Deck the Walls of My Flabby Belly
Fa la la la la. La la la la
With Cookie Batter and Fruity Jelly
Fa la la la la. La la la la
Don me now with Spanx and girdles
Fa la la. Fa la la. La la la!
Willpower fails Holiday hurdles
Fa la la la la. La la la la!!
Everybody sing with me!
That’s right. T’was the weak before Christmas in my overused kitchen.The Kitchenaid was stirrin’, while I stood around bitchin’!
I’m up a weight gain of two ounces under a pound! I’m not that surprised because my willpower is in a really weird place right now.
Up about a pound. Considering all the nuts I ate, it could have been worse!
I’ve been great at work—and considering the fact that every day brings more and more wonderful goodies from customers and clients, my will power for tasting whilst baking has gotten the better of me.
THIS came today. I enjoyed the chocolate covered banana. That’s right. Singular. I had ONE!
THIS came yesterday and I treated myself to a half of a turkey sandwich and it was delicious. A decent choice of lunch!
THESE also were delivered yesterday. A Ghirardelli Tower and a Mrs. Fields Tower. I am happy to report that I did not eat anything from either tower. If this were last year I would have eaten both towers and left nothing for anyone else! See where I’m going here?
Here’s a better treat that showed up at the office! My boss’s daughter, who is a co-worker, had her cute dog at work and she fell asleep on my desk! Is this not adorable? Chippy would be jealous!
I made some a lot of Ina Garten’s Salted Caramel Nuts. I also ate a lot of nuts. The weak part of me caved in. The more forgiving part of me looked at the nuts as a healthy alternative to…to…an unhealthy alternative! There is a very good chance that I ate enough nuts to make jars of various nut butters!
THIS is my weakness. Salted Caramel Nuts. I just could not help myself. I could have been much worse. I COULD have eaten the contents of this jar. But I didn’t. BTW–I have six jars full of these nuts. I’ll bring some into the office!
I baked biscotti. I’m not done with the biscotti bake either. I tasted ate a ton of raw batter! And it was good!
But wait. There’s a story to this biscotti. When we lived in New Jersey, on Navesink Drive, I received this cookbook. The New Professional Chef.
1127 pages of great recipes and information, I love this book!
It’s a mutha of a book and has a great Biscotti recipe. I’ve changed the recipe to “Vanilla” rather than “Anise” and I’ve added chocolate chips, nuts and cranberries but kept the basic recipe.
As you can see from the stained and filthy page, this is another recipe I’ve made many times over the years!
This recipe is different from most biscotti recipes in that the biscotti is a bit more “cakey” and not as hard. It has remained the favorite of my three kids. I really should rename it “Navesink Drive Biscotti”. Anyway, over the years, I’ve packed the book away with moves and recently rediscovered the book. Oona, just last week asked me if I had the “original” bisotti recipe because she really missed having them. She was thrilled when I told her that I did, in fact, have the recipe. This is the recipe I’m using this year and when I baked them, the kitchen smelled just like it did when I made these years ago.
I’ll bake a couple more batches of plain biscotti and then start working on the Buche de Noel. OMG–those nuts. My willpower is in high form right now!
And so, does my weakness mean I’m losing this battle? Nope! It’s just putting me on an awareness trail. Under normal circumstances, I would, by this time pre-Christmas, be eating candy. I would be sneaking some of those caramel nuts every day. I would be eating enough biscotti to warrant baking three entire new batches.
I also made salmon rillettes last night. This is a great little spread for crustini or a softer toast–the rillettes go well with cocktails and make a great amuse bouche! I used Eric Ripert’s very easy and tasty recipe: Avec Eric Salmon Rillettes
Rillettes are also great to have when unexpected guests drop by (as if that would EVER happen to me!)
And yeah, I gained a pound—but that is the first “setback” of sorts in 15 weeks. I’m not depriving myself of enjoying appetizers and cocktails on Christmas Day. Nor am I going to sit at the dinner table and pick. No. I’m enjoying all the food that I lovingly cooked.
I found this photo of me from 1993 or 1994. At the time, I thought I was fat. That’s so disgusting when I look back on it. I was not fat. At all. But we grow up with these awful body images. I think most of my weight was in my hair. OMG. I miss having all that hair. Oh well, now I have fake hair!!
The only thing is—I just won’t overdo it!
So how is your week shaping up? I have a ton of stuff to do. I still need to finish up shopping, which I think I’ll do on Monday evening after work. I’ll do the majority of food shopping on Sunday and start to do more prep work! Why is it that in October it seems that the Holidays are so far away—and then you turn around only to find Christmas in next week??? Yikes!
The winter weather is steadily sidling in over here. It was so cold and windy today that my fake hair almost blew off my head. I need to wear a hat!
No kidding. I froze my ass off this afternoon. We’re doing a project at work for Christmas and we are gifting less fortunate people with things they are asking for. I had to go to my car to get the microwave oven I’m gifting someone with. It was so windy my fake hair almost blew off of me!
Speaking of wearing….here’s a bit of what I wore this week!
OK. Last Friday was Jeans Day and I wore this. I liked it so much I wore the same outfit all weekend. What can I say?
Monday’s weather was crappy. So I dressed appropriately in a toasty sweater and heavy boots..
My holiday dressing was in good form on Tuesday. I swear this is one of my favorite skirts.
Wednesday’s outfit was fun. I wore suede ghillies and got a few compliments on the shoes. I wore my Saint bracelet because I was praying to St. Anthony all day to help me find my Bowdabra. He answered my prayers in a different way. I think I moaned and groaned about my lost Bowdabra so much that Oona ordered the deluxe version for me on Amazon Prime. It’s being delivered tomorrow. I’ll be making bows for everyone!! So thank you Oona and thank you St. Anthony for making sure I am getting a bigger and better Bowdabra! I also had a GREAT fake hair day yesterday! It’s a Vivica Fox Brie wig that I plopped over my bio hair. What a blend!
I went with the “ye ye” girl look today. Remember I said I would not wear this as a holiday outfit? Yeah. I’m truthfully challenged! This was a good choice on a frigid day.
And….my rotation of Christmas music is always spinning in my car. Today I was listening to Alligator Stomp—a collection of Cajun Christmas Music! One of my favorite Louisiana groups is Beausoleil and their version of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” is beautiful.
