (Yes, I had to look it up), and the Faroe Islands (ditto on the look up!), along with various other countries.

Over the years, I've offered my views about writing under the tab titled Writing 101. But I don't post very often under the writing header as I feel there are many other writers out there with far better credentials to do the job! I do have numerous blog posts about setting goals, which I need to review before this year is over!

I've shared my weight loss struggles under my Weighty Wednesday posts. And from various feedback I've received, these posts have the most impact with my readers. I might be outlining my personal struggles, but I seem to hit the right note with those other people out there facing their own food demons.

I've posted numerous recipes under Foodie Friday posts. Please browse the recipes. I started this section of the blog when my husband pointed out that if I died tomorrow, he wouldn't know how to make a particular recipe! Plus these are for my daughter to take with her when she flies the coop.

I've made tabs for my books.

Tabs for my crocheting efforts.

Tabs for my donations to Brenda Novak's For the Cure

I've made numerous blogging mistakes, but then again, I never really planned to have much of a following. I figured I was just talking to myself when I'd share my thoughts and feelings about numerous topics.

AND I've also been told that I share far too much!

Will I blog in 2014?
 

Of course! I might end up repeating myself, but sometimes repetition helps with the ability to retain the knowledge. I know I tend to repeat myself on my Weighty Wednesday blogs because I need to remind myself to stick to the basics!
 

Christmas is almost upon us. My daughter has finals this next week and then she'll be home until the New Year, so my blogging will be sporadic at best, unless we get snowed in again like we did a couple of years ago!
 

I'll work on my Goals list if you promise to work on your list for the new year.
 

Remember, these aren't resolutions, which can be broken, but goals in which we strive to attain.
 

Yes, it's all semantics, but sometimes looking at something from a different direction will open your eyes to the possibilities!
 

I want to thank everyone who has visited my blog. I hope I've been informative and kept you entertained at the same time. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to click on the Contact Me tab.

I've blathered on long enough about this 1000 BLOG! So I'll bid you farewell for now!

Later, Peeps!

Foodie Friday -- Mag's Chili

Personally, I think there are as many chili recipes as there are ingredients in one's pantry. In other words, limitless.

If you have meat, tomatoes, and chili powder, you can make chili.

And there are billions of varieties of chili powder, which means a gazillion varieties of chili.

Hub's work place was having a chili cook-off, so I made chili.

But we've been iced in. I couldn't go to the store. I had some regular ingredients, and some not so normal ingredients, on hand.

Again, chili is one of those 'dump' recipes: Dump stuff in, let it cook, taste, and adjust seasonings

This was the result.

Mag's Chili

2 lbs ground beef, divided (I used 93% fat free beef, so I didn't bother to drain it)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 cup dried onions (forgot to buy a real onion, oops)
2 cups chopped brisket (fat removed--adds a smokiness)
2 16 oz cans diced tomatoes
1 can Rotel tomatoes, hot habanero variety (no idea why I bought it!)
1 3.5 oz chopped green chilies
1 small can tomato paste (6 oz?)
3-5 heaping Tbls Top Hat chili powder (depends on chili powder and freshness of aforementioned chili powder) (link takes you to Pendery's order page for Top Hat chili powder)
@ 1 Tbls kosher salt (don't oversalt! Use less, until it cooks a little and add more if needed)
1 12 -oz amber lager (I used Old Scratch Amber)
2 cups homemade enchilada sauce (that had been in the freezer for awhile--the link provides the recipe)
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
@ 1/4-1/2 tsp. chipotle powder, (sprinkled in to taste)

Brown 1 pound of ground beef. Add rest of ingredients (the second pound of beef will melt into the liquid with no chunks), except kidney beans. Cook about 30 minutes, taste and adjust seasonings. Add kidney beans. Cook for another 30 minutes to an hour to cook down and meld flavors.

Enjoy! And don't burn your mouth like my hubs did!

Tips & Tricks:

• most of my tips and trick are in red within the recipe.
• again, you can make it as mild or as spicy as you like
• If you want to brown both pounds of ground beef for larger chunks, by all means do so. This is just what I threw together. Make it your own.
• season lightly with salt at the beginning, because when it cooks down it might be too salty--you can always add more--I did!
• I prefer flaked Kosher salt. It has less harshness than iodized table salt
• If I hadn't used my chopped Poblano peppers from the freezer in another recipe I would have tossed in about 1/3 cup. . . . or jalapenos . . . or Serrano chilies. . . or what other spicy chilies that were on hand at the store. . . . if I had been able to go to the store.
• I threw the beans in there because I wanted to clear out my pantry a little. . . not because the recipe needed beans.

Later, Peeps!

Sad, Sad Margaret

Margaret is sad.

 

Sad, sad Margaret.

 

Why is Margaret sad?

She's sad because UPS lost her chocolate shipment.

She's sad because she can't make these lovelies--just the milk chocolate ones.

 

Margaret is sad because to make the milk chocolate lovelies she has to drive around town to find some high-quality, over-priced milk chocolate.

Margaret is sad because if she doesn't find chocolate, then she will have to XXXXX *insert horrible chore here* Yes, this includes Christmas shopping.

Margaret is sad because UPS Live Chat said, "Too bad, so sad. Talk to the company who shipped the chocolate. It's not our problem that it is lost."

"What? The tracker says it left Memphis on 12/8 and disappeared. Did aliens take the truck? Was it in an accident in Arkansas because of the ice storm?"  An accident Margaret totally understands and is sympathetic. She also hopes that no one was hurt if there were an accident, but we will never know, now will we? Since UPS insists it is lost. Margaret suspects someone stole her chocolate to sell on the black market. Retail it's $5 or more a pound. It isn't cheap.

"Sorry. It is considered "lost". Please contact the company that shipped the product."

"Thanks," Margaret mumbles, while thinking "well, that was a waste of time. Customer service isn't very service oriented is it?"

Margaret calls Country Kitchen SweetArt, and talks to a lovely lady called Ally. Ally promises to get on the problem with their shipping liaison, Stephanie. Ally was über sympathetic, which makes Margaret feel less sad.

But Margaret can't wait to make her chocolate. There are simply not enough hours in the day if she has to wait another week for some chocolate to arrive.

Margaret is forced to buy over-priced chocolate from a local cake shop to start the process.

Margaret is still sad.

Later, Peeps!

Busy Candy Making

Sorry for the lack of bloggitiness, but I'm snowed in with my kidlet and busy making candy. Hopefully, the rest of my supplies will arrive tomorrow, but until then I'll be busy making a few more filled nummies along with Pecan Toffee, peanut Brittle, and fudge if I can make it to the store to get 4 oz. of unsweetened chocolate.

 

Until I can get back on track, I'll leave you with this visual.

 

 

 And if you want to know why molded chocolates take so long, here's a link to my pictorial on how to mold chocolates.

Later, Peeps! And stay safe in the ugly weather!

Foodie Friday -- 7-UP Biscuits

Today was a snow day and all the schools were out, so I decided to try this biscuit recipe I saw on Facebook.

Now, I will mention that numerous people would post recipes on FB, but they were encrypted and you had to 'share' the recipe to get it. Well, my friends, home girl here doesn't play that game, and I found a way around this trick. This technique is right up there with chain letters, "SHARE" unless you want to go to He%%, or other such crap that people come up with.

Oh, and I found a way to copy the recipe . . .

I will also mention that I've made biscuits about three times in my entire life. Usually, I buy a can from the store and pop it open for fresh biscuits, or even buy the little hockey pucks in the freezer section.

This is a simple recipe requiring only four items. You might need to tweak the oven temps depending on your oven.

Makes 20-24 biscuits depending on thickness.

7-UP Biscuits

4 cups of Bisquick

1 cup sour cream

1 cup 7-UP soda

1/2 cup melted butter

 

Melt butter in two 9 X 13 pans.

 

Mix Bisquick, sour cream, and 7-UP. It will be very soft and loose. Knead and fold dough on flat surface using Bisquick to keep it from sticking. Pat dough out and cut biscuits using round cutter. Slosh melted butter around pans and pour excess into bowl. Place biscuits in pan and brush with excess butter. Bake 400 degrees F. for 12-15 minutes.

 

Tips & Tricks:

• I used glass Pyrex pans
• I made these biscuits 2 1/2 inch in diameter and 1/2-3/4 inch deep
• I ended up with 22 biscuits using these measurements
• Don't over crowd the pans. 12 biscuits per pan ended up being a good amount.
• The original recipe called for the oven to be 425, but I thought it would brown too quickly . . .it did one of my batches. 

Enjoy!