So sweet

Last night as I was about to go down in the basement to throw in a load of laundry and do some vacuuming I heard a tap at the back door.  I went to it and there was my neighbor Myrna.  Her son has been in Japan for a few months (he’s in the Marines) and he just got back.  While he was there she had asked that he pick something up for Chris and I, and she was coming over to deliver it.  He got us a Japanese cork carving scene in black lacquer.  It’s really cute.  She also had an invitation to her daughter’s baby shower which is in just a few weeks.  So many babies lately (KFun, Shaun, Myrna’s son and daughter both).
I do believe that it’s about time to start focusing on taking off the 10 pounds that I’ve put on since my surgery last year.  I’m not happy with the added weight.  Due to sickness, and sometimes plain laziness, I have been slacking on the gym time and that’s got to stop.  It’s really a matter of pulling the reins in a little tighter and reminding myself what the food that I’m about to put in my body is going to do to my shape once I’ve chewed and swallowed it.  Chocolate cherry cordial frozen yogurt drizzled with all natural peanut butter may taste really great, but there’s no damn need for it.  Especially when I’ve eaten a healthful and filling dinner and I’m just eating for the sake of eating.  Lately it’s those evening munchies that are getting me, and I’m not gonna let ’em anymore.  It sounds so easy “eat smaller portions, and healthier foods” but it can be really hard to implement sometimes.  I find that I have an especially hard time in winter when I tend to cook much hardier foods and eat larger portions than I would in the summer.  So strange.
My friend Eric went to Italy last year with his wife.  While there they went to a tasting at an olive grove where they tried olive oils and balsamic vinegars.  They found a balslam that they really liked and bought a jar of jelly made from it with the intention of making chocolates filled with the jelly.  So he started looking into how to make the chocolates and found that in order to make the type of chocolates that he wanted, out of the ingredients that he wanted to use (70% cocoa Belgian dark), he would have to use a chocolate temperer.  Upon further research he found that they go for over $300.  He happened to win an auction on ebay for a refurbished one for $150 yesterday.  Now he is well on his way to balsamic jelly bon-bons.  He’s looking to order the molds today.  Isn’t it funny how such a small idea can turn into a major production?  Now, in order to make use of the investment that he made in the temperer, he and his wife will become “chocolate-making fools” as he says.  I love it.  Sounds like me with cakes right now.
Tonight I will be baking the chocolate cake for Shanna’s birthday party and buying the most beautiful strawberries that I can find to fill it with.  Saturday morning will be ganache making and cake torting and strawberry slicing and then building a sinful cake.  I can’t wait.  I don’t care about eating the cake, just the building of it.  I love to create it, and to see others get joy out of eating it.
J

1 Comment

  1. i find that if you don’t chew your food properly you don’t get as many calories from it. my assumption is that its a simple matter of surface area. also, if you eat an entire box of krispy kremes all in one sitting, your body cannot possibly consume all those calories, so you don’t get fat.
    it is really just this philosophy that keeps me thin. 😉

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