Chocolate is evil

Change from beginning of program: -4.2 LBs
Goal: 40 LBs to go

Activity: ironing

Temptation: fudge, Mexican food
Fruit and veg: 5

It's official. I have hit the wall.

The wall of chocolate.

I struggled to break that chocolate addiction in May. After about 3 days with no chocolate, I lost the taste for it. I felt liberated. And I lost weight.

Well, I slowly but surely worked my way back into the chocolate dependence.

It started small. A mini candy bar here, a bit of ice cream there.

Sunday, I made fudge.

Today, I made brownies.

Most of the fudge went to the office, as will most of the brownies. But I still eat the edges, the batter, the bits here and there.

And the weight is creeping back on. Dammit!

What to do?

By the way, have you ever noticed that the words evil and live have the same letters? Same goes for Elvis and lives. And Satan and Santa. What's up with that?

Vindicated

When I bought my house 10 years ago, I had a few requirements. An electric stove was one of them.

I found a house with an electric stove and a gas oven. I replaced the gas oven with an electric one in the first month I lived here.

Everyone said I was crazy. But I know what works when I cook.

Julia Child, my new hero, says in her seminal Mastering the Art of French Cooking, "Electric ovens give more even heat for pastry baking than gas." YES! I knew that the gas oven was burning things on the outside and not cooking on the inside.

Julia also says, "For top-of-stove cooking you wan to switch from very high indeed to very low heat with gradations in between, which a restaurant gas range can provide...Otherwise, a good modern electric cooktop is far better than weak domestic gas burners." (emphasis mine)

The master has spoken. I made the right choice with electricity.

I'll be wearing out that electric cooktop with my new stainless steel cookware.

From cupake catastrophe to trifle triumph

I refuse to give up on the cupcakes from last night. So I used the cake chunks I salvaged from last night in a trifle. Filling: cream cheese and whipped cream beaten together, chocolate fudge sauce, caramel sauce, and pecans.

My arteries are clogging as I type.

To avoid hurting myself, I am taking the whole thing to work tomorrow.

Like the canisters? I found them at a thrift store about 20 years ago in Dallas. I renovated the entire kitchen to match the canisters.

Baking disaster

In my quest for a winning recipe at the Ghirardelli contest, I tried some new cupcakes. I made the batter for German Chocolate Cake, but with Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate instead of the German Sweet Chocolate.

True story: German Chocolate Cake has no relationship to Germany. The chocolate used in German Chocolate Cake is sold under the brand name German Sweet Chocolate. My German friend looked at me like I was crazy when I asked him for an authentic recipe for the cake with coconut. He informed me that they did not have coconuts in Germany.

Anyway, my idea was to make cupcakes with the German Chocolate batter and put a large marshmallow in the center of each one. I tried that. I filled each cupcake liner 2/3 full of batter and stuck the marshmallow in the middle. Like an idiot, I made two pans of cupcakes (24). I put them in the oven and went outside to move the sprinklers. When I came back inside about 10 minutes later, I smelled something burning. The marshmallows had risen out of the cupcakes and were quite toasted on the top. And running over the pan. And dripping onto the racks and the bottom of the oven.

I turned the oven off and washed the racks. And cleaned the oven. (I guess that's one positive outcome...)

The German Chocolate Cake recipe makes a three-layer cake, so I had a lot of batter left over. For my next attempt, I cut the marshmallows in half and put the in the cupcake cups before the batter. This time, I made just one pan of 12 (instead of two). I also stayed in the house. And I opened a beer.

Every few minutes, I checked on the cupcakes. And every few minutes, I was poking down the rising marshmallows. I felt like Woody Allen in Sleeper. After about 15 minutes and 4-5 sessions of poking down the rising cupcakes, I removed them from the oven. They promptly fell to look like craters.

If the combination of the batter and the melted marshmallows didn't taste so damn good, I would have given up. But it really was the perfect combo.

After three pans (36 cupcakes), I still had batter. I finally put the remaining batter in a bundt pan and baked it until almost done. I covered that with the remaining marshmallows and the partially cooked cupcakes from the failed batches. I baked until I thought it might be done.

All of it is now in a large bowl covered with plastic wrap. I need to dream up a way to salvage what's there. Maybe a trifle?

What a mess.

I generally don't fail with baking. I guess I was due for a disaster. Now I just need to figure out how to turn this into a winning recipe.

Good luck with that...

Blog post 100 - Somebody's got a case of the Mondays

and it's me

Change from beginning of program: -6.4 LBs
Goal: 38 LBs to go

Activity: having a facial and ironing

Temptation: Reeses
Fruit and veg: 5

I don't like Mondays. The office is hot, everyone comes to the office and talks very loudly all day, and I'm usually tired because I couldn't go to sleep on Sunday because I napped all day. I have learned that I won't be worth anything by Monday night. Tonight was no exception.

I practically fell asleep during my facial at the end of the day.

I got home and ironed, and I got in the bed around 7:30. What an exciting life I lead...

Breakfast - Hummus on multi-grain bread. Pluot. 6 Reeses minis at work.

Lunch - Fish burrito (fried fish inside -yum) with rice pilaf. Salad with blue cheese dressing on the side.

Dinner - Kraft Spongebob mac and cheese with extra cheese. Mixed veg (2 servings). They have shrunk the amount of macaroni in the boxes so much that the box now contains 2 servings. It used to contain 4. But now I don't feel so bad about eating the whole box. Which I did.

Had an extreme chocolate jones and considered making a batch of fudge to deal with it, but was just too damned tired. Finished off the pint of Rocky Road ice cream that was lurking in the freezer.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll feel more motivated. Or not. If the heat doesn't stop soon, and if those people at the office don't stop talking so much, the chocolate cravings could take over.

No broken bones

I have always said that I would never need to worry about a broken hip because I keep plenty of padding on my bones.

Now I know that my bones are strong. And it ain't because of milk.

All-you-can-eat Sunday

Change from beginning of program: -6.4 LBs
Goal: 38 LBs to go

Activity: none

Temptation: creamy jalapeno dressing
Fruit and veg: 2 (I know, it's pathetic)

Slept until 11:15. Made Bigfoot's breakfast and then had leftover tuna casserole and a pluot. And some of the cookies I made last night. I kept only a dozen cookies, and the ones I kept were a bit undercooked. But I ate the edges.

Took a 2.5 hour nap. Made Bigfoot's dinner and finished the shrimp and baked potato from last night. I put the undercooked cookies in the oven and left the room to talk on the phone. 15 minutes later, the cookies were black and smoking.

Not to go cookie-less, I baked the remaining batter (4 cookies).

When our Sunday night shows began, I had some cherries. Then all 4 cookies. Then some Triscuits (reduced fat!) and Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp Cheddar. Why is it that when I start snacking I can't stop?