butter sugar pineapple

When we were coming home from Kirsten's last week we stopped in the ‘Food Basics’ to see what good produce they had - our local grocery stores are very dear for anything healthy! Pineapples were $1.99 - an impossible price to pass up… so, with visions of pineapple upside-down cake in my brain we popped it onto our cart.

Cut to today - cake! Delicious cake! I think it's my favourite kind - the butter melts into the cake batter so that when it's flipped over there is a sugary buttery fruity layer on top of fluffy cake. So darn good! Now, the reality is, I need cake like I need a hole in the head! We still even have a few cookies left from the Christmas baking extravaganza and the bathroom scale is creeping up… with that in mind, I divided it into 4 chunks - 3 into freezer containers to have on hand for company, and the trimmings to nibble on. Surely the calories don't count if it's just nibbled from the pan. 😉 

A proper freezer inventory is overdue! I haven't been keeping it up to date so need to get Carm to help me go through everything while I update my records.

But enough worry about that! I did burn off some of that buttery sugar on the treadmill today and yesterday - only 30 minutes but better than nothing! I will credit Kirsten for keeping the motivation going! I did skip Saturday and Sunday… 

Saturday was Dad's birthday lunch - there was enough food prep and family fun to keep me busy for the whole day. It was great fun and luckily the food turned out okay. Kirsten brought some cheese & crackers to nibble on before. She and Stephanie also brought salads. Mom made some brussels sprouts and baby potatoes so when we put it all together we had an actual turkey dinner! The turkey was moist and flavourful (note to self: it's much less stressful on the day to have the turkey already cooked and carved! The stuffing balls were good, especially when drowned in gravy, another great make ahead stress reliever. Cardamom buns are always a hit. And the burnt sugar cake (cause who doesn't want a dessert with sugar in the name!) was a bit more moist than usual.

I mentioned in the last post that I'd maybe use different bread for the stuffing balls (I used 3 french loaves), but after having them with gravy I think the chewiness of the bread adds a nice dimension to the bites of carb. I thought I could make them smaller with regular bread, but now I'm not sure that I’d want them any smaller.

Sunday I crashed! Except for laundry (so many sheets and clothes), I did nothing! I didn't even cook supper 😱 

Yesterday I zoomed around getting the place somewhat presentable for Christina's visit in the afternoon. She came over to get the rundown on how to operate the house and pet stuff so she can stay here Friday night! Hopefully Lupa doesn't drive her crazy! Lupa's used to a lot of lap and cuddle time and Christina is used to outside farm dogs, not little lap dogs… I'm hoping Lupa will worm her way into Christina's affection ;-)

Saturday was a brilliant sunny day, as was yesterday. Sunday it snowed on and off all day, today was supposed to be sunny, but it's grey… later in the week it's meant to go above freezing with rain. What the actual heck! Winter has been a non-event in terms of snow and cold - let's hope it stays that way for my drive into the city on Thursday early am for Mom's follow up appointment… if you are one to pray, please cast a thought her way. Friday looks like rain showers, not ideal for driving to Montreal, especially as it's dropping to -18 overnight! 

I've been getting through my days step by step, moment by moment, keeping up the momentum while struggling with my pessimistic thoughts - I've got to remember to challenge the negative accusations! Instead of wallowing in misery, I have to get my brain turned around to focus on the positive, and give myself grace for carrying on… sometimes I can figure out how to do this, but lately it's been harder… BUT, today is a bit better than yesterday with no overwhelming feelings of dread - a trend in the right direction! It might be due to extra meds but I'll take it!

Awesome!

“pineapple upside-down cake - new stainless steel pan was perfect”

“cake still warm from the oven”

“family gatherings”

“a few sunny days”

“handing the keys to Christina - maybe a trip south is in the making”

“turkey dinner”

“a bunch of potatoes baked, scooped, and baked again - ready for cheese, bacon, and sourcream”