The Unsuccessful Holiday Dieter!

Hi Yall!  I'm so lame!  :)  Well... I'm just back from a wonderful week in Woodinville/Bothell spent at work and with family and friends.  It was fantastic and fattening!  Now I have to report my poor behavior.  It all started with the Roca I made to give away for Christmas.  I ate so much of it that it made me ill.  Not nearly as ill as my mother though one year.  (Let's see if I can switch the focus from me for just a minute...)  I have made this recipe for years!  One of my nice little clients gave me her secret recipe back in the 80s.  I worked at John Patrick's hair salon at the time and she was always one of my favorites.  Her name is Janette.  This is a tribute to your Roca recipe Jeanette :)  Where ever you are.  I made it every year around Christmas time.  This particular year I may have made it for my dad's birthday.  In any case it was a gift for him and it was packed in a quart Mason jar.  My mom happens to love Roca too. She tried many times throughout the day to get him to crack open the jar but he just wouldn't.  Finally he went to bed and she was unable to resist any longer so she opened the jar and ate just one piece.  Of course that was one piece at a time until there was only one piece left in the jar.  She went to bed and was tortured by the thought of the one lonely piece left in the jar until she got up and ate it too.  You can just imagine the confrontation in the morning when Dad finally decided he wanted a piece of his Roca.  :)  Somehow it was all his fault since he wouldn't eat a piece yesterday when she offered it to him.  Amazingly I completely understand that logic.  She was rewarded by being so sick she felt steam coming out of her ears.  I also know that feeling.  Oh woe is me!   The picture above is the Roca packed up and ready to get out of my house!  Good riddance!

I did make one good choice last week.  On Friday evening I wanted to order a French Dip sandwich but instead I ordered chicken lettuce wraps.  Brenda's French Dip looked oh so much tastier.  :)  Other than that it was pretty much a free for all.  There were so many yummy things to eat!  And I did.  Bummer!  :)  I'll go ahead and just admit that I gained a few pounds back.  Again!  This morning the fatomer read 155.2 and glucose 121.  I thought it would be worse.  I forgot my glucose monitor last week.  How convenient!  Now I must be good and shrink again - or I'll look like all the rest of the middle age ladies in January on the cruise ship in my swim suit pretending to be thinner - and not convincing anyone!  :)  My friend Donna gave me a great tip.  Always take the stairs!

We did enjoy being with our west side family on Saturday evening.  Dave's brother and sisters and many of their kids were there.  We were only missing Aaron, Sue's son who is in the AF stationed in North Carolina.  All of our kids were there too except for my Katie and her little family, also in the AF stationed in southern CA.  We miss our little soldiers!  I did get to enjoy watching my oldest granddaughter Aubrey opening presents.  She had more presents that anyone.  :)

Now that I am back home I have to begin working on cleaning out our freezers.  A project I call... out with the old, in with the moo.  :)  We are welcoming our cow Panda back.  She will have a fabulous new look.  I'm horrible!  I really do hate the butchering aspect of the cows!  Anyway.... I am a bit of a food pack rat.  When I cut up veggies I save the end pieces and add them to a plastic freezer bag.  Same with beef bones or shrimp shells - anything that would make good soup stock.  Today I excavated those out of the freezer and made some "Souper Stock".  Unfortunately it is now taking up more room in the freezer than the bits and pieces that came out - but oh what wonderful soup I will have.  I always make seafood chowder for Christmas Eve. The shrimp shells and veggie stock will be perfect for that.  Here's what it looks like boiling away...

You can see the red and yellow onion ends and bits of carrot and shrimp shells.  Not pretty but if you happen to stop by on Christmas Eve you would be sold on scavenging your bits and pieces.  Good quality stock is expensive!  This made 5 quarts.  I also excavated some chili from the freezer and heated it up for dinner.  Very tasty!   Unfortunately I barely made a dent.  I haven't even thought about the freezer in the barn yet.  Well... I guess I'm off to scope that out next.  Who's hungry?  We may need some help!  Now that I think of it... I believe Adam may be coming over for Christmas.  Problem solved.  He'll eat anything!  :)  And lots of it!

I'll really have to work really hard to correct my lame behavior now or I will have to rename my blog as my dad commented and call it - The Unsuccessful Dieter.  I'm not giving in though!  Pa has irritated me just enough to make me want to fly right!  :)  He's very good at that!  Thanks Pa!

Ciao!