Yeasterical!

I knew better and I still did it!

I got my Gourmet magazine Saturday, I have been trying to ignore my culinary magazines since I started a diet, knowing too well the temptation would be humongous, but then Saturday was a boring day, with He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed being sick( the poor man is all achy, and truly looks like he is suffering a lot, most probably is the flu with a touch of arthritis to make things more interesting). Anyways there was not much to do around the house (mmm’kay what if I was not in the mood for cleaning or ironing, give me a break it was SATURDAY!).

I am fanatic about bread and have been toying with the idea of making brioche, one of my top 3 favorites, but always end up thinking it was too much work. All those seductive descriptions on Gourmet magazine made me crave the thing worse than ever but I was still resisting. Mostly because I did not have all the ingredients but that is a detail. So I learned about a new food search engine and being slightly obsessed with the whole brioche idea I try it there. Voila! Another recipe even more promising than the one I read on the magazine. I knew I was doomed.

Sunday we had to do some grocery shopping and I end up buying the said missing ingredients, but still postpone the baking of bread. Since I know myself well I did get the eggs and butter out of the fridge, just in case, since they needed to be at room temperature for any recipe.

Then when I thought I was safe, it was late enough to start any baking project, He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed decided he needed to go back to bed since he was feeling lousy, so what is a woman fanatic about bread to do?

MAKE BRIOCHE!

I honestly try to reason with myself, since there was a 2 hour rise followed but 10 minutes of kneading and yet another hour rise, all things considered (the oven time being short 35 minutes) the bread will not be done before 9PM. That is silly, a little voice told me, the weekend will be over and your rule for allowing non-diet food window of opportunity will be almost closed!
But not quite!

So I did it! And it is a thing of beauty, and on top of that it is probably the best bread I ever baked, which I already knew it would be by the way the dough was just about so perfect to handle.

I confess I ate 2 slices, still warm from the oven, and yes with butter on top of the first one (the guilt was way too big to allow butter on the second slice, and yes I did make it a smaller one). He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed did have a warm slice himself but being sick I don’t think he was able to taste the full extent of my bread wonderfulness.

Only today I realized I should have taken a picture yesterday. I should take the picture before I had my first slice. Oh well I will get over it. Since He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed approved the bread and had a nice toasted sandwich for lunch today, I also froze two slices for a future French toast) now there is little left of my thing of beauty. I must say I feel content, baking bread is more rewarding than cooking, maybe because I don’t do it every day or maybe because it seems to involve a bigger transformation between ingredients and the result.

By the way if you want the recipe just email me!

How old can you be?

How many can you have?

Being a twin I learn about competition even before I was born, and to be honest I never liked it. I think we only shared one BFF, actually our very first friend ever, at age 4, but after that we had a silent agreement to have different BFF’s and make our lives easier.
I never liked to compete, maybe this is the reason I never excelled in any sports, was kinda good at swimming if it did NOT involved a competition.

At 45 I feel a bit silly about calling anyone a BFF but I do believe having female friends is the most important thing in my life. (mmm’kay… so He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed is pretty important too but this is not what we talking about now)

Apart from the 3 I already mentioned in this blog there are two other women in my life that make me a better person, and even if I am not a phone person (sometimes I believe I “used” all my phone hours when I was a teenager and now I just hate the darn thingy!) I do feel I can call them anytime. We are very alike in some ways and very different in others and we sure had quite different life experiences but we easily found ourselves choosing the same dish in a restaurant or pointing the same clothes at a store, agreeing on those mundane ways that makes us feel connected. Sometimes it gets to be a bit scary how we can second guess each other’s choices.

Being with them has enriched my life beyond my expectations. I feel lucky that I got to know them, I feel blessed that they “get” me, I feel proud that they know they can count on me.
They constantly remind me why women need other good women in their lives.
Being part of their lives is a huge deal for me, be it because we support each other on diets, or we can laugh about our significant others silly similarities or we can have a therapeutic shopping day even when we are both broke!

I can be buying gifts for her kids or twisting her hand to let me pay for coffee, and don’t take me wrong, we can get pretty serious about stuff cause life is not just glasses of wine and rosy days. The connection is there no matter what we do together and funny enough even if we just talking on the phone and saying we have been bad and should not go that long without going out together.

Earlier this year one of them lost her sister, my heart hurt terribly even if I never met her sister, and I don’t dare to say I knew what she was going thru but I can easily say I would like her around if I ever have to go thru the same.

So I don’t really know the rules for how old you can be to have BFF’s or how many you can have but those two(now don’t smirk …you know who you are!) would be awfully deserving of the title!

Winter Wonderland

It is a magical winter wonderland outside, what was predicted as 4 inches of snow was updated to a FOOT, I did notice something like that would happen when I got up this morning and the storm that was supposed to arrive by late morning was already here before 7am!

As soon as I opened the door to the backyard the dogs were ecstatic with the fluffy white stuff. There short barks sure sounded like: “WOW! IT IS AWSOME DUDE!”Now is almost 4pm and He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed agree to go outside and take a few pictures of me and the boys!

I guess it shows I am wearing 3 layers of clothes! I feel like the Michelin guy!

Veramente

My dogs know it will snow today, how they know is beyond me but they have been pacing around, they gave me the special treatment, they gang up and place their heads, each dog on a thigh, press as hard as possible, do a little moaning, and don’t forget the begging eyes, big caramel eyes with expressive eyebrows all four of them fixed on me. Pretty please with sugar on top: CAN WE GO TO THE BACK YARD? NOW?

It is barely 9am and it happened already 3 times, right now Matisse just did the special walk around my chair, he is just waiting for Jack to come help him with the plan. They did not go for the loud approach, the one that comes with real loud barking and jumping , that is reserved for afternoons and mostly used with He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, unless I ignore their soft approach then I am deserving of the loud one.

I have no means to explain to them that today we will only get maybe an inch of the white stuff, and even that is only going to happen real late afternoon or even night time. The radio and TV weather people did promise a much larger storm by Friday, maybe the last one of this winter? But my dogs have a very bad perception of time, tomorrow is way beyond their understanding, the day after tomorrow is an abstraction of huge proportions.

Jack is getting even worse about eating lately, he has always been picky, his routine includes ignoring the food at first, and reluctantly agreeing to eat a bit, but that includes a couple of stops, when he will sit down, look around like he is trying hard to remember what he was supposed to do, look at me with an expression that says: “ Eat? You mean I need to finish that?...Oh… ok … if it makes you happy”

But sometimes he will look at the food and simply dislike it, so at first I could fool him shaking the bowl: “oh now it looks so much better I will eat it”… then he decided that the rearrangement of kibble did not improve the taste so I would sprinkle it with some water… it worked for a bit… then maybe if I use chicken stock… now he is into yogurt.. I eat half a cup for breakfast and he decided it is just the yuumiest thing on earth and cannot wait for his kibble to be smudged with a bit of 0% fat Greek yogurt, and yes dogs are not supposed to eat dairy when they are done with puppyhood but be my guest to explain that to a very stubborn adorable wirehaired pointing griffon.

Now I am off to the gym, it feels like a day for a double post so be warned I might be BACK!

Wobbly Bits.

I just got back from the gym, had to drag my wobbly bits there but even if the weight loss so far had only reached the 4.5 pounds mark I do notice the bits are less wobbly this past week. I am quite happy with my new headphones; He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed came up to the bat and bought it as a let’s say late Valentines’ Day gift. He did try the “I don’t believe in Valentine’s Day” approach so I had to explain it is NOT A RELIGION, you don’t need to BELIEVE, just get on with the program and since I made your life so easy choosing an inexpensive , much needed, headphone just be happy about it. And he did, meaning got happy about it and bought it.

Actually what I bought him as a gift was met with less enthusiasm, well the card went well and also the bag of licorice (I love licorice in the sense that I can have it around the house and NEVER be tempted, I tried it a couple of times and never got to like it at all) and again I digress … it was the whole new pillows idea that did not meet his approval. He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed claims changing pillows are AN EXECUTIVE DECISION, as in not to be made by myself alone, no matter how old and grungy his pillow looks.

I have to admit he did give it a try, but said pillow end up on top of my head by 3am so I guess it is going back to the store. I am keeping mine, well it was a double gift idea, not exactly romantic but hey I was thinking on the right direction.

I was looking forward to going to a Dog Show in Hartford but He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed just told me he is feeling achy and possibly even flu-ish (lets us all pray he is wrong and it is a bit of cold) so all plans are cancelled and I will have to do with a gym visit and watching Becoming Jane with my dogs.

Now is time to go and make my famous low-cal, low-fat, and low-sodium Chinese LoMein.

Arrivederci bubbles!

This is so puuuurty!

TALK TO THE PAW

Today I feel discombobulated (mmm,kay I admit I learned the word just last week but I immediately knew it would fit me every so often) .

The lovely snow that fell last night , and made the walk-with-the-dogs-before-bed-time such a fun time, what with all of us jumping on fluffy snow and some of us burying our noses in it, now is part snow, part slush and part water that might be soon be part ice since temperatures are falling like crazy.

I can hear the plows going around, the biggest truck being the City one with a new guy that cleans our street like a kamikaze, I am not sure if it is because he is new to the job but he does it with a vengeance (specially one directed to corner curbs) so I always try to avoid walking around while he is doing his thing.

The walk up the hill to the gym has to be postponed or maybe even cancelled depending on how things will improve or not after noon and the whole thing just throws my day out of planned schedule which just spoils the very little amount of discipline I have to keep exercising. Did I mention that I did not go yesterday due to a very bad sinus headache?

Luckily the dogs decided the weather is too nasty to play outside, but not before Matisse gave me the look that is his equivalent of “TALK TO THE PAW”, complete with rolling eyes and a sharp bark that says: I WANT TO GO OUT NOW! Let me assure you, that dog is all caps all the time. True he does not get as wet as Jack, thanks to a really wirehair double coat. They are the same breed but for some reason Jack has a much softer coat and gets soaked wet in less than 3 minutes.

He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed ( I have to confess I borrow this one from his aunt, it seems is something that run on the male side of the family as this is how she refers to his uncle) or maybe it is due to the BOE name(Best Obey Ever), but I digress. Today he seems awfully quiet, not that anyone could accuse him of being talkative ever. I am not even thinking on Brazilian standards( everybody knows we talk way too much)but maybe quite is not bad, sure quiet is much better than when I get the feeling that I am annoying him just because I am breathing(maybe too loud?).

We don’t do the whole big celebration on Valentine’s Day (yes I have been able to celebrate both American and Brazilian Valentine’s since they happen 6 months apart, lucky me, and if you forget to buy something for your special one you better know you can do it on June 12 by Brazilian standards) anyways we don’t buy (literally don’t buy) into the big consumerism validating romance but I would totally NOT mind getting new earphones( the big but lightweight Sony ones we saw at that store will do) since the tiny ones I wear now to the gym just annoy the hell out of my ears. Nope, not an Ipod girl here (even if I do LOVE everything else Apple).

SO there will be a card maybe even cards(meaning I will get one too).

I shall make a scrumptious meal, shame it is not nice outside because He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed loves a steak on the grill but maybe I will go for his second favorite Swedish Meatball.
Now it is raining cats-dogs-monkeys and parrots but Matisse wants proof so I will let him go before the TALK TO THE PAW shows up again!

Happy Valentines to you all!

enjoying a rare moment of sunshine

They are coming back... I know they are...

Blogbi is giving me a hard time about me writing “I just got in a diet”… yeah… yeah… ON a diet.

It is again a problem with translating from Portuguese, where the words for IN and ON are interchangeable and let’s face it, I am the one NOT EATING DELICIOUS FOOD no matter if I am IN it or ON it! Actually when I get ON a diet it is like I am IN THE ZONE, in this case not a good zone, but still a magical place, one when I can see myself in single digits sizes in the not so near future.

Last week was not a good one, never got much better since I last wrote here, that being one of the reasons I left this place for a few days. My hormones are out of whack and so far my doctor had not been very successful about getting it fixed, by now I think maybe I should be fixed myself.

Yesterday I managed to lock myself out of the house, and sure it was snowing and I had a lovely 45 minute wait until “He-Who-Must-Be –Obeyed” came home to rescue me. We managed to improve the day by going to the grocery store (I used those 45 minutes to make a shopping mental list, note to self: include orange juice in next mental list), the part that cannot be called an improvement was the one where he forgot to turn the lights off and we found the car did not want to move being without any juice (in this case battery instead of orange).

Not having the cell phone make it a bit more annoying and the whole episode end up including my first trip in a taxi in Torrington!

Today I woke up very achy and “He-Who-Must-Be –Obeyed” wants to know if I am “catching something”, well to me catching imply intent and I have no reasons to want to catch a cold but it might catch me at some point. I know there will be a day I will wake up and the only part of my body that will not suffer from arthritis will be my hair, but I hope it will not happen in the next …say 20 or 30 years. I bet today’s achiness (it is a word, I checked it out) is just some silly cold.

The snow if falling hard now, the guy on the radio says the temperature is supposed to drop some 20 degrees in the next 4 hours so I decided to give myself a day off the gym, oh come on… I went yesterday!

Now sounds like the perfect time to make my third cup of coffee and enjoy the company of my two crazy dogs.

...the bubbles are coming back…very slowly but they are!

Funky Day

I am feeling rather crappy today.

Hormones, shitty weather(one can always know I am not well when I swear), did not make it to the gym(total lack of discipline and/or energy), got wrong answers from my doctor(as in he does not know what is wrong with me) and still no checks from any clients. Bugger!

The Year of the Rat does not look good to me, we shall see how it goes in two days.

Of course everybody has bad days, but I have a rule not to allow it to grab me as bad to turn it into more than one day. So tomorrow I have to shake it out of my system.

It does feel like I lost my bubbles today so I am in for some intervention!

 

PS: haircut next Thursday better work!

so far not a good day... not noon yet...there is room for improvement!