Summer Sweets and Treats

Summer is always full of cool treats – and some that are just delicious room temperature ones! Three examples:

1. I forgot to mention that after we all went to an early dinner after the dance recital, we (Ken, RoAnn, and I) were on a mission to find some good "hard" ice cream on the way home. However, there were so many detours just to get back home that we said screw it – let's just get it at the grocery store near Pine City!

Of course, after being in air-conditioning and walking into their very cool house, Ro and I said we needed to light the fire "pit" on the deck before we sat out there and ate the ice cream. Sometimes you have to warm up enough to eat ice cream, ya know? Smile if you understand our logic!

Side note: It was Cedar Crest Blueberry Waffle Cone. So good!

2. Both mornings I was there, I had a slice of delicious Amish Friendship Bread for breakfast. Amish Friendship Bread is like an adult chain letter for people who like to bake! Once you accept that batch of "starter" you cannot leave the cult. You can only break the chain by throwing away whatever starters you can't give away – including your own! So I resisted getting back into that (been there, done that) but did take a half-plus loaf home.

Got home from work today and this is what is left! So I guess hubby does like it. I remember that now. Should've rejoined the damn cult!

3. On my way home from work, I had to hunt and gather ingredients that may or may not be used in a trifle soon. (Hey, gotta get one more in before we're all working from home for 6 weeks!) And that's when I met my sweetest downfall.

Hadn't seen these before nor purchased them. But they fit my "theme." I am a huge HUGE coconut anything and everything fan. But I still felt I should taste test one when I got home. Just to be sure it would blend with the rest of the flavors and all that. I demand quality in my creations! 

Or something.

Anyway, I kid you not, I moaned out loud at first bite. Holy perfectly delicious flavor combination! Good thing Jim is golfing or he'd wonder what the hell was happening in the kitchen!!

I quickly shoved them in the fridge to chill with the other cookies – you have to do that so they cut up nicely (rather than mushy) the next day. But you know that from my previous Trifle Tutorials. I don't know how I can stay away from them! This will be my biggest test of willpower strength in recent days, that's for sure.

I mean I do have another cookie type to cut up as well for the cookie layer, so I might not need to "use" all them. #MeJustifyingANewAddiction. Bwaahaa.

Just... if you love coconut like I do, get yourself some of these!!!

I mean it is a flavor of summer after all... at least tropical islands that are summer year-round! Enjoy the treats of the season!

Catch-Up Day

Happy Memorial Day. Well I guess it's weird to say "happy" when it's a holiday honoring those who lost their lives fighting for our freedoms. Maybe just say have good Memorial Day. And you determine what's good about it.

For me it was good to have day with nothing on the calendar. I could catch up on a few things. Got a walk in this morning. Felt much more like spring-almost-summer-time walking around the lake this morning than yesterday! Could it be on the last day of May, we're getting somewhere with Mother Nature?

I type that as I hear thunder outside – which thankfully held off until baseball practice was over and our supper of grilled kabobs was done. 

My other achievement today, besides getting to watch my Twins win on TV and baking banana bread for the in-laws, was finally getting my hanging flower baskets. Most greenhouses have a depleted supply this late in the game, but I had some colorful luck at The Home Depot. And yes, there's plenty of purple to go around!

Now I'm trusting Mother Nature to cooperate!

Hope you had a good holiday weekend.

The Way to My Autumn Heart

When you've had a few technically challenging work days with error message like this, it certainly is a welcome surprise to get a message like this on your front porch...

While we were working in our respective offices in the house, somebody sneaked by and dropped this off with a note that says, "A good day for a little pumpkin spice," with a basket of pumpkin spice bread and coffee K-cups. Oh Lord, did I need that!

Isn't it something it took me only two wrong guesses before I discovered that it was my "sole" (former running partner) sister Chris who left it for me. I had an inkling since we've enjoyed our share of good coffee together. And, of course, she knows the way to my autumn heart is through pumpkin spice. Once a spice girl, always a spice girl.

And that wasn't the end of it. 

Tonight on his way home from visiting his parents, hubby picked up a Pumpkin Pie Blizzard for me! Yummo.

I kind of feel like it's a holiday or something. So I'm taking tomorrow off to make it a three-day holiday weekend. Then I can sleep in and savor that Pumpkin Spice coffee with Pumpkin Spice toast! Feel free to join me. We can safely "spice distance." Our kitchen table is 6 feet long!

#spicegirl

Household Hacks from Hell-oise

When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. When life hands you aging bananas, you make banana bread.

– Robyn Rae Zing Hell-oise

I had to put myself under house arrest tonight and force myself to get some stuff done! All this running around is fun and all, but the house is collecting dirt and dust, projects aren't getting done and those over-ripe bananas aren't going to eat themselves.

When I realized this afternoon I had no concrete plans tonight, I figured I better not "create" any either. Put the camera down. Grab a dust rag and broom and go. 

Since hubby was going to be out of the house, I figured it was safe to bake. Yup. It's one of the hottest days of the summer but with the air-conditioning on, a hot oven is acceptable. For me anyway. I didn't want anyone else roasting. So it was good to have the kitchen to myself and my staff.

Typically, if I know I am going to bake banana bread after work, I will put out my butter to soften gradually during the day. Since this was a last-minute thought, I improvised...

Household Hack of the Day: Put the butter in a covered dish on your trunk lid. The stuffy, 1,300-degree garage air will soften it in no time!

Bam. Winning.

And it didn't taste like lawn mower gas or the grill or anything!

Bread turned out great. Got my "Saturday chores" done finally. Sorted through some pictures from Sunday for our friend Kat (and the band). Even registered for a 5K.

If anyone has a hack to get me in shape to actually run it in a month, let me know. We can play swapsies with our tips. Just because I am an undomestic goddess, doesn't mean I don't know a shortcut or two.

Hmmm.... shortcut. Now that could be an option for the 5K... hmmm...

Making a Point

To keep my vow to be accountable, I will share the latest news from my Weight Watchers program.

I had my 6-week weigh-in this morning and am down 11 pounds! I didn't think I'd even have a loss this week after my Camp Crop-A-Lot weekend. But I think I was too busy scrapping that I didn't have time to snack between meals. The only major "off the wagon" meal was Saturday night with the family. So not so bad.

What have I learned?

Well, even though Oprah says she loves bread and can eat it every day with WW, I don't. I don't love it and I don't eat it that often to begin with so that isn't a perk for me. What I have discovered, though, is that you honest-to-goodness can eat anything you want. Just enjoy in moderation. Such simple advice I've never followed!

If I want King Cone or a DQ Blizzard, I have to try to plan for it and adjust my daily Smart Point budget accordingly. I say TRY to plan because life it about unexpected pleasures, too. If I eat something heavy on the points, I can't beat myself up. Just enjoy it and try again tomorrow.

The key to any successful program is realistic expectations and a realistic approach to meeting your goals. Every plan out there touts it as "not a diet, but a lifestyle change." Well, if I have to work out every single day and can never have ice cream or carrot cake, that's not gonna last. I can't "maintain" that lifestyle. And my downfall is that if I am deprived of something, I will want it more. And I when I get it, there is no moderation in sight!

So I am realistically eating things I normally eat and just paying attention so that I don't go overboard. And if I do, try not to go overboard several days in a row!

I have also learned that there is some good food out there that is not bad for you. I am thankful I have at least 4 co-workers on the program that serve as a support network of sorts, sharing low-point snack ideas among other things. I also have people supporting me by helping me say no.

No less than 3 people shared this info graphic with me:

I get the point. There are a LOT of points (and not very Smart ones) in Shamrock Shakes. I thought I might just have to settle for the DQ Grasshopper Mousse Blizzard, but even a medium has more than a thousand calories. Not kidding.

I see why they call them Smart Points. Mindless eating will get you every time. But using your mind to make Smart choices will get you closer to goal.

Now I just have to stick with it longer than any other "lifestyle changes" I've tried to adopt in the past. Right?

Limited Exposure

When the temperatures are not expected to get above zero, there's no sense in going anywhere you don't have to. You should limit your exposure to the great outdoors.

I thought of that as I lay in my toasty, warm bed this morning and knew it was double digits below zero outside. But both hubby and I got up and went to church. The late service this time "so it would be warmer," I told myself.

Yikes. A bit nippy out.

After church and once Carter got home from a friend's, we were all homebound for the day. The sun was shining brightly, but that was one big tease. I don't know what the high got up to today – it was projected to reach minus 8 – but you can see tonight's forecast is a low of minus 17. Uff da. Glad my blankie has been on for hours!

Since I didn't have any place to go and didn't want to, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon organizing things for Carter's school scrapbook. Camp Crop-A-Lot is a month away but I thought I better start figuring out what photos I need printed. Using my blog as a reference point, I think I have the order I will need to do pages in the book and what photos I will need.

Now, between my camera, my phone, my computer and even Facebook, I've got to track them down so I can order prints in the next few weeks. If I am lucky enough to have another "cold day" in, I might just want to get started on scrapping instead of waiting until that weekend. There are a lot of pages to get done! I have the second half (or so) of his junior year to finish plus senior year up to now. It doesn't sound like much but consider First Day of School, fall marching band, cross country, state, homecoming band and dance, concerts, all-conference band, pep band, prom, solo and ensembles, baseball maybe, spring concert, memorial day programs, etc. Plenty of photos to find. Plenty of pages to do. Thankfully, I have all the programs, tickets, brochures, etc., saved in the appropriate "Junior Year" and "Senior Year" containers. It helps that I am organized in at least some aspects of life!

My other project today was keeping the house warm. I had three dark bananas just hanging there, saying, "We're cold! Please make banana bread out of us!" I had to oblige.

Do you know what disappears faster than the Vikings playoff hopes?

Fresh and WARM banana bread! I won't tell you how many minutes after they came out of the oven I took this picture. But if you've ever had fresh-baked bread of any kind, you have the general idea. It wasn't long!

But it was so good!

As my reward, I stole the couch and the remote for the evening and watched Cinderella, the non-animated Disney movie made in 2015. This is what happens when we have free movie channels for a month and the football games are done for the day. It was a good movie. Obviously no spoiler alerts. The story has been re-done a few times. I enjoyed this one, though. And it was nice to relax.

Under a blanket, of course.

Gotta keep moving from one warm spot to the next! Think I'll make it from my office across the hall to my bed in record time. Unless I make a detour the kitchen. Just to check on that banana bread. Make sure it's warm enough...

Give Us Our Daily Fresh-Baked Bread

The smell of fresh-baked bread is so pleasing to the senses that Realtors often have one of those "bread machines" going when showing a house so the prospective buyers have positive thoughts about the home.

In my house, if I bake bread – well, I only do banana bread and Amish Friendship Bread and those types – the first loaf out of the oven is gone before the others even cool.

There's just something about fresh-baked bread. It fills your senses, your tummy and your soul. (So unfortunate carbs are getting such a bad rap these days!)

When we say the Lord's Prayer and ask for our "daily bread," we are just seeking enough to fill our soul for the day. Not asking for more than we need. Not looking ahead too far down the unknown path. Just willing to live with what God gives us.

That day.

My Grandma Hedberg had a painting similar to the one above hanging on her wall. After all these years, I remember that. It was by her table so I knew the man was saying grace. I wasn't old enough to know the message was that he was thanking God for his daily bread. His daily dose of blessings.

We were reminded of it today in church when we had our worship service in a park in town, followed by a potluck. The pastor was talking about being spiritually hungry. Unlike our immediate satisfaction with warm bread, we may not even know we are spiritually hungry – or spiritually lacking. Sort of like the Footprints poem. When things are going well, we don't think of God as much as when we are challenged or hurting or needy.

I try not to take my blessings for granted. I do thank God every night in my prayers but I still get pinged with reminders the other 23-plus hours of the day. And is isn't just my stomach growling.

It's seeing loved ones struggle. It's feeling physical or emotional distress. It's suffering pain of loss.

But when we get a whiff of that fresh-baked bread, we remember the slice has two sides. We also have the joy of waking up to sunshine. It is spending one-on-one time worshiping and having lunch with my son. It is spending the afternoon with my hubby, watching him paint on the deck while I sit in Mr. Deck Chair. It is cleaning another closet and filling two more bags to take to Goodwill. It is writing a letter to a special person in prison who is working with God to turn his life around.

It is all that in one day.

Did you count your daily blessings today?

Life's a Picnic Somedays

Today is one of my favorite Sundays of the year – our church picnic. Well, technically it's our Worship in the Park outdoor service followed by a potluck. No picnic baskets or ants.

The service always features an inspirational music group from the region. Today our worship was accompanied by Dakota Road, a trio from the Dakotas, I guess. Great sound! After the service, we had our meal under the Robinson Park shelter. Always good food and good conversation. I am still full, I think!

Carter had to work today so it was another day of not seeing much of him. I made the most of my time with a 3-mile walk, a little reading (I'm hooked on this book "Defending Jacob") in Mr. Deck Chair, and some baking.

Just a nice picnic of a day!

Since I have two black thumbs, I don't grow anything I can use for cooking or baking. The next-door neighbor gave me some zucchini the other night so I thought I'd give zucchini bread a try. Wow. Yummy stuff. Naturally, I had to throw in some chocolate chips because that's just what I do. (Jim always says I should just call my banana bread "cake"!)

If any of you need a simple recipe, here's the one I used. It is popular with the men in my house, too. But then, they pretty much devour anything I bake. Even on a hot day!

Classic Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla
2-3 cups shredded zucchini

Directions:

• Spray two 8 x 4 inch pans with non-stick cooking spray and preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Mix together flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon in a bowl.
• Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, white sugar and brown sugar together in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture and beat well. Stir in zucchini until well combined.
• Pour batter into prepared pans.
• Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan and let cool completely.
• Makes 2 loaves. (It actually made 3 loaves for me but I had normal, not large bread pans)

Good luck, Green Thumbers!

10-Step Prorgam

Since 12-step programs have met with so much success, I thought I'd try to a 10-step one to see if it works even better. I can tell you, after 10 days, it is awesome. In a super yummy way.

Oh, I'm talking about the 10-day process of making Amish Friendship Bread. What did you think I was talking about?

I got a "starter" batch and instructions from someone at work. If you've never experienced this, I guess I can equate it to a pyramid scheme for people who like to bake.

Someone gives you a "starter" in a gallon Ziploc bag. You mush it (that's the technical term) twice a day for 5 days, add some ingredients on day 6, then mush it until day 10 when you add more stuff, divide a cup each into 4 bags (for friends you beg to take it) and then use the remaining batter to mix up the rest of the bread. It's got a super tasty cinnamon flavor to it so it's no wonder people keep making it.

On baking day, the bakers (that's me tonight) have to decide if they are ending their role and giving all 4 bags of "starter" away or keeping them. It can be a vicious cycle when you run out of people to take them and/or you don't want to bake anymore. I have tossed the "starter" before just to end it. (Probably breaking some sacred law.)

My only bad experience with this was about 5 years ago when I last did this -- and there's a reason. It was summer time, the bag got heated, too much air built up and, like a funny cartoon, exploded. All over the kitchen. It dried hard and we were scraping it off for months. I think we might have had to use turpentine or something to finally get it off.

Now that my 5-year ban has expired, I figured I would give this Program another shot. It worked! I already have plenty of people wanting the "starter" bags, too, but after tasting my first big piece tonight, washing it down with a glass of eggnog, I am definitely keeping one of them for myself!

I'll just have to coincide it with an 11-step exercise program to keep ahead of it.

Domestic Goddess?

A funny thing happened last night. When I wasn't looking, my status as an undomestic goddess changed to domestic. At least temporarily. True story.

Last week, I was racking my brain trying to think of what little gifts I could get my employees. Nothing jumped out at me -- certainly not one item that all 8 of them would enjoy equally. Then, this weekend, I thought, "Why don't I make them something? As in bake them something?"

I may not be much in the kitchen when it comes to cooking but I love to bake. In fact, I always get comments on my banana bread (a special recipe from my childhood BFF Julie), so I decided that would be my gift (wrapped up with some other tasty and possibly minty treats). I bought the little disposable aluminum foil loaf pans. In fact I bought 20 of them because I didn't know how many I could make with one batch of batter and didn't know if hubby wanted me to make them for his peeps as well.

So last night, knowing it was going to be the one night home this week, I grabbed the old flowered apron off its peg and got to work. First batch ended up filling only 5 loaf pans. Not enough. Hubby says, "Five loaves? Hey I know that story!" I said, "Right. Wouldn't that be something if I put these 5 loaves in the oven with 2 fish and they multiplied?" Oh yes, that would be nice. But not gonna happen. So while one batch was in the oven, I mixed up another.

About an hour later, my sister from Texas called. I told her I had just pulled the 10th loaf of banana bread out of the oven (I had to make it sound like I was slaving all day at this). She said, "What's happening to you? Ever since you turned 40, you've gotten all domestic!"

Well not quite. One night does not a domestic goddess make. But the gifts were appreciated today.

Not to ruin my reputation, I'll just tell people that instead of getting visited by the ghost of Christmas Future, it was the ghost of Martha Stewart. Boo!

Bread of Life

Our theme for our church's Lenten services this year will be "Bread of Life" -- basically we'll be examining any event or concept of bread in the Bible.

Last night, before the Ash Wednesday service began, they actually had one of those breadmaking machines baking bread in the sanctuary so we walked in to the smell of heaven!

There's just something about the smell of fresh-baked bread that makes you feel all good inside. I'm convinced Jim and I bought our house because we loved the smell of baking bread every time we toured it. Now I know it is a Realtor's trick -- and an effective one at that.

No surprise that last evening the aroma once again brought back a flood of childhood memories.

My mother often made bread rather than purchasing sliced bread from the store. Even if she didn't mix and knead the dough -- opting for frozen loaves -- part of the fun was waking up to see how much the loaf (yeast) had risen while we were sleeping. Of course, that part of the process finished a distant second to the best part: Eating warm bread (with butter, of course), fresh out of the oven. Always, the first loaf was gone in less than 30 minutes. H-m-m-m good!

It gives me a warm (dare I say almost domestic) feeling when my "boys" react the same way to my banana bread. I made some this weekend and, as usual, the first loaf was gone in no time. Carter follows Daddy's lead. When he wants a slice, it better be 3 inches thick!

Hopefully some day that banana bread will come to mind when his pastor talks about the bread of life. Just like God's spirit, a 3-inch-thick slice with butter melting on top certainly does give us a warm, full, contented feeling.