Update

Hi everyone. So there are a few things to update you on. I have made some fantastic things and slipped on a few others.

Last Friday, I signed up for the 90 Day Challenge at my gym. I started on Saturday and already I have not been on the ball. I'll get on the ball tomorrow morning. But I have bought Jillian Michaels' Yoga Meltdown, and I am here to tell you that she is amazing. It's only thirty minutes, but it's a very hard core workout. I only do the beginner right now, and it's a challenge. My shoulders are sore, but I know I need to up the ante on it. I have to lose this weight. While I am still below the weight of when I stopped the class, I have gained a couple from my lowest point.

Anyway, I'll get back on my track and make this happen.

But I will take a moment to go over the wonderful treats I have made the last couple of weeks.

First thing, I had a wonderful class on canning. It was quite a relief to know I've been doing it right. We made a strawberry jam, peach jelly, and we pickled green beans. I have finally learned the difference between jam, jelly, preserves and marmalade. So, a jam is where there are physical chunks in the jar. You will see bits of fruit.

A jam is where you get the fruit and squeeze the juice from the pulp of the fruit through a cheese cloth. We made a peach jelly. No, I have not tried either of these yet, but they smelled amazing.

Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the pickled green beans, but after the Pepper Festival, I had a ton of sweet peppers, so I pickled those. I did that just this last weekend and used a recipe from David Lebovitz.

It was fairly easy save the peeling of the peppers. That took forever.

It was worth it though because I made some really amazing pickled peppers. I must say, again, I have not tried them, but they smelled amazing. And once I got the vinegar smell out of my apartment, I started on Red Velvet Cupcakes.

I made some very traditional red velvet cupcake, but a) I forgot baking soda and b) I've never been a fan. I thought that Red Velvet was like I don't know what. I'm tempted to compare it to something in Hollywood. Where something is glittery and fancy, but it's actually quite plain. It's just a red cake. It's very simple.

So what I did to dress this up was added pumpkin spices. I added nutmeg, cloves, and ginger to the recipe with a couple of hits of cinnamon. Then instead of the cream cheese frosting, I put a good 1/4 cup of chocolate powder. So while this picture is not them (they are the traditional version), they were both delicious, but I am partial to my souped-up version.

I took both of them to the office. The girls loved them. I plan on making some ice cream soon before my cream goes bad. But until then, I have to go to bed so I can get back to the gym. Tomorrow is FIT. I have to go. I will lose this weight.

The last thing I made was a Peach Salsa. I had to throw that list bit in. :)