My Weakness, #ReasonsICantLoseWeight

I love bread. I would give up all other vices for bread. I believe I could live on bread, cheese & wine. I doubt I would be successful on a gluten-free diet (and honestly, I pray I don't have to try!) I especially love sourdough bread, but for a long time I was afraid of it. Not sure why, I do just fine with making regular bread. But I really only LOVED the sourdough you can get on the West Coast. Store-bought sourdough just isn't the same.

Then, Pinterest happened, and I stumbled upon a post for this bread that doesn't require yeast in the starter or when actually making the bread. Who would have though that was the key??

Don't be fooled into thinking you can do this quick. This bread takes TIME. Like all weekend time. You want to be sure your starter is frothy and thick. You want your dough to have LOTS of time to rise, rise and rise some more. I usually start Friday evening and bake Sunday morning. If you dare to take it on, read the recipe, 3-4 times, then read it again. Follow the recipe (except the part about waiting to add salt -- I've been addin the salt with the rest and it's been fine each time). TAKE YOUR TIME. DO NOT RUSH.

But oh man, it is SO worth it because this is the BEST. It reminds me of my past life, when I was single, working for the airlines and when I would spend extra time in San Francisco on the Wharf and go to Boudin Bakery for clam chowder in a bread bowl. I plan to spend time this summer making bread bowls, freezing them, and bringing them out in the fall for chili (as I'm probably the only one in my family who would eat clam chowder).

I Would Like Some Cake

I made the mistake of letting Jessie scroll through Pinterest before her birthday. Luckily, I had already scoped it out and was able to push her to pick the cake I had kinda already decided on.

Blue Velvet, cream cheese frosting and some blue candy melted to look like ice. I totally cheated on the cake and got a box mix -- more because I knew Jessie would want to help and if she spilled too much, is only be out a couple of bucks [though I totally expected my counters to be stained blue for a while!] I also under-estimated the amount of blue candies (blue raspberry Jolly Ranchers) I would need so we ended up with less ice than I wanted.

Jessie got her little Frozen set (minus Hans who is apparently somewhere in the house) to put on top. "Dey are stuck in the snow!" according to Jessie.

She loved her cake! I'm glad I let her help; I loves seeing how proud she looked after finishing.

Happy Happy Birthday Jessica Fae!

My sweet 4 year old!

A study in contradictions (as most 4 year olds are):

Independent, yet still very much a Momma's girl.

A girly-girl. Who loves Spider-Man, Robin & Hawkeye.

Loves her princesses and wants to be beautiful while playing in the sand box.

Can't understand why she has to go to "sctool" EVERY DAY (while Sissy is on summer break), but misses her teachers on the weekend.

I do love being your Momma and we are blessed to have you in our family, even when we are frustrated with you (or you with us). I can't wait to see what God has planned for you!

Changes?

Progress!! While my weight continues to fluctuate, I feel like I am seeing some progress in the mirror. I need to work on my eating habits. My Vegan for Lent was extremely unsuccessful. As I'm standing in line to wait to pick up my latest Bountiful Basket -- which I really decided to do because we NEED to eat more fruits & veggies and I need to be more deliberate about just serving them. Taking an apple or orange with my lunch each day will help me from grabbing Cheez-its. I'm swearing off pop. I probably need to take some time away from wine. Drinking my calories is such a weakness.

I know I can't do this alone. The spirit and flesh are weak!! I have started beginning my days reading through the Bible on my phone and my prayers include strength to eat right and not skip the gym. I know with His help I'll get there. And even if my weight doesn't change, at a minimum I'm healthier and can keep up with the girls!!

More Cooking with Girl Scout Cookies (Thin Mints)

This year, we grabbed a case of Thin Mints and threw them directly in the freezer. What is better than frozen Thin Mints? Perhaps only Thin Mint ice cream! In the past, I've just done a simple vanilla ice cream and crushed Thin Mints in it. This time, I used Alton Brown's chocolate ice cream recipe, exchanged the vanilla for mint extract and crumbled in the Thin Mints. YUM!!!

This is the original recipe from Good Eats, Churn Baby Churn II:

3 cups half and half

1 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 ounces Dutch-processed cocoa powder

8 large egg yolks

9 ounces white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla (for the Thin Mint ice cream, I only used 1 tsp of the mint extract)

1 sleeve of Thin Mints crushed (if making thin mint ice cream)

Whisk 1 cup of half and half with the cocoa in a saucepan. Combine with remaining half and half and heavy cream. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside.

Whisk egg yolks in large mixing bowl until they lighten in color. Gradually add sugar until smooth.

Slowly ladle one third of hot cocoa mixture into the yolk mixture whisking constantly (which is why I use a mixer) to temper eggs. Return this mixture to the saucepan with remaining cocoa mixture. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently until the custard thickens slightly & coats the back of a spoon.

Add vanilla (or mint), and cool to room temp (about 30 minutes). Cover and refrigerate until temp drops below 40 degrees (overnight works best).

Pour into prepped ice cream maker and process. About 5 minutes before end time, sprinkle in crushed Thin Mints. Serve with whole or crushed Thin Mints. Enjoy!!!

Cooking with Girl Scout cookies

Normally this is not a topic I would even consider -- I mean really, who has extra Girl Scout cookies? Well, this year, I do. We, er I, overestimated the area's desire for Shortbread and we ended up with about 2 cases more than we needed. And people aren't exactly clamoring for Shortbread!

There are a lot of options out there, but most called for crushing the cookies and making into a crust. Then I found one to use the cookies to make tiramisu. I've always wanted to try to make tiramisu and this seemed like a fun way to use up some of the cookies (and perhaps sell more boxes with the recipe!)

I think next time I will add cocoa directly to the mascarpone mix so it wasn't so grainy.

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

8 oz mascarpone cheese

1tablespoon cocoa

Mix the above together.

8 oz heavy cream

Whip the heavy cream to stuff peaks and then fold in the mascarpone mix.

5 tablespoons of brewed coffee (or 1/2 coffee and 1/2 coffee liquor)

To plate the tiramisu:

1 shortbread cookie

1 tsp coffee

1/4 cup mascarpone mix

Layer as many times as you like. This will make approximately 7 servings of tiramisu with 2 layers.

Yum yum!!