Sunday, January 6, 2013

I see I stumbled when typing the year on yesterday's post.  I am on the net early to find a bread recipe to try.  At Erin's yesterday, I saw a whole bookcase floor to ceiling full of books, and mostly cook books.  I should have picked out a good bread book.  If she was not watching, no way she could have noticed one book missing from all those cookbooks.  Erin said she used the recipes in the books. Sister and I said we did not much use recipes, or at least not as exact blueprints.  I think of recipes as suggestions, not orders.  Erin said that and sometimes your non-recipe cooking does not turn out just right.  I think probably sometimes recipe followers cooking does not turn our just right either.  Anyway, when I cook something that does not taste quite like I want, I call it diet food.  Diet food is any food that does not taste very good and does not tempt one to take an extra large portion.

Anyway, I want a honey oat whole wheat loaf to make.  I only have two cookbooks now, a 1989 Better Homes and Gardens and a 1963 McCalls.  There are lots of suggestions, but only one whole wheat bread in each one. The McCalls even has a section of several pages for cooked breakfast cereal.  Then the book that came with the mixer has a whole wheat bread recipe that calls for all whole wheat flour.  Usually whole wheat bread recipes call for mostly white flour with about 1/3 whole wheat flour.  If I don't find a recipe on the net, I will build my own from the suggestions on hand.  The real problem with build your own recipes, is that I never write anything down, not even ingredients or measurements.  Actually, I rarely actually measure anything.  But, no measurements and no list of ingredients makes it hard to do a repeat and get the same results.

Donna asked about the losing weight thing, since Patsy says I am the only sibling that does not 'run to fat'.  As in why do I need to lose weight.  Well, it all has to do with relatives, as in all things are relative.  So, here is a relative story.  When I was at the relatives house yesterday, there was a little girl there that came up from Russellville with her grandmother plus a little boy and a little girl that lives at the relatives house.  The little girl live in was quite, shy and wanted to sit on Mama or Daddy's lap most of the time, but she was quite well behaved.  The little live in boy was shy, but not quite.  A mother of the visiting little girl sent a message asking if the girl was well behaved.  We all looked at each other and more than one said, 'relatively speaking, visitor is very well behaved'.  In her home environment, it seems, visitor is often, 'relatively speaking, not so well behaved'.  It all depends on the relatives present, when speaking of behavior.

Relatively speaking, I weigh less than any of my siblings, and have for most of our adult lives, and much of our non-adult lives.  Just the same, I think I need to lose weight and need to develop healthier eating habits in my old age.  To that end, the new customized digital scale is really helping.  When I first stepped on it this morning, for the first time in a couple of years, I weighed less than 150 lbs.  But, in my foolishness, I did not follow my recipe and call that good.  A few minutes later, when I stepped on the customizer, it read as below.  Still, that is almost 2 lbs less than the work scale that I was using said last Thursday.  The work scale is the upright thingy that uses actual weights to judge you.  Maybe in a month or so I can start with the 100 lbs weight instead of 150 lbs.  In the mean time, this customizer  is good, if I stay off the scale at work.