Ok, so I had all these great intentions for the week, and for the most part, I've done a good job at getting started. I did not manage to get the rest of the items I needed cut out for sewing cut out due to a kitchen snafu.
It started ok; I was making some mostly sugar free cookies (using the sugar free Hershey's chocolate chips I found! Score!) for my good friend Callie's birthday. I hate to bake using splenda, because it does have a kind of wierd aftertaste, but thought if I could get the regular sugar out and just have the 1/3 cup of brown sugar in the cookies, she might actually be able to have one or two before falling out into a coma. And everyone deserves a cookie or two prior to a coma on their birthday. :-) So I bake these cookies and they actually taste pretty normal. The chocolate chips were really tasty, actually, so I was all impressed with myself and set out on my second task: Making pumpkin walnut fudge for work on Friday.
Oh. My. Jesus.
Why do I even attempt recipes where there are the words "candy thermometer or X ball stage"??? I am not a confectioner. I cannot make candy. All the fudge I've ever made was melty chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk! All this boiling this that and the other with light Karo corn syrup until it reaches immediate 3rd degree burn hot is beyond my skill set. I was supposed to learn this when I attempted to make my own toffee last Christmas and had a massive failure.
BUT NO.
I was going to make this fudge.
So I did everything I was supposed to, INCLUDING using a candy thermometer, but could never get it to get hotter than 7 degrees less than it was supposed to be. I mean, I guess I COULD have, but it would have boiled out of my pot and made a stinky, burnt sugar mess on my stove. And even with a flat top stove, I do not want to clean that shit up. So I just figured, "Ok. It is not going to get to 232 degrees Fahrenheit. It will either turn out ok or fail tremendously, and I should be prepared for either."
Of course, it never set up.
The lovely, pale orange squares of fall delicious I had hoped to serve my co-workers turned into a sort of...pumpkin walnut sauce.
I thought breifly of taking in cinnamon flavored ice cream and letting them spoon that on top, but ice cream does not evoke fall memories for me. :-/ Especially when it was about 40 degrees outside. So I did the only other thing I knew to to do to try and salvage the project: Baked a spice cake.
I figured I'd just heap it on top of the spice cake like a glaze and let that be that. I don't even know if it will taste good, and I really don't care at this point, but I couldn't just throw away 3 cups of sugar and a half a cup of pumpkin plus other ingredients without even trying it as a glaze.
I guess we'll see if it's any good on Friday.
So now, tonight, I have to get back on my handicraft track. Cutting out stuff is my LEAST favorite part of sewing, and I'm already a little blue today because today was my self-imposed weigh day and I have now officially gained 20 pounds, and with 2.5 months left to go, that just seems like a lot. :-( This is what I get for not keeping up with my exercise. :-/
5 comments:
I gained that much with each pregnancy at about the same mark you are ( maybe even sooner then you)... it's really ok seeing as you still look FAB. Thank you for posting again quickly so we wouldn't have to look and see the nasty spider if we scrolled to far on your last post.
Sorry about the fudge, I was thinking of making some this year but after your story, buying sounds much better. Good luck with the sewing... I too am procrastinating on cutting out my borders for a quilt, it really is the worst part.
Hope you week finished off better then it started!
OH and I never thanked you for the donation in memory of Brooklyn to March of Dimes... it was soo sweet, even though it took me a minute because I never really remembered your last name so after about 30 min the CFL went off in my head!
Everyone gains that kind of weight at the third trimester! Tracy's right, you look great. Sorry about the fudge...the same thing happened to me last year with caramels. I blamed it on the Southern humidity being so much worse than Nebraska...even though it was December...It still made me feel better. Maybe you could blame yours on elevation.
I had gained 20 pounds by the 3rd trimester too... don't worry, it falls off later. You could gain another 20 & still be a hot tamale!!
Sorry about your kitchen drama. At least you didn't destroy a dishwasher in the process.. (Lauran's famous peanut brittle from Christmas '06) hehe. I'm with you though... I've written off any and all recipes requiring a candy thermometer. ♥
Thanks, y'all. I appreciate all your kind words.
Tracy - Thanks for the compliment! And don't let my inadequacy with fudge discourage you! If I had used a bigger pot, it probably would have worked! (I like to think that, anyway. LOL) And it does make a nice sauce if it doesn't turn out. :-) And you're welcome on the donation; I am just sorry I couldn't have done something more personal for you, like bring you a meal or offer to watch Izzy or just give you a hug.
Cheyenne - Yeah...that's what it was. Elevation :-)
Lauran - Having had a weight problem before, it just FREAKS me out! I know it's "ok," I just don't want to get "ok" with it...and then have a hard time getting it off!
None of this, of course, stopped me from having a chicken filet biscuit from Bojangles for dinner. LOL
The cookies were so yummy!!
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