tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84272698912966650382024-02-18T20:47:41.797-08:00As a Result ....Because it's about time I become the best me I can be.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.comBlogger82125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-52386619207876207342013-04-05T15:17:00.002-07:002013-04-05T15:17:17.372-07:00Falling off the Wagon<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yesterday was a disaster.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I had an early breakfast meeting so I got up and did a short</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Zumba workout. I was coming home and figured I would</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">get in my Insanity workout after work.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">My food choices at breakfast were great. Lots of protein, </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">not much fat </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">or carbs. Then four hours of sitting in another</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">meeting. During the break I grabbed a protein bar. </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Doing great so far.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Time to drive home. I grabbed a big bottle of water because I hadn't </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">drank enough and ate a couple of high carb snacks I had.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">(They were all I had left of the food I packed)</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Macros (protein, carbs, and fat) weren't too bad but I was low in </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">the calorie department </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">and I knew it was going to get worse </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">after my Insanity workout.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Made it back to work and finished out the day in the office.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">No baseball practice for hubby because it had </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">decided to rain most </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">of the day. </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I still planned to get my workout in and I had planned</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">out my food for the rest of the night to make sure I was pretty </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">close to the right macros.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Then I got home. All motivation went right out the window.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Followed closely by my eating plan. </span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I ate a high fat and high carb dinner with no extra workout.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Believe it not the world did not come to an end.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">While I'm not happy with the choices I made, I'm not going </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">to beat myself up about it. </span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana;">It is what it is & </span></em></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><em>Tomorrow is another day</em></span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I got up this morning a little later than plan because I didn't</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">sleep as well as normal after that wonderful meal,</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">but I did workout and again have a workout planned for after work.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Tonight it will happen because I want it to </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">not as punishment for yesterday.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-42169839141206762632013-04-03T19:43:00.002-07:002013-04-03T19:43:59.147-07:00Adjusting<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today is day three of my next round of P90x/Insanity.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I've made some adjustments this time around. </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I added some more cardio to the routine.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">30 minutes (or close to it) of cardio after work.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">It's a great stress relief.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I've also changed the way I'm eating.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This has been way more of a challenge than the extra cardio.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I am now trying to eat 50% of my calories from protein,</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">30% from carbs and 20% from fat.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">As a pasta, rice and bread lover 50% of my calories </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">from protein </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">cuts out a lot of my favorite foods. </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I had already cut out </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">bread but still this is tough.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I also burn a lot of calories and that means sometimes</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I am scrambling trying to figure out what to eat</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">to make sure I'm eating enough. </span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">(I'm sure you are all feeling extremely sorry for me right now)</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Add traveling out of town for work to the mix</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">and right now I'm a little overwhelmed by food.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I'm trying to remember that this is a process but as I </span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">sit here at the computer stuffed because I had to eat more food,</span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I'm not sure it's working real well.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Tomorrow I'll be home and I think that will help me a bunch.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-63882881351195353532013-04-01T11:42:00.000-07:002013-04-01T11:49:07.783-07:00Round One in the Books<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">March 31st marked the end of my first round of P90x/Insanity. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The results were ok but not as good as I had hoped. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I know, I know</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">it takes time but I'm not really </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">good at being patient.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">There was progress. I have to remind myself where I came from. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This was two years ago. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkbcATPWTFbrnetwdN76QD9_j5vqMZR_IlON3YmncIwqp1kCjmY0jf9kSLPYwMl8SSZjiP9baLDrQ7VYZij0dR2gVJ5wkBEUBjolWZNfBr90c9HQZtEHExxET86YgY225y4mzicCFacI4/s1600/253205_103695719731995_6119558_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" mta="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkbcATPWTFbrnetwdN76QD9_j5vqMZR_IlON3YmncIwqp1kCjmY0jf9kSLPYwMl8SSZjiP9baLDrQ7VYZij0dR2gVJ5wkBEUBjolWZNfBr90c9HQZtEHExxET86YgY225y4mzicCFacI4/s320/253205_103695719731995_6119558_n.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This was taken last October.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(I need a more current picture but this will do for now)</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3PEooTilyLbx0ulRNahtuqs3_iaADAV2a4sKf-TD3KxHNbjwykPQfdulck4kQJFiqoekGA0QaDUBb5E6JS_dmZ3dUIhmNRJMEoO0c0736WE4hZlxoZSZmCy4yG63hygB9r3P_dhtSZks/s1600/photo2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mta="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3PEooTilyLbx0ulRNahtuqs3_iaADAV2a4sKf-TD3KxHNbjwykPQfdulck4kQJFiqoekGA0QaDUBb5E6JS_dmZ3dUIhmNRJMEoO0c0736WE4hZlxoZSZmCy4yG63hygB9r3P_dhtSZks/s1600/photo2.JPG" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are some noticeable changes. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Face is slimmer, my arms are showing, </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">signs of progress.</span></em></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another way I've been watching progress is measurements. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These are the areas I measure.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_kCkczBiooMOCNOX0ynalNWwQQzjnpzzPlTm-qcGjZ9uZx9axkDfS98d7DfSc4EI6UpYI-65O5VfK9ghTpl08g3uczxNww2IVxUfjZepzmg8IYaV7ng7dejrftvBmbNxhrVz0M8UEMl4/s1600/6d886c05b3d63619a1c4477b6cb917af.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" mta="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_kCkczBiooMOCNOX0ynalNWwQQzjnpzzPlTm-qcGjZ9uZx9axkDfS98d7DfSc4EI6UpYI-65O5VfK9ghTpl08g3uczxNww2IVxUfjZepzmg8IYaV7ng7dejrftvBmbNxhrVz0M8UEMl4/s400/6d886c05b3d63619a1c4477b6cb917af.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While I would love to have the courage to put my measurements</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">out here for everyone to read, I'm not there yet.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But I will share some results.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Waist - down 4 inches</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hips - down 3 inches</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Chest - down 5 inches</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thigh - up 1 1/4 inches </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Upper Arm - up 1 inch</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(muscle as far as I'm concerned)</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They might be small changes but they are changes.</span></em></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On to Round Two....</span></strong></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-13944311020321135712013-02-13T15:05:00.000-08:002013-02-13T15:05:00.852-08:00The Scale<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't use the word hate very often </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">but I really hate the scale. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is an awful way to measure progress. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For three weeks the numbers on that silly thing were going </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in the downward direction. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just what you want to see.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Then I got the flu, one week with no energy, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">no exercise </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">and no work.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">But the scale still showed a weight loss.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Week five, back to work and exercise.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I gained two pounds.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Ok, I can live with that. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I'm sure once I'm back into my routine </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">the numbers will head downward again.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Week six - </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I gained another six pounds.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Really??</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Six pounds in one week.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I think not.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I may have exceeded my calories a day or two</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">but from what I've read </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">you have to </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">eat 3,500 over what's needed </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">to gain </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">a pound. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">That's a lot of extra calories.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">If I did overeat that much, I don't remember it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">On a happier note....</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I took my measurements week one and</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">checked them again at the end of week four.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I've lost 2.5 inches on my hips and</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">1 inch on my waist.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><em>A few final thoughts:</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><em>The scale doesn't just reveal fat loss, a loss on the scale</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><em>can be from water depletion.</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><em>Muscle is more dense than fat. If you are working out</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><em>and building muscle you might not see the number on the </em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><em>scale change much.</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana;">"Train for a look, not a number on the scale" </span></em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-family: Verdana;">~Chris Shugart</span></em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">From now on I'm ignoring the scale and will</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">use a tape measure as my new "scale"</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-36289762159750168332013-01-23T08:48:00.000-08:002013-01-23T08:48:54.832-08:00Confession is Good for the Soul <div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Confession No. 1</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am a horrible blogger. I admit it. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I go months without posting anything and </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">when I do get around to posting something I wonder if it is worth it. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wonder why someone would take precious time from their day </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">read my rambling posts.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Confession No. 2</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I downloaded an app for the Ipad to help me with </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">time management and goals.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I love it. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I've planned out three months and </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">am working on the rest of the year.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Confession No. 3</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I started a new exercise routine December 31st.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">P90x three days a week</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Insanity three days a week</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">It's a three month routine and </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Another thing I love. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Confession No. 4</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">At the end of my P90x/Insanity routine,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I'm going to do it again</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">but add in some time on the elliptical</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I'm not sure this will be something I love</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Confession No. 5</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">In order to get my workout in every day</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I get up at 4:15 am.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">In order to get up at 4:15 am I have to go to bed at 8:00 pm</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Now you know how wild and crazy I am</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Confession No. 6</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I've set a goal to read the Standard Works in one year.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I'm in Leviticus now. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So far so good.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Confession No. 7</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I'm more excited about decorating my exercise room </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">than I've been about any other room in the house.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I'm not sure what that says about me.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Confession No. 8</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I set a goal to pay off all our debt</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">(except the house) in 2 years.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Now we just have to stick with the plan.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Confession No. 9</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In February Bob and I will celebrate our </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">25th wedding anniversary.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Hard to believe it's been that long.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I guess time flies when you are having fun.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Confession No. 10</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I've added one more goal to my list.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I plan to blog at least once a week.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Hopefully no one will get tired of my ramblings.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Now you know more about me than you probably ever wanted to know, but it feels good to share.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I guess the saying is right....</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Confession is Good for the Soul.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyone else want to join me?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-46273689644449005892012-10-29T09:00:00.002-07:002012-10-29T09:00:40.953-07:00Day 29<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today is day 29 of the 90 day P90x routine. It's been rough, it feels a lot like when I first started. Well maybe not exactly like that. I can get through the entire dvd which I couldn't the first time. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm just frustrated that I have lost so much. The definition I had in my muscles in June is almost all gone. I'm thinking that I may need to add some more cardio. I'm not ready to go back to doing the doubles routine, but maybe I'll try to ride the elliptical three or four times during the week. We'll see. I really just want to get back to where I was.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Diet has been a struggle. According to the P90x diet I should be eating around 2,400 calories a day. I'm sure I do that sometimes, like when we are traveling and we eat out a bunch. Most days though probably not. Today I've decided to try to hit no less than 1,800 calories and actually track what I eat. I've been very slack in watching what I'm eating. Time to get focused. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Water needs to became a bigger part of my day. I'm trying hard to make sure I drink water all day but it's so much easier to grab a can of Diet Coke. I know it's not good for me but it's my downfall. I'm working on drinking more water and less Coke but it's a work in progress. </span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Enjoy the journey as much as the destination."</span></strong></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm trying to remember this as I keep pushing play each morning. Frustration gets the best of me at times but I know that I'm in the best shape of my life. I guess I just can't be satisfied with that. Now I want lean, defined muscles. I guess there are are worse things to obsess about. At least that's what I keep telling myself.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-68401178107058315472012-10-04T10:39:00.002-07:002012-10-04T10:39:42.627-07:00Back At It<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This week has been brutal. Last Friday we left home and flew to New York to take our son Eric to school. Monday we flew home. Quick, emotional, stressful trip. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Monday also marked day one of my return to P90x. I took about three months off because I knew we would be very busy and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to stick with a schedule that was one hour a day, six days a week. Boy am I paying for it now.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I am so tired and sore. The tired part comes from the fact that Monday we got up at 2:30 am (our time) to get ready and leave for the airport. We got home, shopped and came home. That put my workout time at 5:30 pm. Very, very long day. Tuesday I was up at 4:00 am to work out and then we didn't get home till around 11:30 pm that night. I did get some sleep in the car but it was still a long day. Wednesday I just couldn't get up early and so I ended up working out at 7:30 pm. But I was up this morning at 4:30 am to work out. I am running on fumes. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I could hardly move this morning. Yoga only lasted about 45 minutes and there were some moves I couldn't do because my arms or legs were shaking. All I can hope for is that next week will be better.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Some lessons are learned the hard way and this was one of them. Next time I know my schedule will be extremely busy I will modify my workout routine so that I can continue my weight lifting. The cardio hasn't been that tough but I also rode the elliptical off and on over these last three months. Proof that doing something is always better than doing nothing at all.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I've set my calories to 2,000 which seems really high to me but so far I haven't had any trouble meeting the goal. I can thank Costco and their muffins for helping me with that one. Hopefully next week will be better for my eating habits as well as my exercise routine.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-38501754465787309412012-09-24T16:03:00.001-07:002012-09-24T16:03:36.223-07:00Making Some Changes<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As you can see I've made some changes to my blog. Why? Well first of all I would like to post more consistantly. I like to blog but lately I just haven't felt like posting any of my baking projects. Which brings me to the other reason I made changes to my blog. I would like to finish out 2012 focused more on diet and exercise than my baking.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I haven't stopped baking. Now that we are settled I probably bake something once a week but it's just typical baking. Breads, cookies, pies. Nothing out of the ordinary. I will have a cake to make in the near future and when I do projects like that pictures will be posted. But since those projects are so spread out I end up not blogging for months at a time.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Exercise on the other hand is something I try to do at least three times a week. Beginning October 1 it will be six days a week because I'm starting my third round of P90x. That is something I can post about daily.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Diet, now this is a struggle. I'm not always very hungry which isn't a really good thing if you are exercising regularly. You need food to give you the energy to get through a workout. So I have two goals over the next few months. One is to eat enough good food. Not just eating because I'm supposed to but eating food that is good fuel for my workouts. Second is cooking smaller amounts of food. Very shortly our household will be back to two people. I still haven't quite gotten used to cooking for less but it's time to cut that back.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I hope you all will share with me your diet and exercise tips and recipes you enjoy. I'll make sure to do the same. </span><br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>Remember: </strong></span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>It's not a diet. It's a Lifestyle.</strong></span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Make Exercise Part of Your Routine.</span></strong></div>
<div align="center">
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Like brushing your teeth or taking a shower.</span></strong></div>
<div align="center">
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Don't even think about doing it.</span></strong></div>
<div align="center">
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Just Do It!</span></strong></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-84186225987562853712012-05-01T12:59:00.001-07:002012-05-01T12:59:46.271-07:00Anniversary PresentOur anniversary is in February and this year I was quite proud of the present I bought for Bob. It was two tickets to six Seattle Mariners baseball games. We aren't sneaky about presents. I asked him if the tickets were something he would like (dumb question I know) and he thought it was great. He picked the teams he wanted to see the Mariners play and I bought the tickets.<br />
<br />
In return Bob asked me what I wanted and I couldn't come up with anything. I thought about getting a new set of workout videos, like P90X2 or Insanity but I really want to go through P90x a few times before I change my workout. No great ideas so I let it drop. Bob would bring it up every once in a while but I was still at a loss so I just ignored him. <br />
<br />
Then last week I got an idea. I added an app to my iPhone so I could count my calories. I've lost my appetite over the last few months and haven't been eating very well. The app was suppose to help me make sure I was eating enough. One of the products the app syncs with is a FitBit. It tracks steps, calories burned etc. and then the information can be uploaded in to the calorie counter. That got me thinking and I started researching heart monitors. They talk a lot about wearing heart monitors when you do some of the cardio in P90x and I have always wanted to know how many calories I actually burned when I work out.<br />
<br />
I found a heart monitor that you can use with your iPhone or iPad that will record your heart rate and also your calories burned. I decided that this is what I wanted for my anniversary present. It arrived last Wednesday while we were gone taking Nick to the airport so I couldn't use it until Thursday. <br />
<br />
It works great!!!! I really love it. I found that my estimates for calories burned during some of my workouts were right on. Others I was really under estimating. Now I'm looking forward to my workouts even more than I did before. Plus I find that I'm pushing myself more now that I can see the number of calories I'm burning. In the last two days I've burned over 1,000 calories. There's no way I would have estimated that. <br />
<br />
Such an awesome anniversary gift!!! Good Job Bob!! :) <br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-40261378497765410592012-04-09T11:57:00.000-07:002012-04-10T07:15:49.078-07:008 hour Eagle Scout Cake<div style="text-align: center;">
Friday night was spent making an eagle scout cake for a young man in our Church. I agreed to do the cake a few weeks ago and then managed to plan a trip to Portland the first two days of the week. Not a problem except that I had to be in Portland Wednesday and Thursday as well. I got home on Thursday afternoon exhausted which meant I only managed to make a few batches of fondant before falling into bed. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
That meant I had to make the cake, cool it, frost, cover and decorate it after work on Friday.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
I left work just a bit early, went to the store and came home to get started.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The cake was red velvet and the frosting was cream cheese. Very traditional. The only problem is that traditional red velvet cake isn't as movable as a sponge cake. Sponge gives some as you move it. The red velvet did not. It was a challenge. Bob had to help me stack it and it was still pretty scary. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
But it worked. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
While the cakes were baking (I made three layers) I made two batches of the cream cheese frosting. I figured I'd have a bunch left over but I didn't want to take any chances. Good thing because I used it all. It was a big cake. Then I had to finish the fondant, roll it out and cut out the design. Bob helped make sure the design was scaled correctly and had the necessary details. Nick helped as I rolled out the fondant to cover the cake. It was a lot and it took all I had to get it rolled out. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
We finished up around 11:30 pm just in time to take it up to the Church so it would be there for the celebration on Saturday. (There was a baseball game on Saturday and we had to leave town around 6:30 am so it had to be there before we left town). Next time I will make sure I don't leave town the majority of the week I'm making a cake. I didn't like the feeling of being rushed.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzqROEyNzEH2IS0YqhwvEULhdhvz9jloqNdXI0qReOc28ttLZLL90M5S4RQzIjM2j3N8At7zqRd397AXnjKl0AN1VKb1W4xr0FWH_JHCDjRWoD6TCI8IHOKpfhr-DCz-5My1EUP64_YlM/s1600/photo4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbqASqOfpymJ8p6UyIhv3iPOts2stCauxpSYvuxSQHv1IZXegFV8370Y0esCmVy0q_Jir5pqGuej5spb30fU7Y1RTc0-OqTLfQ0qsg3odlWDFFgO2ZhBLCe0wfIk8FauGgFJWQhsiwfA/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbqASqOfpymJ8p6UyIhv3iPOts2stCauxpSYvuxSQHv1IZXegFV8370Y0esCmVy0q_Jir5pqGuej5spb30fU7Y1RTc0-OqTLfQ0qsg3odlWDFFgO2ZhBLCe0wfIk8FauGgFJWQhsiwfA/s320/photo.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKrOIMk61pgMkXGbN-heRCFzqXyu-B2S-VTJoIey0d0O60sx8vGUN55je2xVIpw4_d7mR6AYCMrK16o_bVZuoyfpTfamWvPOkHwrCcXBMCgC-YEqOllQYapSLVYVnLRAsnru8lQs8uDGE/s1600/photo3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKrOIMk61pgMkXGbN-heRCFzqXyu-B2S-VTJoIey0d0O60sx8vGUN55je2xVIpw4_d7mR6AYCMrK16o_bVZuoyfpTfamWvPOkHwrCcXBMCgC-YEqOllQYapSLVYVnLRAsnru8lQs8uDGE/s1600/photo3.JPG" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMty1m7PF7RrY18VKBudDrT-yQqe2Woos4PtFGPamF56VCujbajezEkHnDX8ZovZ1HVM6ESVMbUSM3tp_uCxxthFCI0Y8RSzMaUaHIoef3NLqHByltmC26MEmihyvdvSdqf4hcr_WQizE/s1600/photo1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMty1m7PF7RrY18VKBudDrT-yQqe2Woos4PtFGPamF56VCujbajezEkHnDX8ZovZ1HVM6ESVMbUSM3tp_uCxxthFCI0Y8RSzMaUaHIoef3NLqHByltmC26MEmihyvdvSdqf4hcr_WQizE/s1600/photo1.JPG" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Side view before we added the border </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJ8tM5PBn18Jqq_iZZcGMfnFBWRtRjHQ7M141_80ML5pwPe4bcxhq1ku8Ugje9khjwRQGmVfrXedScba6oFD7WLH3uonmT0WqEjgTbW2WTDgi0OHjARkC5HZX_EdYc4feTZ5nCfXJZkc/s1600/photo2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJ8tM5PBn18Jqq_iZZcGMfnFBWRtRjHQ7M141_80ML5pwPe4bcxhq1ku8Ugje9khjwRQGmVfrXedScba6oFD7WLH3uonmT0WqEjgTbW2WTDgi0OHjARkC5HZX_EdYc4feTZ5nCfXJZkc/s1600/photo2.JPG" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKhw-VrXoDrkE2LMqMipkk-OJdwFyCO4wbZGSddIWNtOMRCXwN7ehQ_53davt1e69yc9KKrsRTX-og3EmPD4KtbSJqrUhmDfNcbRTVXbrgIhVXp3gfHrnNGuMl6qqpaytFQ39pof05w8/s1600/photo5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKhw-VrXoDrkE2LMqMipkk-OJdwFyCO4wbZGSddIWNtOMRCXwN7ehQ_53davt1e69yc9KKrsRTX-og3EmPD4KtbSJqrUhmDfNcbRTVXbrgIhVXp3gfHrnNGuMl6qqpaytFQ39pof05w8/s1600/photo5.JPG" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Not to bad for an 8 hour cake.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-32780429914278138392012-04-03T22:30:00.002-07:002012-04-03T22:50:13.347-07:0090 days complete...90 more to go<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">I never thought I would be able to say I completed 90 days of P90x but I did. We bought the DVD's last summer and I made it through maybe 30 days but I don't think it was that long. Away they went to the shelf where I sort of forgot about them. I did have a reminder though, a pull up bar in the doorway to my kitchen. Didn't motivate me to exercise, it was just there.</span></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Fast forward to December. For some reason I decided I wanted to get into better shape. I think it was because my entire arm waved when I waved goodbye to someone. I'm not sure if that was really the reason, but I took the plunge and bought; yes paid money for, an app to track my P90x workouts. That became my big motivator. I wasn't going to spend money on an app and not use it. I really can't tell you why the dollars I spent on P90x wasn't enough to motivate me.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Last Saturday marked day 90. I only chose to workout 6 days a week and missed only 4 workouts over the 90 days. I take that as a good start. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If I were a braver person I would post some pictures but I'm not so all you get are some words that describe my results. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">I lost 6 pounds which isn't huge but since I didn't start this for weight loss I'm ok with it. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">I lost three inches in my waist and hips and two inches in my chest. My arm and leg measurements stayed the same but they are more toned than before so that's ok too.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Monday I began my second time through the system but this time I plan to follow the doubles workout plan. I've also started really watching the nutrition piece as well which I hope gives me better results than round one. Maybe then I'll be ready to post pictures.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-32742998886280868702012-03-27T07:09:00.007-07:002012-03-27T07:30:09.856-07:00Baby Shower Cake<div style="text-align: center;">I've been looking forward to making this cake ever since I was asked to do it.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">There are some really cute baby shower cakes out there and there was one in particular that I wanted to make, but unless you have a baby shower to make it for you're out of luck. So, I filed it away as something to try if the opportunity arose. Well, the opportunity presented itself!!<br /><br />The cake was vanilla sponge with strawberry mousse filling and vanilla butter cream frosting. I thought it tasted pretty good and got the thumbs up from the party goers so I think it was a hit. Here's pictures of the finished product.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFI5nkS7NnyT_F02WkXR1PuSco9CGsxuzF1hyijlVLnx8b7RibfiDqmWjyk0WI63QTsC4vfQzAjtxcdFkgCK-DYhE8sroth5X1ZYa2EuiwN4shhJm-qj2FXHTKeG7Aq_1vIo-131rvB9I/s1600/photo1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFI5nkS7NnyT_F02WkXR1PuSco9CGsxuzF1hyijlVLnx8b7RibfiDqmWjyk0WI63QTsC4vfQzAjtxcdFkgCK-DYhE8sroth5X1ZYa2EuiwN4shhJm-qj2FXHTKeG7Aq_1vIo-131rvB9I/s200/photo1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5724581631914957650" border="0" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdzAZCrC9bRJMREyYcVv-n05kbrgWPQoLKesoI8xwH_iYJlkZMjuofBF80AKiIkH5CosjsFLco5hIx5nI0BSPVZ6ECKjEaLIwhvdLDLaHVZ3WfkO_qJdJUelS_w7GtRdAClT5_jvbd-4/s1600/photo.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdzAZCrC9bRJMREyYcVv-n05kbrgWPQoLKesoI8xwH_iYJlkZMjuofBF80AKiIkH5CosjsFLco5hIx5nI0BSPVZ6ECKjEaLIwhvdLDLaHVZ3WfkO_qJdJUelS_w7GtRdAClT5_jvbd-4/s200/photo.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5724581989642441186" border="0" /></a></div><br />The base was three layers. I wanted to make sure there was enough cake for everyone to have a decent size piece. I was happy to be working with fondant again. It turned out pretty good this time. That was nice, no fighting with getting the cakes covered.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYS_9Jzu0DfkeRiGRFP5Ny3OYrBqE0c7M8UQZQZJbhCzJZcj-QiyAwWQyxc-xwSGHRuyJc23t6VE_C1Qvdwmrv-ym01VcTr4gPfXsWw6-vYTGzSPcZ7JcXLhY-1yhaDs6E3-6XjRa6HTM/s1600/photo.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYS_9Jzu0DfkeRiGRFP5Ny3OYrBqE0c7M8UQZQZJbhCzJZcj-QiyAwWQyxc-xwSGHRuyJc23t6VE_C1Qvdwmrv-ym01VcTr4gPfXsWw6-vYTGzSPcZ7JcXLhY-1yhaDs6E3-6XjRa6HTM/s200/photo.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5724582629404230482" border="0" /></a><br />The pregnant belly wasn't filled with mousse because I was afraid to cut it, fill it and try to get it stacked back like it should be so I just covered it with strawberry butter cream.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYQDsbVNr_bBC-nhVFf3_VmImYTxXafJF-aJVyiUL7DyYDjZ6YFqMTwAGRR0s9sjWWBGzculYxrv4iOR1CRKWY5cfwuHJkpoa3Sh4it9WwGTbwGYs_3YWocyrXGrbDyJ8gQkX11VzfJTE/s1600/photo.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYQDsbVNr_bBC-nhVFf3_VmImYTxXafJF-aJVyiUL7DyYDjZ6YFqMTwAGRR0s9sjWWBGzculYxrv4iOR1CRKWY5cfwuHJkpoa3Sh4it9WwGTbwGYs_3YWocyrXGrbDyJ8gQkX11VzfJTE/s200/photo.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5724583301276828962" border="0" /></a>This was such a fun cake to make, I did stay up pretty late Friday night to get most of it done, but that's because we are in the middle of baseball season and my Saturday's are pretty much booked until May. Short of leveling the cake, I did this one all by myself. I don't think Bob's too upset about missing out on the fun. <br /><br /><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-38716646850084557532012-03-22T11:09:00.002-07:002012-03-22T11:33:02.271-07:00Next 90 Days<div style="text-align: center;">This morning's workout marked day 81 of my P90x program. Just 9 more days and I'll have finished my first time through. So far I've only missed three workouts. Next go around I don't plan to miss any. It's been a challenge with the traveling I do, but I've figured out how to adapt and make my workouts a priority. <br /><br />So to the point of this post. What next? I want to go through another round of P90x before I try something different. I can't decide between P90x2 or Insanity but that's another post at a later date. <br /><br />There are three options with the P90x system. Classic, which is what I'm doing now. Lean, which is mostly cardio with some muscle building and Doubles, which is a mix of muscle building with extra cardio. This is the workout I'm leaning towards but it would mean working out twice some days. (Explains the name) Most of the time I don't think it will be a problem because I get up early to exercise so I will have the evening to add the extra cardio. Traveling has me a little worried though. I could just skip the extra cardio but that defeats the purpose of doing the doubles option. <br /><br />Of course I wait until the last minute to think about this. I have one more week of set workouts. I want to make a decision and get everything line out so I don't miss a day. I don't want to get out of my routine. I'm afraid if I stop I won't start again. <br /><br />What to do, what to do?<br /><br /><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-29947114011394789922012-03-20T15:43:00.008-07:002012-03-21T08:44:12.334-07:00Belated Pictures<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih2cFWUENw5joDrpRLAMTlmfr29e8a3C04HQk6NQ_XqGV_tYdxPORV6n24uCf146-37_4Z8Od7HnqZuo4OsLOkuyeQruWhECCEw_jwebhVWj_IRaE86WfdF1aFat0keiXgs-Lm2JYVrYY/s1600/photo1.JPG"></a>I realized that there were several pictures I hadn't posted of projects I worked on between September and today. </div><br /><br /><div align="center"><br />This is a picture of some of the goodies I made for Christmas....</div><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYdHnCjza-7SPRlGHrbgVD8zWb27OKKh9kKLA8bdEm90qKvazyoiaSXMUXbE0FO0qW74o1IpjTTgpjpdbeWqmxNBrcSDJJpHtRkABS6_Sv6Bl82DOZ_cDHP3niRREHNr4CWmNoLCsCe8o/s1600/photo.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722116091684340658" style="WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYdHnCjza-7SPRlGHrbgVD8zWb27OKKh9kKLA8bdEm90qKvazyoiaSXMUXbE0FO0qW74o1IpjTTgpjpdbeWqmxNBrcSDJJpHtRkABS6_Sv6Bl82DOZ_cDHP3niRREHNr4CWmNoLCsCe8o/s200/photo.JPG" border="0" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center">And the wedding cake we made for the Jackson's. It was vanilla sponge with mixed berry filling and cream cheese frosting.</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722372643801613778" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmKUSsDzjXX6xnDZ5NiQ5vlzGzKFFU_Gel5B5BrPARgdn7lBRX0n8PNkAzxKRTcdWwn-tEasHU6ZvA49umdjPZCPDmXzEcqy96z3-mspGaf6JCawrhll9sS1-l6KNVce8yb6FEaIJt5KI/s200/photo.JPG" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722371707953734930" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglqYnWFdG1KL3P_b8uT5An3W_SYUlpu7Oy9JenuN9L10Iio72NG3iOHdpiszoR8SXFs_mGb0JAFZYsnzwWFBGiqzb5saRQVBw2Mlb7lLZ9C-Mgqi9zt0CLS6vhxFXFfpNcbiEvv16zFrI/s200/photo.JPG" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722371709683408370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPUpeuPkLigEtRE21DzRleebwOz5MDsRS1Y2JlA1SqmoEdvyCIo5v5EH6ikcOlR0_5zkS36JmWVzDnhCH8sXked7AfiHYFoTdQMEosSygdJyroK-6tWPKyn902_rGLGuvgC6lDPa_C13w/s200/photo1.JPG" border="0" /><br /><br /><p align="center">And finally the birthday cake I made for my co-worker's daughter. This one was vanilla sponge to but with strawberry filling and vanilla buttercream frosting.<br /><br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722372646835189986" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 172px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbuvmhUKCg77Q_T2pRMAfEtvDORu_b-o9jebSouqdhTyO-tWCwFaf9dLe-8H_AuWSq89xsXOtrxEJdY9nhnmpeZv2lUAo8dAS7oKsW1POTx1SkC_ToPLzCVCEyq3-TjjyU6Yu3C8K9E7E/s200/photo2.JPG" border="0" /><br /><br />I made another cake but I didn't take any pictures of it because it wasn't covered in fondant, just frosted and I didn't like the way it looked so I didn't take pictures of it. It was lemon sponge with blueberry filling and lemon buttercream frosting. The taste was good, but I'm not a buttercream cake person. Give me fondant any day. I just couldn't get the buttercream smooth enough.</p><br /><p align="center">This weekend I'm making a baby shower cake. I'm pretty excited about the design. I'll post pictures when it's done. This one is vanilla sponge with strawberry mousse filling and vanilla buttercream. </p><br /><p align="center">I practiced using mousse this weekend. I made a chocolate sponge cake with peanut butter mousse on one half and oreo cookie mousse on the other half. I frosted the peanut butter side with peanut butter buttercream and the oreo half with chocolate buttercream. I over filled the cake with the mousse so it slid a little but I thought it tasted pretty good. I've added those recipes to my list of keepers. </p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-29912974489942453512012-03-15T18:50:00.002-07:002012-03-15T19:15:10.215-07:00Starting over<div align="center">So it's been a while. Yes I know. </div><br /><div align="center">I don't like excuses so I'm not going to fill space with reasons why I haven't posted anything since September.</div><br /><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center">Today marks a new beginning. I've changed my blog some and I've decided to post more than just pictures of my baking projects. Those aren't going to stop though so don't worry.</div><br /><div align="center">(I'm pretty sure I heard some gasps, wait maybe that was me)</div><br /><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center">Over on my Facebook page I've been posting a lot about my exercise routine and the progress I'm making. I think that I'm going to start included those updates here in my blog since I have to exercise if I want to eat the stuff I bake.</div><br /><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center">I also need to be more consistent with my blog updates. So I'm putting it down in writing that I will update this blog no less than once a week. It's in print now so doesn't that make it gospel? </div><br /><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center">Join me on this baking/exercise journey. I'd love the company!! </div><br /><div align="center"></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-87634581669896608652011-09-26T07:28:00.000-07:002011-09-26T08:21:19.235-07:00I've been bakingI have been baking. Really I have I just haven't had much time to post lately.<br /><br /><br /><div>We've been doing donuts on Saturday mornings for the football team. 4 dozen each week. We're getting better with the process. It takes us about 3 hours from start to finish. We end up with more than 4 dozen when it's all said and done, but we only have a set request from the football team so we share the rest with others. Others that live close, sorry for all you out of town friends. I wish we could share with you too.</div><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDR8cP88bamX9hjmCFGbzpSHl2zlksHugSyXzFVX7XlEEOCRJvY7hG0P6Wcq6i9ZVEYMk1O5RgwAQ_zle3rZAG9qlOJJN5EXfnBTJe5bW63FJn44qjj4BeXW8Vgspy3ww0_J6FeaU7wjk/s1600/IMG_9384.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656678461194228146" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDR8cP88bamX9hjmCFGbzpSHl2zlksHugSyXzFVX7XlEEOCRJvY7hG0P6Wcq6i9ZVEYMk1O5RgwAQ_zle3rZAG9qlOJJN5EXfnBTJe5bW63FJn44qjj4BeXW8Vgspy3ww0_J6FeaU7wjk/s200/IMG_9384.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-W9fNzt-_HL8RWmJteUThPdWSvrkGHOhxJ-Gz5CyT0eezvNQkWHdDOnIokReaDR3PsH0pV8KO9Gq36NhbETIVo6CidRuY13Xl3z_i8D7VlhHB9Ve3dRv7c2ckUpf_v_W75s_M-WW4tA/s1600/IMG_2494.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656678463347099650" style="WIDTH: 149px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-W9fNzt-_HL8RWmJteUThPdWSvrkGHOhxJ-Gz5CyT0eezvNQkWHdDOnIokReaDR3PsH0pV8KO9Gq36NhbETIVo6CidRuY13Xl3z_i8D7VlhHB9Ve3dRv7c2ckUpf_v_W75s_M-WW4tA/s200/IMG_2494.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I've also been making homemade pasta and pizza. I know it's not the same type of baking but I'm a big fan now of fresh pasta and my first attempt at pizza turned out pretty good. The crust was pretty thin so next time I'll double the recipe to get a thicker crust and fold over the edges after I put cheese in there. Next time I'll take a picture to share.</div><br /><br /><div>I made a batch of Kolatche's for a birthday here at work. They turned out really well. The dough was perfect. Bacon, Sausage, Egg and Cheese were the filling this time. I also made a peach cobbler. I tried a new recipe. It tasted OK but I didn't like the look. I will have to find a different recipe next time.</div><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><div>Last but not least we baked our third annual birthday cake in August. The pig and dog theme were used again. I think it was one of the better cakes we've done. Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. The idea for decorations came from Bob. I thought it was pretty clever and it was well received so I guess it was a good choice.</div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFF3vZbHk2twNHanN5YOy3naeKu9TcFybgDeNasJokT73_o-tDqscMSol109xB5Lj9N5jX6eqlp0bgo4ZwXDhtDU8Z5NEjkwm7Y5tNBDDVwelXRy-wTfVYl-KQ4mXhhRSugoohX-IiCqA/s1600/IMG00032-20110827-1756.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656685095299519074" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFF3vZbHk2twNHanN5YOy3naeKu9TcFybgDeNasJokT73_o-tDqscMSol109xB5Lj9N5jX6eqlp0bgo4ZwXDhtDU8Z5NEjkwm7Y5tNBDDVwelXRy-wTfVYl-KQ4mXhhRSugoohX-IiCqA/s200/IMG00032-20110827-1756.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjagdm5TzjhoDUTzAZrhc3906t2LCqutdzhAPHo6qqFrwLp0C6k-BrraD07M0h8n23x0rkADB95B7wfEC7664JCMi5XvnbEkTt28ERvDkQ2ohYaLhcOd15UsOBdAz9XV6fCaTv_I7luSwU/s1600/IMG00033-20110827-1756.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656685096537506514" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjagdm5TzjhoDUTzAZrhc3906t2LCqutdzhAPHo6qqFrwLp0C6k-BrraD07M0h8n23x0rkADB95B7wfEC7664JCMi5XvnbEkTt28ERvDkQ2ohYaLhcOd15UsOBdAz9XV6fCaTv_I7luSwU/s200/IMG00033-20110827-1756.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZailbChfQfGAxsPtIOMtCPVfcBMicAPZ0s-MiIxxcz9Kj8BMGcyuksfFUchnltMqeu9ZpuZIb1xCgBQBiuqVz-GwpFl1TrTcDyfm9kYwyw0R1o67f75FYbTFGbNl-uQIwnP5zFqrl9X0/s1600/IMG00031-20110827-1756.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656685089119800770" style="WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZailbChfQfGAxsPtIOMtCPVfcBMicAPZ0s-MiIxxcz9Kj8BMGcyuksfFUchnltMqeu9ZpuZIb1xCgBQBiuqVz-GwpFl1TrTcDyfm9kYwyw0R1o67f75FYbTFGbNl-uQIwnP5zFqrl9X0/s200/IMG00031-20110827-1756.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-18376533848689452302011-08-01T11:20:00.000-07:002011-08-01T16:02:56.375-07:00Where have you been?<span style="font-family:verdana;color:#000000;">No I did not fall off the face of the earth. I wish I had a good reason for not baking these last few months but really all I have is excuses.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;color:#000000;"></span><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-family:verdana;color:#000000;">"No one ever excused his way to success."~Dave Del Dotto</span></div><br /><br /><p align="left"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;">On that note, I want you to know that I will be baking again soon. I just got a new really cool book on bread baking. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><br /><br /><p align="left"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;">Bread and I have a love/hate relationship. Sometimes my loaves of bread come out great, other times not so good. That will soon change. I plan to make bread until I figure it out. I'm not going to say that I'll be an expert, but I've come to realize that as you bake you start to notice things about your dough or batter that effect how your baked goods turn out. I want to gain that understanding with bread. At least then I'll know if my loaf is going to turn out the way I want it.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><br /><br /><p align="center"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="color:#000000;">"When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work." ~George Bernard Shaw</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><br /><br /><p align="left"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="color:#000000;">If I make ten times more bread there will be loaves to share. Keep an eye out, I might be sending some your way.</span></p></span></span></span></span></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-40472311774187675052011-04-28T08:15:00.000-07:002011-04-28T08:15:32.065-07:00Sticking To It<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"This one step - choosing a goal and sticking to it - changes everything." ~Scott Reed</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I love goals. I could set 100 goals no problem. My struggle is sticking to it. There have been many times during baking projects that I have wanted to give up on my goal to open a bakery. In fact I'm pretty sure that while we were working on the wedding cake a couple of weeks ago I decided to quit baking. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">It was late and I was tired and things were not going well. I remember thinking "why am I doing this?" Of course I couldn't quit right then I had a cake that needed to be finished and delivered so I decided that after it was finished and delivered, I was done baking. I even told Bob this was it, I'm done after this cake. He just looked at me and said nothing.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">He knows me all too well. Once the cake was done and I had gotten some sleep, the idea of quitting was gone. We've had a lot of challenges over the last couple of years as we've decorated cakes, learned about donuts and worked to learn the "tricks of the trade." </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">We've gone from our first cake:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbm4bliy8kRT5e8amidUosQEBdmNVJ3SuV1zNwjhKJXhKsTwSZpofI9_t2uZ6T7RgDfWsA0Uha0jm_1675kirPR4byQWcQAzw_mSZ7xnMRqRUNPiWTHBu0mfKM22A3hiC0i6GQN0CYZDw/s1600/untitled.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbm4bliy8kRT5e8amidUosQEBdmNVJ3SuV1zNwjhKJXhKsTwSZpofI9_t2uZ6T7RgDfWsA0Uha0jm_1675kirPR4byQWcQAzw_mSZ7xnMRqRUNPiWTHBu0mfKM22A3hiC0i6GQN0CYZDw/s320/untitled.bmp" width="240px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To our most recent:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-1IRsZfld4FR6TGEL20uMOL0z7cRiURJuOQrrAZ5kQJmPA0syUbs4mgXXLgPjiSgkZUIF52UgZ7UKq0ZaeSZoJ6AOm9DZ2n1085avRLEq2ZQnz6bejkuRCA81nt-KrwW2SeKxO0fRYfg/s1600/IMG00003-20110416-1247.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-1IRsZfld4FR6TGEL20uMOL0z7cRiURJuOQrrAZ5kQJmPA0syUbs4mgXXLgPjiSgkZUIF52UgZ7UKq0ZaeSZoJ6AOm9DZ2n1085avRLEq2ZQnz6bejkuRCA81nt-KrwW2SeKxO0fRYfg/s320/IMG00003-20110416-1247.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The best part is that I feel we've made some improvement and while there's still lots to learn and overcome, I plan to <em><strong>stick with it.</strong></em></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-61801666359312879332011-04-25T10:04:00.000-07:002011-04-25T10:04:23.057-07:00Wedding Cake<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I know it's been a while since I posted but I have been baking. Mostly its been practicing for a wedding cake we made last weekend so there weren't really any pictures to share. But now the cake is done and delivered so I can post some pictures of it. I think it turned out pretty good but boy was it heavy. I'm glad Bob was around to help me deliver it or they might not have gotten their cake. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-1IRsZfld4FR6TGEL20uMOL0z7cRiURJuOQrrAZ5kQJmPA0syUbs4mgXXLgPjiSgkZUIF52UgZ7UKq0ZaeSZoJ6AOm9DZ2n1085avRLEq2ZQnz6bejkuRCA81nt-KrwW2SeKxO0fRYfg/s1600/IMG00003-20110416-1247.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-1IRsZfld4FR6TGEL20uMOL0z7cRiURJuOQrrAZ5kQJmPA0syUbs4mgXXLgPjiSgkZUIF52UgZ7UKq0ZaeSZoJ6AOm9DZ2n1085avRLEq2ZQnz6bejkuRCA81nt-KrwW2SeKxO0fRYfg/s320/IMG00003-20110416-1247.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnY5Ir7HXLLY3N9Oks3j8Fy78DrSOCI4IUHJTRPrIyWImSNuNneH3ZGcqRSsTpoofTf7Vx3I1l9RHPC3qwLcJPgCaQMn36zMJLi7ZM3I6miBd_heoQjIkhXqEOctn4piqg2OO_vsvoDYs/s1600/IMG00004-20110416-1247.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240px" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnY5Ir7HXLLY3N9Oks3j8Fy78DrSOCI4IUHJTRPrIyWImSNuNneH3ZGcqRSsTpoofTf7Vx3I1l9RHPC3qwLcJPgCaQMn36zMJLi7ZM3I6miBd_heoQjIkhXqEOctn4piqg2OO_vsvoDYs/s320/IMG00004-20110416-1247.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The bottom tier was vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream, the middle was lemon cake with white chocolate buttercream and the top was red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Everything was edible except for the ribbon. I cheated and bought that. </span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bob made the stand the cake is sitting on so now I have something to put cakes on that I don't have to try to cover and make look nice. One less thing to worry about.</span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Overall it went well but there are still lots of things to work on. </span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-4355358953239785122011-02-25T08:22:00.000-08:002011-02-25T08:24:36.767-08:00Samples and Scouts<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since last Saturday I've baked 9 cakes. Not huge cakes but still 9 cakes. All for good reasons but that's a lot of cake. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The first round - 4 cakes, were for my son and his fiance. They wanted to pick out the flavor of their wedding cake. I made red velvet, chocolate, vanilla and lemon. I frosted the red velvet with cream cheese frosting. I didn't do anything else cause I don't know of any other frosting that goes with red velvet, but the other three I cut in half to have more cake to frost. I made chocolate with chocolate frosting and peanut butter frosting. The vanilla cake was frosted with chocolate and strawberry icing. The lemon with white chocolate and vanilla frosting. I'm glad I didn't have to choose cause I liked them all. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikExIi0JS6i9VPGTOZT_Vja6DLwRC_igFj6g_gPLv_k2ytYVpKmG0DYGJXcy2srVNHemeeowdOhqIAnrT3K-NN6-3PkMdEyGgC2mZbxqbxt97kHDero3t-l2xADpDrkRAT996uR8ZWh5I/s1600/IMG00156-20110221-1141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikExIi0JS6i9VPGTOZT_Vja6DLwRC_igFj6g_gPLv_k2ytYVpKmG0DYGJXcy2srVNHemeeowdOhqIAnrT3K-NN6-3PkMdEyGgC2mZbxqbxt97kHDero3t-l2xADpDrkRAT996uR8ZWh5I/s200/IMG00156-20110221-1141.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The next batch - 3 cakes was for another couple that I'm making a wedding cake for. I had to make up a sample platter so it could be picked up and taken to the groom to be for his input. I had a small amount of red velvet cake left so I included that too. I made the same flavors as before. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7N2aRdQ8m_4iVdQ-BycICOnfpRozXJ7haUKzkJNqNkzKxt8dXYt_lh-w-Mu9CNRDWBDKqVrfvXlZyAjezUzhJpo_xJMPjVpEHYBa-83fVaOQPlFNlYzcL680m878daeRtSMNIKLXqpSQ/s1600/IMG00157-20110221-1141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7N2aRdQ8m_4iVdQ-BycICOnfpRozXJ7haUKzkJNqNkzKxt8dXYt_lh-w-Mu9CNRDWBDKqVrfvXlZyAjezUzhJpo_xJMPjVpEHYBa-83fVaOQPlFNlYzcL680m878daeRtSMNIKLXqpSQ/s200/IMG00157-20110221-1141.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1sa-WrXp9ul27z_snlROaOrHwobI0MvDEtKbK1EUxy4lrDCqiF6mTRwyi1GnHNbDwzRV_AdxreMWivGChMPE594CUBt6yiTszShivxjtp3AdEiD4hoznOzjuPZmH1UJUn08jkrTI0zus/s1600/IMG00158-20110221-1235.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1sa-WrXp9ul27z_snlROaOrHwobI0MvDEtKbK1EUxy4lrDCqiF6mTRwyi1GnHNbDwzRV_AdxreMWivGChMPE594CUBt6yiTszShivxjtp3AdEiD4hoznOzjuPZmH1UJUn08jkrTI0zus/s200/IMG00158-20110221-1235.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">As I get better at this I want to try a few more "fancy" flavors. Like cookies and cream (chocolate cake with Oreo frosting) or dreamsicle (orange cake with vanilla frosting).</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The last two cakes were made for the blue and gold banquet. Each year in February the cub scouts celebrate scouting. I made a cake for them last year. It was 100 years of scouting so I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do for the cake. This year I had no idea. I searched the Internet for inspiration and with Bob's help decided on a camping scene. Our cub scouts don't camp over night but still it was cute and was fun to make. </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0If3GA31NwVIzy8VNOtO9AWE2C1RD-OINcOqeQ4VNc3Jjg6_ZU7KpozFhmk1lneLYe7gcbF2Qz7X30QhVdjhUlYLKeKOg0f4tw5HcwUtHNyf3nw9XqUFUUBIMyoQIQ0lQCvFh2bJ0sNo/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0If3GA31NwVIzy8VNOtO9AWE2C1RD-OINcOqeQ4VNc3Jjg6_ZU7KpozFhmk1lneLYe7gcbF2Qz7X30QhVdjhUlYLKeKOg0f4tw5HcwUtHNyf3nw9XqUFUUBIMyoQIQ0lQCvFh2bJ0sNo/s1600/photo.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div> I<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> still struggle with people, that's a work in progress but the cake covered pretty well. Better than some of my other projects which was nice. We just keep learning as we go. I hope someday it will be as easy as it looks on TV. That may be asking too much.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-55751577823525097372011-02-17T13:04:00.000-08:002011-02-17T13:04:35.698-08:00Twisted Pigs<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had someone call and order some donuts and cinnamon rolls (thank you Norene). I wasn't too worried about making them but Bob thought we should practice. Just in case. </span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I really hate it when he's right.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I didn't realize how much you forget when you don't do something for a few months. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We started on Sunday and made donuts. Everything came out OK, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">but there were some glitches. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Then we made some more on Tuesday. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I tried making a batch of cinnamon rolls and having them rise overnight in the fridge. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> I didn't like how that worked. I decided to get up early and make the dough the morning I needed it. I know that will work.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We've been trying to figure out an alternative to maple bars. We don't have a bar cutter, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">(it's expensive so </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">it's not a priority to purchase right now). </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We decided to try maple</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> twists. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Not with the chocolate dough just the plain and we left the sugar out of the middle. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Anyway, those turned out OK. Still need to work on them some but they are coming along. Tuesday in our test run we made maple twists with bacon. Bob, who feels the need to name the donuts decided to call them "Twisted Pigs". He liked the name so much he thinks we should use it for the name of the bakery. Please feel free to comment on that idea!!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So today was the big day to make two dozen cinnamon rolls and two dozen donuts. I made three batches of cinnamon roll dough and two batches of donut dough. We ended up with about 2 1/2 dozen cinnamon rolls and 5 dozen donuts. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Not having industrial size equipment is a challenge when you have to have more than a dozen or two of something. But since we don't make several dozen donuts a day it's hard to justify buying industrial equipment right now. We'll get there. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Sooner rather than later I hope!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Here are some pictures of today's creations. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Please feel free to weigh in on the "Twisted Pig" idea.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJI0sOgF_lNF4bmaC5txiadfQw0Ej_IlHGjxAuffRqNRTAbaV6KOMvI8Fn2xpR6RwJU9ljZUrMoh5mrv2X3UompascjV2Dzy9ZVPqoOzlli_FxxQTk50Zq-H6rwoKtsi-FcagxEYeVfeE/s1600/IMG00149-20110217-0613.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJI0sOgF_lNF4bmaC5txiadfQw0Ej_IlHGjxAuffRqNRTAbaV6KOMvI8Fn2xpR6RwJU9ljZUrMoh5mrv2X3UompascjV2Dzy9ZVPqoOzlli_FxxQTk50Zq-H6rwoKtsi-FcagxEYeVfeE/s320/IMG00149-20110217-0613.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh_CHQLDMfR9aO8QCp_b_XAaVxfyoP95YDy-mDkQtMOxxER4hIa0sy3D-aUFLTxmrynIcYP2XnOo3qqfo5IJuWRt1ICbVN6k6LSUZZgdkI1VjbbQ-6tdP9lQ8cqEEWfJgeqQKC6tdMS3I/s1600/IMG00150-20110217-0613.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh_CHQLDMfR9aO8QCp_b_XAaVxfyoP95YDy-mDkQtMOxxER4hIa0sy3D-aUFLTxmrynIcYP2XnOo3qqfo5IJuWRt1ICbVN6k6LSUZZgdkI1VjbbQ-6tdP9lQ8cqEEWfJgeqQKC6tdMS3I/s320/IMG00150-20110217-0613.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOITJHLB52yZR9d5Pn-RpvKKAyjlI6lIYT5Voix2FwyNwPc7yg7Z-FB_0952up-dUAA1zzm7AjBNy0ew3M9C8KIjLbFcWN9BZnqxJbeh7GiBHZ-0lQIyg2kqa2x60POS54SrLWdgOJjs0/s1600/IMG00145-20110217-0613.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOITJHLB52yZR9d5Pn-RpvKKAyjlI6lIYT5Voix2FwyNwPc7yg7Z-FB_0952up-dUAA1zzm7AjBNy0ew3M9C8KIjLbFcWN9BZnqxJbeh7GiBHZ-0lQIyg2kqa2x60POS54SrLWdgOJjs0/s320/IMG00145-20110217-0613.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUDjmcx1VzIQifz9dGT7r-HtVlQRVWGc1WgZFYtqrtlFA0ZnHx5TwbCXqf6nasZMYflHZoc__NUo1phfZ7JZS79BvQ4Y3jxog571op91ZXVmzDEfFUMXNPXbT7LddAhqGQscXtJeE2owY/s1600/IMG00148-20110217-0613.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUDjmcx1VzIQifz9dGT7r-HtVlQRVWGc1WgZFYtqrtlFA0ZnHx5TwbCXqf6nasZMYflHZoc__NUo1phfZ7JZS79BvQ4Y3jxog571op91ZXVmzDEfFUMXNPXbT7LddAhqGQscXtJeE2owY/s320/IMG00148-20110217-0613.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-64998589198564904622011-02-04T20:48:00.000-08:002011-02-04T20:48:44.056-08:00Weekend Baking<div style="text-align: center;">I had a couple of baking projects to take care of and last weekend was quiet enough to get them done. I was asked to make my marbled caramel slice. I usually make it at Christmas but a friend of ours had me make a batch at Christmas but gave most of it away so she wanted another one. The topping is milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate with some white chocolate swirled in. That's the marbled part. This time I melted chips instead of blocks of chocolate. I think it worked better cause I could control the amount of melted chocolate a little better. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">The second project was a thank you project. I had a lot of helping getting a proposal out at work and I felt I should say thank you to all those that made sure it got done. Since I got such rave reviews for my chocolate cake and peanut butter frosting I decided to make it again. This time it was cupcakes instead of cake but the same peanut butter buttercream. </div><div style="text-align: center;">Once again it was a success. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">I didn't take pictures this time. I'm not sure why but my next project </div><div style="text-align: center;">I will make sure to take pictures.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-7505570144697804382011-01-21T08:47:00.000-08:002011-01-21T08:47:31.169-08:00Princess Cake<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;">I have been baking over this last month even though I haven't posted anything. Just know that there was lots of chocolate and sugar involved.</div><br />
<div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The new year began and I had my first request for a cake. Actually the request came before the new year but it was for an activity in 2011. The Young Women's group at church had a kick off activity to start the new year off right. The theme was "Princess and Happily Ever After" and they asked me to bake a cake.</div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I don't know why but my first thought was Chocolate and Peanut Butter. So, I made chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream. I really like this new buttercream recipe and have added it to my ever growing recipe collection. </div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I wasn't sure at first what to do to decorate the cake but as I thought about princesses Walt Disney movies kept popping in my head. I thought about Cinderella and found some pictures of pillow cakes and decided that was the way to go.</div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center">After the cakes were baked they went into the freezer so we could carve them. I say we, but really it's Bob. He doesn't trust me with a knife and I don't trust myself enough to cut a cake. Anyway, we carved the sides to give it a curved edge instead of straight. It was covered in pink fondant and decorated to look like it was quilted. Trim was added along the bottom and the words "Happily Ever After" were piped on the top. We added a crown which was the only thing not edible on the cake. </div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center">I was really happy with the way it turned out. What do you think?</div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJSWJHtMeVFIgJUpOd27HnftBiOCxA2sBP4AifIzcI1uWFNYeV3qjHnLF8MVjck7SVZ-ptFncdT-gaOdSR7hTQCnrdbJghTsRhgFXQbz6_pbK551i-a7Lq-FBw2I66bk5xX5fIL0Lv7M/s1600/IMG00125-20110111-2256.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJSWJHtMeVFIgJUpOd27HnftBiOCxA2sBP4AifIzcI1uWFNYeV3qjHnLF8MVjck7SVZ-ptFncdT-gaOdSR7hTQCnrdbJghTsRhgFXQbz6_pbK551i-a7Lq-FBw2I66bk5xX5fIL0Lv7M/s320/IMG00125-20110111-2256.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoPlejtsBfJtyp7ybww-_UXt1a0E1uyVgs5vXQUAolYCm3W9TSo01XKI_IljvW2WSA1rPaMUMEfNCjclW8t7UITHwrfhpftsTt96CM0dhqktYtONwit_4YDyH6Ymbi_uJypvplJVzhdKU/s1600/IMG00126-20110111-2256.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoPlejtsBfJtyp7ybww-_UXt1a0E1uyVgs5vXQUAolYCm3W9TSo01XKI_IljvW2WSA1rPaMUMEfNCjclW8t7UITHwrfhpftsTt96CM0dhqktYtONwit_4YDyH6Ymbi_uJypvplJVzhdKU/s320/IMG00126-20110111-2256.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-90965500217104588402010-12-13T08:14:00.000-08:002010-12-13T08:14:05.694-08:00Christmas Baking - Round One<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Friday kicked of the beginning of the Christmas Baking at the Dohrman's. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">It will continue until Christmas Eve. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The first project was for Bob's basketball team. He coaches a sixth grade boys team, not that we have a sixth grade child, he just loves to coach.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">There are nine kids on the team and each one received a plate of goodies. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I started by making chocolate baskets. I have a mold so these are pretty easy to do. I filled each one with chocolate covered pretzels.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXevofUD1qKo63JMR6wf9F1vgJrmpXr7k-_zRgeimrr98_A7HwBURjNEANNE6j2LRrBS53tapFaFE276T6c0kag3PDZTPWnjttSdsHVgJetgrihIHDhp7Gw0GGNVng5mx5YC61ZqXAwYw/s1600/IMG00110-20101210-2351.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXevofUD1qKo63JMR6wf9F1vgJrmpXr7k-_zRgeimrr98_A7HwBURjNEANNE6j2LRrBS53tapFaFE276T6c0kag3PDZTPWnjttSdsHVgJetgrihIHDhp7Gw0GGNVng5mx5YC61ZqXAwYw/s320/IMG00110-20101210-2351.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Next I made salted caramels. Which are really good by the way. New this year to the list, but definitely a keeper.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcweXyQtGtwUctigk3UsEsyp-O6kposUCcP3e6q3NBN66jSrUZ-Dp9A9mDQFykBAawEQbJ4NgEVGsM1Qv1sOBsKhX96i4hW07SFZoNNGEErEsJXgr9DwhKmmmG55xHXyQ7ey8khiXCL-k/s1600/IMG00109-20101210-2342.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcweXyQtGtwUctigk3UsEsyp-O6kposUCcP3e6q3NBN66jSrUZ-Dp9A9mDQFykBAawEQbJ4NgEVGsM1Qv1sOBsKhX96i4hW07SFZoNNGEErEsJXgr9DwhKmmmG55xHXyQ7ey8khiXCL-k/s320/IMG00109-20101210-2342.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div align="center"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cookies were next, chocolate chunk and sugar cookies. </span></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqKs2ENXaKiTREVWxp8m9A_hxCihyjddFyqYPjxvd0_viynNCFw0ISsdkF7o1Jlze43nHUEAkxBQ0hBRwYwgj_-4SPPI2d-E3wCHGjAezZru8DbfFS2wu5r5E5e6_o3c1fYDgVjXsxeOk/s1600/IMG00111-20101211-0034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqKs2ENXaKiTREVWxp8m9A_hxCihyjddFyqYPjxvd0_viynNCFw0ISsdkF7o1Jlze43nHUEAkxBQ0hBRwYwgj_-4SPPI2d-E3wCHGjAezZru8DbfFS2wu5r5E5e6_o3c1fYDgVjXsxeOk/s320/IMG00111-20101211-0034.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgK5-OQOd5N5UnBY0YjjDDqDM2GcwAynSYn7Em50MQoywdGe_kJBjKQRV3b8qQFxoaWlWIY7IsXonXMuGhRqGGwgr9QeettRlSu1jZoRUBw0DCk3jIv-FPx4S6bbiEy3gi33VUPEiIwm4/s1600/IMG00113-20101211-0239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgK5-OQOd5N5UnBY0YjjDDqDM2GcwAynSYn7Em50MQoywdGe_kJBjKQRV3b8qQFxoaWlWIY7IsXonXMuGhRqGGwgr9QeettRlSu1jZoRUBw0DCk3jIv-FPx4S6bbiEy3gi33VUPEiIwm4/s320/IMG00113-20101211-0239.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div align="center"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, I made my Danish Puff recipe. </span></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiDtxg6ZBvgFqNdZmJ9I2tdYnlMPAJq6MsjF-l9SVPN2pNEyG-5DM4QgdrJkhDlLMlCX3WiyNKCzMXejxxyOikyqI2OhgYKR-MgylJI3ErLSaOGYIm9SBXiR3g45aKLpcHT-UJp9l-iQQ/s1600/IMG00112-20101211-0238.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiDtxg6ZBvgFqNdZmJ9I2tdYnlMPAJq6MsjF-l9SVPN2pNEyG-5DM4QgdrJkhDlLMlCX3WiyNKCzMXejxxyOikyqI2OhgYKR-MgylJI3ErLSaOGYIm9SBXiR3g45aKLpcHT-UJp9l-iQQ/s320/IMG00112-20101211-0238.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I finished up about 2:30 Saturday morning. Crazy I know, but I just had to give the guys something for Christmas.</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's the finished product.</span></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-egndCdXB4Jc9otaSNO-UkeFaoIZeOQa8iYFSaFzptZ1qgRwCZeCIZL3Mh2nwBYF3igPPlt8Dh5YGLK_-X6U35zCkSLQ6M-CHpYpGhQStPiV78zYgfgt0xnM3wvcD1RIc8AL0O6kmFEk/s1600/IMG00114-20101211-0240.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-egndCdXB4Jc9otaSNO-UkeFaoIZeOQa8iYFSaFzptZ1qgRwCZeCIZL3Mh2nwBYF3igPPlt8Dh5YGLK_-X6U35zCkSLQ6M-CHpYpGhQStPiV78zYgfgt0xnM3wvcD1RIc8AL0O6kmFEk/s320/IMG00114-20101211-0240.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8427269891296665038.post-29684420767659229992010-12-07T13:03:00.000-08:002010-12-07T13:03:51.685-08:00Christmas Baking Ideas<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've come up with quite a list for my Christmas baking. Since it's so ambitious I'm not sure I will be able to make everything. Some of the items are too labor intensive so that should help. Plus there is always time to work on other items while things are baking. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's the list. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">1. Marbled Caramel Slice - shortbread with caramel and chocolate</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">2. Danish Puff - an almond flavored puff pastry</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">3. Salted Caramels</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">4. Cream Cheese Pound Cake</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">5. Sugar Cookies</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">6. Truffles</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">7. Oatmeal Chocolate Cranberry Cookies</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">8. Fudge - Traditional and Peanut Butter</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">9. Chocolate Covered Pretzels</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">10. Banana Bread</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Did I miss anything? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15766764272460330110noreply@blogger.com2