Happy Birthday Rocky!

My little brother turned 50 this weekend.  In honour of this, I made him a doll in his likeness (at least in my mind's eye!).  Just so you know, my brother has very little hair so Li'l Rocky is wearing a hat.  Here is the doll sans hat.  

I also made him a cake that is supposed to look like a hockey sweater because he is a bit of a hockey fanatic. I think you can get the general idea.  It is covered in fondant and was my first attempt at using this stuff.   It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be although rolling it out was a workout.  My brother has what he calls a "tradition" of swiping his finger through his birthday cake icing (I call it a "pain in the ass") and eating it.  This cake will have him foxed as the icing is hidden behind a fortress of fondant!  We are also celebrating my nephew Matt's birthday so I had to make a pile of cupcakes.  No doubt my brother will be able to mess up the icing on those.  

This blog is about my diet struggles and you can see why I have trouble when I am the chief cake maker in our family.   Every once in a while we try substituting a healthier dessert for Sunday dinner (we are still reeling from a crust-less pumpkin pie a few years back!) but the baked goods make my Dad happy and he is often looking for them as soon as I'm through the door.  I often bake him a little something to tide him over until dessert occurs!  I think his love of sweets goes back to when he was a boy.  His family did not have extras as they struggled financially. My Dad was one of the main bread winners from the age of 12.  He tells a story of the first time he had pie that is poignant.  He and his Mum were visiting a friend who was better off and he was offered a slice of banana cream pie.  His Mum told her, "He won't like it." (a bit bossy was my Nona!) My Dad said he wanted to try it and did and he was hooked.  Dad says his Mum didn't want him to have it because she knew he would want it again and they couldn't afford pie.  She was right.  

Macaroni!

Yesterday we had pasta for lunch at my Dad's.  I am impressed with how consistently amazing our family sauce is.  It was particularly good today.  Even the vegan version he makes for a 1/3 of the family is really good.  Not bad for an 86 year old!  I always feel like I have been drugged after I eat it as it makes me so calm and content.  I have no trouble with my sleep after eating it.   However, pasta is one of the things that I can't eat with regularity.  

I have basil growing in my garden.  This year I planted it right by my house entrance, so it is easily accessible.  This leads to the making of pesto and the eating of same over pasta.  I lamented last week that I had more pesto but no pasta for it when a friend said I should make it from scratch.  I did and after a lot of hard work, I had some irregularly shaped linguine that in texture and taste was very good.  An excellent delivery system for the pesto.  Dad recalled that my Mum (who is with the angels) had had a pasta maker and we looked for it yesterday.  We found it and he gave it to me, although I forgot to bring it home!  Probably just as well.

I'm trying a protein dominant diet for a few days, with veg, fruit and whole grains thrown in.  And walking.  And no pasta...

My Other Hobby...Writing

I have been writing long stories since I was about 11.  The first ones were rather progressive romances for an 11 year old as they included 2 very cute cowboys along with the heroine!  These were only shared with my best friend who wrote similar stories.  Her writing was always and continues to be much, much better than mine.  

Over the years I have started and abandoned many romance writing projects.  I have at least  5 different projects in various stages of completion.  I know the first time I tried to write a romance (other than my adolescent efforts), I thought it would be easy and quick.  I was wrong.  It is difficult if you are not a natural storyteller and I don't think I am.  I have a great imagination, just no follow-through.

My sister and I took a romance writing course last year.  We both did very well although the instructor had some odd ideas about our efforts.  I tend to write sweeter romances and I think she was pushing her students toward the racy stuff.

I've hauled out one of my favourites which is also the farthest along and I have been working on it.  And again, it is a tough slog.

I admire storytellers.  They are a special breed much like artists.  They have an ability to see the big picture and spin a good yarn.  When I read a good book, I am taken with how effortlessly it flows and how events are intertwined.  I don't know if I can do that but I have some time on my hands so I'm going to try.

Baking and Crafting

Baking and crafting are two of my spare time activities.  I'm lucky in that I seem to have inherited these skills from my Mum although she was an artist and I'm more of a technician.  

These things keep me busy although one is a dangerous activity for me.  I don't think I need to point out which one!  As some members of my family are vegetarian or vegan, I have had to adapt my baking somewhat.  It has led to a few tasteless disasters but I can now make a delicious vegan cake that will fool even my brother.  These are some cupcakes that I made for an office function.  

Baking and experimenting with baking are dangerous for me.  I decided a while back

 that I was only going to bake white cakes which I don't like it, but as I'm preparing, I will add a little of this and that and before you know it I have a nice spice cake... infinitely more edible!  I'm experimenting at the moment with vegan-gluten free cakes.  This is more difficult.  My first batch were edible but the texture was odd...especially after you started to chew!  I have to keep working on it as my sister wants me to make a cake for her.  

The other hobby is crafting.  The little lady above is one of my more recent efforts.  The crafting is much better for me as it keeps my hands busy and I am less likely to be eating while crafting.  For a few years, I always had a crochet hook in my hand in my spare time and I was thinner!  Then my iPad made an appearance.  Love at first sight and it kept me from my crafts.  I have started to crochet again and maybe I'll stick with it and it might keep me away from cupcakes!  

Kombucha!

A few months ago, I had my first taste of kombucha tea and really liked it.  If you are unfamiliar, it is a fermented tea beverage which contains pro-biotics and is supposed to be very good for you.  The problem was the $5.00 a bottle (in Canada!) price tag. I decided that I wanted to brew my own and set about trying to find or buy a "scoby" which is the acronym for "symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast" which is what ferments the tea turning it into kombucha.  Local health food stores either didn't know what I was talking about or were too expensive.   So I followed instructions from the internet on the easiest and cheapest method to procure one.  I bought a plain bottle of un-pasteurised kombucha, poured it into a clean mason jar, covered it with a cloth and put it somewhere warm.  Within a week I had my own scoby which has multiplied many times leaving me with great tea and a bunch of scobys to spare.  So far no one else in my family likes the tea.  It is an acquired taste.  I make a few batches a week in various large glass containers.  

Not much happening on the diet front...I'm slowly getting back to the walking and trying to eat better.  Very early this morning, I successfully stopped myself from going to a 24 hour pharmacy to get jujubes.  But the day is young...