Over complication

Tonight I am attending a birthday dinner for a friend if mine. I was asked to bring dessert. 

No big deal, I bake all the time, I totally got this! That what I thought  until I started obsessing over what to make! First I thought I'll bake my famous carrot cake. Then I thought oh! I know I'll make the Texas Sheet Cake I've been wanting to try. Then, I realized the sheet cake was a little too rustic and it's huge! I wanted to do something pretty, since it is a birthday cake. 

So I scratched the sheet cake idea and went back to carrot cake. Sunday night I started thinking I really don't want to make a carrot cake. I don't feel like going through the hassle of icing and decorating the cake. Plus worrying about making sure that the cake doesn't get messed up in transport to the party.

So I had the brilliant idea of making a bundt cake. It's pretty, easy to make and transport in the car, and it requires very little icing or decoration. Problem solved, bundt cake  it is!

All I needed now was a recipe. Which should be no problem considering I have dozens of cookbooks, most of which are dedicated to baking.

This is where the crazy set in! I knew I wanted to make a bundt cake. Not just any old bundt cake would do. It had to be in my opinion the very best bundt cake in the history of bundt cakes. It had to be moist and rich, and packed with great lemony or citrus flavor.

As I went through recipe after recipe I got frustrated none of them seem to have that wow factor I was looking for. I was about to go down the rabbit hole of google searching recipes, when Amanda called.

I explained to her that I spent the better part of an hour looking for the perfect cake recipe. Then I realized how nuts I sounded! I picked the bundt cake because I wanted something easy. I didn't want to be stressed out over baking a cake.

But, here I was stressing myself out anyway. So I went back to the first cookbook I opened and found a simple easy lemon bundt cake and told myself I'll make this recipe end of story. Done.

I was wrong, not done. My mother called and I told her i was going to make the lemon cake. She suggested I bake a 7up cake. That sent me on a whole new hunt for the perfect 7up cake. So by 8:00 pm last night I finally! Finally! Found the recipe I wanted. Made myself put down the iPad and stop the madness.

I am happy to report that the cake is in the oven baking as I type. The moral of story here even when I am trying to make  something easy or simple. I always find a way to over complicate it. Over think it,  and analyze it to death! If I go this crazy over a simple bundt cake, you can only imagine how crazy I can become over other decisions I have to make day to day.

I am taking this whole cake situation as a lesson, in not making things harder on myself then they should be. Simple is good and there is such a thing as having access to too much information!

Still going strong

It's the beginning of week three of the TV diet and I am still going strong. The urge to turn on the TV first thing in the morning is less and less. The hardest times for me to resist watching TV are the afternoons between 3:30 - 5:00 pm I called this the "witching hour" this is the time of day where the temptation to turn on the tube is at its highest! I think this is because my day is winding down by this point. I've usually gone to the gym, and done other errands or chores and just want to relax. I've been able to resist the temptation thus far!

Enough about the diet. I have been working on other things besides my TV viewing habits. For instance I went to a book signing to meet one of my favorite authors last week Jennifer Lancaster. She is most known for her funny memoirs about her life. Her latest book is called the Tao of Martha, where Jen spends an entire year living by Martha Stewart's dictates in an effort to create happiness in her own life.

As someone who loves Ina Garten and who used to watch Martha Stewart every morning before class in college this book was right up my alley! I subscribe to Living magazine and have at least three Martha Stewart cookbooks. I also own all but one Ina Garten cookbook. So I found it fascinating to read about someone who spend a year trying to live like Martha Stewart does.

Oh in the past couple of weeks I've managed to become obsessed with Texas Sheet Cake. I first read about it on the Pioneer woman's blog, then Jennifer Lancaster posted about baking one on facebook. Then while talking to a friend she told me she was having one for her fathers day BBQ. I was raised by Texans and never in my life heard about Texas Sheet cake until now. I think its a sign from the universe that I must bake this cake because I've heard about it at least three times in one month.

I've of course been researching the best recipes for this cake and my friend sent me hers. So I have a feeling Texas sheet will be in my very near future. Along with some other baking bucket list projects I have in the queue. I am really excited about this summer I have a feeling its going to be a good one. Since I've turned off the TV I'll have more time to get out there and enjoy it!

It just got real!

It's 4:34 in the afternoon and I am sitting in my living room listening to Joni Mitchell counting the minutes until I can turn on the TV!

Today has been a particularly hard day on the TV diet. I woke up this morning to a cloudy gray day. Which to me equals cozy TV weather! I managed to fight the urge to stay in bed and watch morning daytime TV. Instead I got up got dressed and headed to the gym then a quick stop at the post office. By the time I got home I was feeling better, more energized and my need to turn on the tube had subsided.

Not watching tv has given me more time to work on my relationships. Today for example I had great conversations with not one but two of my roommates from college. My conversation with one them did consist of our thoughts on the new seasons of RHOOC and RHONJ and other Bravo programing we watch. The conversation wasn't all housewives and reality television. We did manage to have a very amusing conversation about breastfeeding, it was amusing because neither of us have ever breastfed anyone nor do we have any children. It was really great to catch up and to have a good laugh with a dear friend. I would say that conversation was the highlight of my day.

So by noon I was feeling pretty good, and my TV withdraw ls were not nearly as bad as they were when I got out of bed. Next up I had an appointment to get my hair done which would take a up a nice chunk of my afternoon. On my drive home I could hear the siren call of the television. It was like my DVR was calling out to me. Kimberly... Dance Moms is waiting for you... you still have two episodes of the view to watch... Seriously all I wanted to do was come home put on my sweats and zone out to the TV.

I started to play the who cares if you turn it on a couple of hours early, you made it most of the day its okay, rationalization game. I was so close to saying screw this, I am watching TV. Then I thought you have less than 2 hours before you can turn on the TV. Surely you can amuse yourself for two hours? Look around, there are dishes that need to be washed, clothes to iron and laundry to put away. If I turn on the TV now, I know I will start the slow decline of turning it on earlier and earlier everyday.

I worked on the laundry, folding, putting it away and ironing. Thinking, that this will surely take up the last hour before I can turn on the television, I was wrong. Surprisingly I am pretty fast at getting chores done and ironing takes half the time when I am not distracted by the television. So here I am the in home  the stretch of the hardest day yet of my diet and I think I am going to make it.

I am actually pretty proud of myself of not giving into to temptation and allowing myself to be comfortable being uncomfortable.  I also noticed having too much time with ones thoughts isn't always a good thing. That's a different post for a different day.

Until next time...

Gained and lost

I am one week into my TV diet. In some ways it has been a lot easier than I thought it would be and in others it has been a lot harder than I thought it would be.

In this past week I noticed that I really use TV as my company during the day. It's the background noise to my day. I also use TV as a way to get out of doing things I really don't feel like doing. like running errands, answering e-mails returning calls, going to the gym etc... TV was my ultimate procrastination tool.

The big revelation is that I use TV to cope with my emotions. In the same way that a drug addict or alcoholic uses drugs or booze to cover up feelings I use television to escape mine. One day last week I was really frustrated and annoyed, all I wanted to do was turn on the television and think about something else, I wanted the TV to distract me from my frustration. Instead I had to just deal. I had feel frustrated and I had to work through it on my own. I couldn't just bury the feelings under a marathon of True Life on MTV I had to work through them and find solutions to my problems which in the long run turned out to be a great thing.

With any Diet its all about the results right?! What you've gained and what you've lost. So here are my results for week one.

Gained:

• Increased productivity, I am getting A LOT more done now that the television is off.
• Cleaner home, cutting back on the TV leaves more time for keeping up with chores
• Procrastinating a lot less
• Actually dealing with my emotions instead of hiding from them

Lost:

• The guilt of not getting the things I want to get done, during the day because of watching too much television.

This is the one diet where gaining more than I've lost is a really good thing. I am sure as the days/weeks go on there will be more insights and in the process I will learn more about myself. These results aren't i bad for one week. I am happy to say that I have gained a lot more than I've lost! I am excited to gain even more.

New Diet

Summer is upon us, and I've decided to start a new diet. It's not what you think, this diet isn't meant to get me bikini ready or help me fit in my skinny jeans. However, I am hoping this diet will help improve the quality of my life and make me a more productive and healthy individual.

What is this new diet I am on? It's a TV diet, instead of cutting calories I am cutting hours of TV watching. I've noticed in the past year that my TV viewing has increased greatly. Especially since I've started my business and work from home. Even before I started working from home I was a self confessed TV addict but working from home made me a full on Junky!

So yesterday I started my TV diet. Which means, I do not turn on the television until 5pm and it goes off at 10pm.  I realize for most people five hours of television a day is a lot of TV or more than enough TV viewing time. Like I said I am a TV junky. My day starts and ends with the television on. The first thing I would do in the morning is turn on Good Morning America and the TV stays on unless I leave the house. Then when Cory gets home we watch TV together until time to go to bed.

As summer begins I wanted it to be a more productive summer. I wanted to tackle projects I've been putting off. I wanted to expand my mind and learn more. I want to work on growing my business and putting my ideas out into the world. I realized that if I gave my life as much time as I gave watching other peoples lives on TV I could accomplish many of those things. 

Yesterday was Day 1, and like any diet I was excited, I was motivated I was all in, baby. I got a lot more done than normal and I felt good as I went to bed last night feeling positive about this new lifestyle I was undertaking. I did realize how much I use television as my escape and my companionship during the day. So it will be interesting to see how I fill my time this summer with out my bff the TV.

Today is Day 2, I am still excited but like any junky I am having withdrawals. It was hard for me this morning not to get up and start watching my recorded shows from last night. The house is quiet, and now that I  am not distracted by the television I see all the stuff around the house that has been dying for my attention. I think my first order of business this week is get my house in order. Then next week work on more mind expanding projects, like writing more, reading more creating more. 

Hey, watching less television will make me a more active person so this diet might just get me in my skinny jeans after all.  

Amazing Grace

I was raised in a very religious home. My grandparents faithfully go to church three times a week. We pray before every meal no matter how significant or insignifcant. As I got older and moved into my own home I have gotten away from saying grace. Its not apart of my eating ritual anymore.
Lately I got to thinking about what saying grace really means. I think its goes far beyond religion. I think it goes to the core of gratitude and having a grateful spirit. I started to realize saying grace is more than just ritual before dinner, mummbling a few words before you eat. Its really about taking a few seconds to acknolwdege the meal your about to eat. To give thanks for the food on your plate and the people who provided it.
I think its vitual to apprecaiting your meal to say grace. I don't think its about religion, even if you are a non-believer you should take a few seconds to be grateful that you have food. Say thank you to the person who prepared it and to acknowldege all that went into having this meal on your plate. We live in a world where a lot of people have no idea when their next meal will be. It so easy to take our meals for granted.  I think this little act of thanks everyday is a good way to remind ourselves how good our lives are. Because even if you have a bad day the simple act of being able to eat a meal that will sustain you to get up tomorrow and face a new day is something to be thankful for.

Baking with Buddies

I love baking, I find it very relaxing and theraputic during stressful times. When I bake I feel like the world makes sense. Because if I follow a set of instructions I will get a wonderful dessert at the end. Too bad life can't be that straight forward and simple.
Lately I've been baking less at home alone, and started setting baking saturdays with my friends who also enjoy baking. Its so much fun to get in the kitchen with a friend, turn up the music, pour a cocktail and make some cupcakes.

These beauties were baked with my friend Sara right before Valentines Day. They are chocolate cake, with swiss buttercream frosting and mini chocolate chips. Sara found the mini chocolate chips that were the perfect finishing touch for these cupcakes. Funny story about these cupcakes. They were in the oven before we realized we forgot to add sugar to the batter. I blame the cocktails for this oversight. Not to worry we figured out our mistake in time, saved the batter and the cupcakes were perfect! These were perfect Valentines Day treats. Cory took them to work and they were gone before 10 am!

Don't let the simplicity of this cupcake fool you. I baked these chocolate cupcakes with salted carmel buttercream frosting with my friend Katrina, who is my baking mentor! Anytime Katrina and I are in the kitchen you can guarantee there will be a lot of laughter. Katrina is a professonial baker, so when I bake with her I always learn a new trick or technique. Katrina even taught me how to pipe cupcake frosting like a pro!
This chocolate cake is instense, but combine that with a salted carmel buttercream and it is pure decadence! I think is perfect for a cupcake because its the perfect portion size for this rich cupcake. I had to get these out of my house fast. Because I was developing a nightly cupcake habit.

Baking with my buddies has become my new favorite way to spend time with my friends and catch up. I  always learn something new have a good time and go home with great treats!