Peeps

Peeps - who doesn't love them?!

You know, those sugar-coated marshmallows that just melt in your mouth?

I could eat the whole box in 3 minutes.  

I try not to even buy them because I know I cannot say no to them.  And my waist is continually expanding from eating junk food.  I am working on my sugar addiction...

Right now it's Easter time, and so the store shelves are lined with such wonders, just begging to come home with me.  I try to avoid the junk food isles of the CVS like the plague. 

Last week my darling, caring husband went against my will and brought home some Peeps to me, thinking he was being kind.  Or maybe he was trying to be evil, I don't know.  It didn't matter, there were Peeps... 

You can't just eat one - I dare you!

I ate them all, of course.  I was in the middle of painting my nails and got the Peep sugar stuck to the wet nailpolish.  It didn't matter. Nom nom nom... 

There will be no more Peeps in this house!

The answer is NO

Nope.  It didn't happen.
I was hoping to lose weight over Thanksgiving week.  What WASSS I thinking???
And so it didn't happen.  But, however, on a good note, I didn't gain any weight over the week either.  Yeah!  My mass remained the same.

And, I even baked these little lovely cupcakes...

[Insert picture of chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream icing]

Alas, I cannot upload anymore pictures.  Google has cut me off again.  I have been resizing my photos so that they are way tiny (in KBs) for like a year now, but I still cannot even upload a tiny photo anymore.

So you'll just have to trust me on the cupcakes, they were awesome.  I normally don't like chocolate, I'm not a huge chocolate fan.  I know, I'm nuts.  But this time I made chocolate and loved it.

And I made the Thanksgiving dinner, and pumpkin pie, which was yummy.  And apple crisp, which was even yummier.

I've been attempting to keep my portion sizes down, so I'm still eating like crazy, just not eating too much.  And this week I'm attempting to lose 2 pounds.  Maybe 3.  I always say that.  Maybe this week it will happen.

...Or maybe not.  No biggie.  I've got to have my goals!

Now I'm going to see how to increase my capacity with Google, so that I can upload photos to this blog again.  I've been watching others struggle with this, and watching how they've all succeeded.  My turn, I guess, to make this hurdle. 

Is it possible to lose weight over Thanksgiving?

I recently returned from yet another trip.  I didn't think I ate terribly during the trip; however, the scale, my enemy, tells me I gained 2 pounds.  What's up with that?  I tell you, that ramen was worth it...

And now I'm facing Thanksgiving this week.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, in case I forget to say it later!

So, is it possible to actually lose weight this week?  Yes, I celebrate the traditional Thanksgiving, with turkey and stuffing and sweet potatoes and pies and the whole nine yards.  I love Thanksgiving.  What can I do?  I don't think it's possible to not gain weight this week.  So I'll just have to work harder next week to lose it, right?

But I'd like to attempt to lose 2 pounds this week.  I don't like to procrastinate.  I want to get started right now on this weight loss thing.  I have been working on losing about 15 pounds forever, for at least a year, maybe longer.  I lose maybe 5 or ten pounds, but then I gain it all back.  I go on crazy diets, remember my fruit and veggie diet?  And then I eventually quit the diet and eat too many desserts.  I love desserts.  I love to bake, I love to eat them.  It's my downfall.

I even am doing Insanity, a cardio weight loss program.  I love it!  I'm not losing weight, but I am getting in better shape, better condition, if I can stick to it.  But when I do Insanity, I need to eat more for energy, if I don't eat I get very tired.  When I first started Insanity I thought it's ok to eat anything, I'm working out like crazy.  But a month later I found that's not true, I still need to watch my diet.  I actually gained weight while doing Insanity.  So now I'm doing Insanity and attempting to eat healthy.  It's tough.

Those KitKats are always calling to me.  Did you know they have over 200 flavors of KitKats in Japan?  My goal is to try them all...  Orange/citrus is my favorite, with hotcakes coming in second. 

See?  There's my problem, I love sweets!  I was raised with Tastykakes (sorry Hostess, I don't love you, goodbye).    I love to bake cupcakes and other desserts, I love to try out new recipes.  And that means I need to eat the desserts, just to taste them, you see.

Do other people out there have this problem?  Should I just stop baking?  Baking makes me happy.  I've slowed down drastically with baking, but Christmas is just around the corner, I see it coming fast.  That means making Christmas cookies...  There's so many kinds, I need to make them all, to see how they turn out...  It cannot be avoided.

Is it possible to lose 2 pounds over Thanksgiving week?  I'll let you know.

Random Rambling from the Corner

This is just a short post, I don't have anything exciting to talk about, so I'll ramble about the going's on here at Razzberry Corner for just a minute.

The photos aren't the clearest shots, but I thought they are cute.  That's Shadow, Jack and Bob, from left to right.

The guinea hens have continued to use their new nest in my backyard, so I've been collecting guinea eggs every day.  We have 3 guinea hens. 

I candled all the eggs in the incubator yesterday.  They've been incubating a week now.  The guinea eggs don't look like there's anything in them.  They look just like the last batch of guinea eggs that didn't hatch, to be exact.  But all the chicken eggs looked like they had chicks in them.  I don't know what's going on with our guineas. 

Today I made some chocolate chip walnut cookies from the DoubleTree Hotel cookie recipe I found online.  They are to-die-for when they are warm.

Have a good week!

Wild Asparagus

Yesterday I walked to the asparagus patch to check on my wild asparagus.  The patch is a little walk away from the house and  sometimes I forget about it. 

My wild asparagus grows so very fast.  In about a week an asparagus stalk grows tall and goes to seed before I realize it.  The above picture shows asparagus that has already gone to seed.  The right picture shows asparagus that is ready for picking.  I cut it off at ground level.  New stalks grow from the roots.

Here's a little skinny asparagus!

Here's a really tall asparagus that has gone to seed already.

Lynn's Famous Fruit and Veggie Diet Part III

This blog post is part three of my fruit and veggie diet. 

Starting weight week 3 ~ 125 pounds

I continued to eat a fresh fruit or veggie approximately every hour as I started into week 3. This included apples, bananas, grapefruits, orange, tangerines, avocados, kiwis, celery, raw green peppers, green beans, broccoli, summer squash, strawberries, blueberries, and others.


Week Three Notes
1.  Monday I was dead tired during the day, even though I slept my normal amount of hours the last night.  Workouts ceased on Monday.

2. Man, did I crave protein.  I wanted meat, fish, beef, chicken, anything.  I ate 2 hard boiled eggs Monday at lunchtime. 

3.  Tuesday I was exhausted.  All I wanted to do was sleep.  I barely made it till 5pm, I just wanted to put my head down on my desk and pass out.  I really felt crappy, dizzy, light-headed, and really worn out.  No workout Tuesday.  I could barely walk, couldn't even consider running or working out.

4.  Tuesday I had a cupcake at 5pm because I felt I didn't have the strength to even drive home.  I had shrimp and veggies for dinner. 

5.  Diet ended on Tuesday.  I didn't like feeling so tired, and decided to eat healthy, but allow meat and carbs.  Maybe three weeks was too long for the fruit and veggie diet?  I had pizza for lunch on Wed and felt great, and went back to working out again.  Also I had 2 cupcakes on Wed.  Bad girl, but I couldn't help it!  There was this party at work, and I made the cupcakes...

6.  On Thursday my terrible sugar cravings were back!

7.  I ate mostly fruit and veggies for the rest of the week, but allowed other foods too.  I have maintained my weight at 125 pounds.  I still have 10 pounds to lose, but I am going to increase my workouts and eat healthy, but not only fruit and veggies, and see how it works out.

Final notes:
I consider the workout a success; I lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks and have kept the weight off so far.  I think 2 weeks is a good amount of time for the fruit and veggie diet.  I wish I would have stayed off sugar; I am going to work on my sugar addiction.

Ending weight ~ 125 pounds ~ Lost 10 pounds on fruit and veggie diet!

Lynn's Famous Fruit and Veggie Diet Part II

This blog post is a continuation from yesterdays where I documented the first week on my fruit and veggie diet.  I lost 5 pounds already!

Starting weight Week 2 ~ 130 pounds

On week two I continued my diet and exercise regime, and boy, did I feel great!  I had so much energy!  My craving for sugar was gone!  I continued to eat  a fresh fruit or veggie approximately every hour. This included apples, bananas, grapefruits, orange, tangerines, avocados, kiwis, celery, raw green peppers, green beans, broccoli, summer squash, strawberries, blueberries, and others.


Week Two Notes
1. I got used to never feeling full.   It was ok.

2.  No more sugar cravings!

3.  I learned what a pomelo was!  It's like a huge grapefruit!  I ate 2 pomelos this week.

4.  Once during this week I cheated and had a small portion of protein, such as chicken or fish or lean beef for dinner. Mostly fish. Still potatoes or bread.

5. I started eating 2 hard boiled eggs a day at lunchtime.

Week two weight loss was 5 pounds. Yeah!

Ending weight after 14 days on diet ~ 125 pounds.  10 pounds lost in 2 weeks!

Stay tuned for week three tomorrow!

Lynn's Famous Fruit and Veggie Diet Part I

This blog post is going to be a little bit different than most - it's going to be personal.  Tell me what you think about me bearing my soul to the public...

About 15 years ago I went on a fruit and veggie diet and lost 20 pounds, and I thought I'd try it again, and this time document it. 

Starting weight ~ 135 pounds

I'm 5 foot 2 inches and at the start of this diet was 135 lbs.  On a short frame like mine, 135 is uncomfortable.  I had eaten a lot of sweets over the winter and put on 10 lbs and my clothes were getting tight.  There was no way I was going to buy larger clothes for summer!  And worse yet, I was gaining on average a pound a day, and it didn't look like the weight gain was stopping anytime soon. 

I wanted to eat mainly fruit and vegetables, and cut out pasta and bread and my personal weakness, sugar.  I planned on dieting till I got to my goal weight of 115 lbs, however long it took.  I wanted my clothes to fit comfortably, and I wanted to tone my muscles for summer. 

One of my pet peeves is that I don't think people eat enough fruit and veggies.  There's too much junk food, fast food, available, and it's convenient, as we all are busy.  I think we'd all be healthier if we ate a whole lot more fresh fruit and veggies and less processed food.

I should mention that I consider myself active.  When I'm home alone I usually never sit down, unless I'm at the computer.  There's always chores to be done around the farm.  I also work out at the gym and at home, I like to work out. However, I have a desk job during the day, and am recovering from "golfer's elbow", which has slowed me town tremendously from what I used to be.   During this diet I exercised every day between 4 and 5pm. I would run or walk, do the stairclimber machine at the gym, or the elliptical. Also I worked out abdominals every morning at 5:00am for 15 minutes. 

This blog is to document my experience on my fruit and veggie diet.  I ate a fresh fruit or veggie approximately every hour.  This included apples, bananas, grapefruits, orange, tangerines, avocados, kiwis, celery, raw green peppers, green beans, broccoli, summer squash, strawberries, blueberries, and others.


Week One Notes
1.  About every hour I was eating something.  And I was starving all the time.  It was really hard to deal with never feeling full.  

2.  Man, did I crave sugar!  I couldn't handle no sugar!  In the beginning of the week, I allowed myself one small sugar treat, like a Tastycake cupcake, or a cookie in the afternoon.  Halfway through the week I changed that sugar treat to a piece of fruit, like an apple or a banana.

3.  After the afternoon workout I was starving and usually immediately ate an apple or pear or banana.

4.  About every other night I cheated and had a small portion of protein, such as chicken or fish or lean beef.  Mostly fish.  No potatoes, though. 

5.  I drink 3 diet sodas a day and plenty of water, and that's it.

Week one weight loss was 5 pounds.  Yeah!

Ending weight after 7 days ~ 130 pounds ~ lost 5 pounds!

This post is getting long, stay tuned for week 2 tomorrow.  I experienced a surprise during this diet that's worth reading.

Banana Cupcake Sunday

Angel Food Cake

To celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day today, I made an angel food cake!  I'm off work today, and I've been wanting to make an angel food cake since I got an angel food cake pan for Christmas!  I actually bought the pan for myself since I realized I didn't have one, and then I also realized I've never made an angel food cake before!  So today was the day!

I downloaded the following recipe from food network.  I really liked that it came with a video on the website that showed Alton Brown actually making the cake.  It looked easy!  I can do this!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/angel-food-cake-recipe/index.html

The craziest thing is that it takes a dozen egg whites!!!  The recipe calls for an entire dozen!  I actually used 15 egg whites because my eggs are small.  Luckily, I usually have 5 dozen or so eggs in my fridge at any given time.  I do love my hard-working chickens! 

The most important thing is to bring the egg whites to room temperature before baking begins!!  I've attempted to use cold egg whites before to make meringue - they don't get fluffy when they're cold, I guess.  My previous meringue was awful.  And the recipe called for fresh eggs.  My eggs were laid yesterday ~ guess that's fresh enough!

This time, my eggs whipped up higher than could fit in the mixing bowl!  Yeah!  My batter was fluffier than what was shown in the website video.   

For Christmas I also got a new mixer as my old one broke.  This was my first time using it.

My cake pan was pretty small - only 7 inches around. I thought it was cute because it was small. But then I wasn't sure for how long to bake the cake, as the pan was smaller than the one used in the recipe. I ended up baking my cakes for 23 minutes. I made 2 angel food cakes because they were so small. It's important to cool the cake upside down.

I used almond extract in my cakes. You can use any flavoring - the recipe called for orange extract, but said any flavor could be used. The cake turned out light and fluffy ~ just perfect. The cake itself didn't have much flavor, it was just light and airy and moist and good. I served the first one with warmed blueberries. The second one had mixed berries as a topping. Next time I'm going to use another extract other than almond and see how it tastes. There will definitely be a next time for this cake!

 

I loved this angel food cake - I give it 5 forks up!

Now you go give it a try and let me know how it turns out!

Santa's Choice!

The holiday baking has begun here at Razzberry Corner! 

I know it's the holidays when the cookies start appearing!

I want Santa to know that this is the place where the cookies are! 

Right here, Santa, your choice - whatever you want...

White chocolate macadamia nut cookies, double chocolate chip cookes, Rice Krispie Treats, Peppermint sugar cookies, lemon bon-bons with lemon icing

Gingersnaps up front

Lemon and Orange cupcakes with buttercreme icing

All ready to go for the reindeer and the elves!

Happy Holidays!

Orange Chiffon Cake with an Orange Glaze

Today's special is a orange chiffon cake with an orange glaze.  

Chiffon cakes are lighter and more fluffy than traditional cakes. 

This one is my very first chiffon cake.  Come on over for a piece!

Red Velvet and Cream Cheese Heaven

I don't even know where to begin in my first real blog post after a month of no internet.  So very much has happened.  I don't even remember where I left off....

So I started by looking at photos I had left in my camera that I didn't transfer over to the computer...

Ah ha!!! 

I remember now!

Those cupcakes.... Those beautiful, wonderful, delish cupcakes....

I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  I had never made red velvet nor never made cream cheese frosting.  I was hesitant, but did it for a friend.  I like my buttercream icing, why try something else?  And I'm not too keen on chocolate, either... isn't red velvet a relative of chocolate?

Ha, now I'll never ask that again.

Those cupcakes were my very favorite cupcakes ever.  I loved the cream cheese icing.  I put red sugar on top to decorate them. 

I just downloaded the recipe online.  Who knew there were such secrets like these recipes just lurking out on the internet, waiting to be downloaded and tried? 

Now I can't wait to try all sorts of other baking ideas!  My horizon has been expanded!

Cupcakes & Deer Tales

It's cupcake Thursday.  What better way to celebrate the almost weekend?

These ones are lemon with vanilla buttercream icing.

The whitetail deer does that have been hanging in my backyard are all having their babies.  The fawns are so adorable.  And so small.



These twins didn't belong to the doe right behind them - their mama was a little behind them in the further field.  There's an old barbed wire fence behind the doe pictured here and the other mother is behind that.

There's their mama on the left in the photo below.  There's the fence between the two female deer.

When the twins decided to return to their mama, one of them got all hyper and started bouncing around the adult deer like a goofball.  But she went to the wrong mama deer.  Her fellow twin happy followed her to the wrong mama.  The wrong mama deer didn't want to put up with the playful babies are started kicking out at them. 

The playful baby quickly realized her mama was on the other side of the old barbed wire fence, so to get away from the crazy kicking doe quickly, the baby jumped through the barbed wire fence!!

Not a good idea. 

Of course her back legs both got caught in the fence - her upper body made it through.  And then she was hanging in the fence, kicking like crazy.

Oh, no!

I quickly put down the camera, opened the back door, and ran to the back porch. 

Luckily I didn't have to intervene - the baby pulled free from the fence.  I hope it's not too hurt from the barbed wire.  The other baby walked around to the gate in the barbed wire fence and joined her mama like a civilized fawn.



Just another day in the life of a deer...

Sorry for the bad quality of the deer photos!

Happy almost weekend!

Happy 4th of July

We don't know how to take a break around here. 

A holiday from work means we have more time to work around the farm. Yeah!

This weekend we spent alot of time outside. 

Not at the beach, but in the fields.

 

Trees grow like weeds here - it's hard to keep them down. Many trees grow that really aren't that valuable trees, and they kill off more valuable trees. By pruning and cutting back trees we don't want to take over, we are able to make more room for growth of good trees.

Randy cut back trees and I mowed the fields with the riding mower.  I love to mow with the riding mower - it's relaxing to me.  And I get to listen to my iPod and have some "quiet time".  These photos were taken before I mowed.



  Recently 2 pregnant whitetail deer have been living in our backyard near the old barn.  They know it's a safe place, and have been waiting for their babies to be born.  There's plenty of grass and trees to to eat, and we don't disturb them there.

The other day last week I was baking carrot cake cupcakes for a co-worker, and I looked out the kitchen window and saw one of the deer had twin fawns with her!!!

One of the deer had her babies!  They were staying very close to their mama. They had long gangly legs and plenty of white spots all over them.   As I was appreciating them, before I got the camera, I heard a loud screaming noise. It sounded like a bird was being killed. I thought maybe that Bobby, the outside cat, caught a bird in the backyard. It was very close to the house. I looked out the window as close as I could to the house, but didn't see any cat or bird or anything.

Then suddenly, the oven timer went off. I rushed to get the cupcakes out of the oven and get them out of the muffin tins. I was really distracted by all the screaming outside, which was growing louder.  As soon as I could I rushed to the back door, threw it open, and started to run outside and around to the kitchen area where the noise was still coming from.

Then, to my absolute surprise, I looked down and saw a mama raccoon and one infant raccoon standing by my feet eating from the cat food bowl.  The baby coon was all head and feet.  It was beautiful.  I looked around and realized the screaming was coming from the edge of the woods where another infant raccoon couldn't climb over the fence and enter the backyard.  He was screaming because his mama and sister left him.  I stood there for a minute, just looking at the baby, realizing how amazing it was to see the deer and coon babies all in the same few minutes.  At that moment I loved where I live.

Then, suddenly, I remember how just the day before I chased a large red fox out of the backyard right near where the baby coon was stuck outside the fence.  An infant coon would be a great snack for that fox.  The coon was making such noise, I would have been surprised if any wild animals in the woods didn't come to investigate.  And it had been alone for a while now, for at least 10 minutes.  I worried for the little baby, and so I chased the mama coon off to her lost child.  She quickly scampered away and disappeared over the fence and into the woods, and she left her other baby with me on the back porch!!! 

The coon baby stood up on her hind legs, looked at me in terror, looked around to where mama used to be, and then she started screaming!  Her screams where just as loud as her brother's screams used to be.  Coons make such a unique noise.  I could have reached down and picked up the baby, she was so close.  I pointed to where mama coon went.  The baby coon looked, and timidly started off.  She got confused a few times, but finally heard her mama in the woods.  She climbed over the fence with a little trouble, falling on her butt a few times, but eventually made it, and disappeared into the woods.  That is the last time the mama coon brought her babies to my door.

Jack the cat made the most of the holiday.  He got lots of sleep.  Oh, wait, he always gets lots of sleep...
I love to see his pink toes and nose and ears in the photo below.  He's so cute I just want to hug him.  Jack loves hugs and snuggles - I've never known a cat who loved to be held like Jack.  And to think, he was once a wild stray.  Now he's spoiled.

Jack has the biggest smile that I've ever seen on a cat.

It wouldn't be a holiday without something from the oven, so I made blueberry muffins to celebrate. Yeah!

Happy 4th of July!!