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Tag Archives: Chocolate cake

Birthday, Bagels and Chocolate Cake

29 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by A Star on the Forehead in Daily Life

≈ 95 Comments

Tags

another year, bolo brigadeiro, bolo prestigio, celebrating life, Chocolate cake, homemade bagels, It is my birthday, twin sister

My sister and I celebrated our birthdays today (March 28).  We turned 54 years old.  It is just so strange, so foreign to verbalize (write) that I am that age.  It doesn’t fit.  It doesn’t feel right.  Yet, that’s how old I am.   

No matter what age I am, I will always gratefully celebrate the gift of life.  The gift of another day.  We didn’t do anything special, we are choosing to observe the quarantine and stay inside.  Being alive, healthy and safe is special enough. 

We spent the day cooking, baking, watching movies.  We did some yoga poses and answered the several phone calls we got.  

For breakfast my sister made bagels from scratch.  She loves bagels and eats them every weekend.  We didn’t have any and didn’t want to go out to buy it.  So she got a recipe online.  It came out pretty tasty.

Homemade Bagels

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh

I haven’t baked a cake in a long time, but wanted to make one for our birthday.  I made a chocolate cake with two fillings.  One filling was a coconut cream and the other was a chocolate cream.  I covered it with chocolate ganache. 

Chocolate Cake

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh

It was a combination of 2 of my favorite Brazilian cakes:  Bolo prestigio (with coconut filling) and Bolo Brigadeiro (with chocolate filling).  The pictures don’t do justice.  It was absolutely to die for.  I wish you guys could taste it. It was not overly sweet.

Slice of heave, I mean chocolate cake

“Around us, life bursts with miracles–a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life’s daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.”― Thich Nhat Hahn

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HIP HIP HOORAY!!!

21 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by A Star on the Forehead in Daily Life

≈ 29 Comments

Tags

body, Brazil, Chocolate cake, doctors, fight, Pain, party, persevere

Nothing like pain to stop someone on their tracks!

The pain on my right hip has gotten so bad that I decided to take February off from most of my physical activities to see if my hip would get better (or good enough to be able to ski in February) on its own.  Since then I have been doing only Pilates, although skipping some exercises.  That worked somewhat well since I was able to goes skiing at the end of February.  By 3 pm everyday my hip would remind me that skiing was coming for an end for the day.  Still I had so much fun and was grateful for being able to ski at all.

I have always felt that my right hip was not really right, but it never bothered me enough to go to a doctor.  But I would joke, every now and then, that I would eventually have a hip replacement (and every time I said I would cringe and admonish myself, and I don’t want to give the Universe any ideas).  Everythign changed for the worst when I started volunteering. I enjoyed the manual labor and the cleaning and clearing out stuff so much I overdid.  Cleaning it is kind of cathartic to me, I feel better and lighter after it, even if the stuff I am getting rid of is not mine – lol

So this nagging hip and shoulder pain has been around since the end of last year.  I stop the volunteering and hoped that that would do the trick, but I guess the damage was already done.  Now that it started to interfere with my life I realized it was time to seek help.

I went to a neurologist at the Hospital for Joint Diseases.  This doctor was very well recommended… well the number one recommended doctor didn’t take my insurance, so he was the next best 🙂 After a consultation and x-rays, the doctor calls me and tells me that the x-rays shows nothing wrong with my hip.

I didn’t know if I should be happy or sad with that news. I know something is wrong, I feel it, and the pain is hard to ignore.  The doctor thinks it is perhaps a soft tissue problem and recommended I go to one of his colleagues, a Sports Medicine Orthopedic Surgeon.

I have not made an appointment yet. I am scheduled to go to Brazil next week (yippie!), so I decided to deal with that when I return.  I am also thinking about going to a chiropractor first before going this doctor.

Hopefully resting my hip as I have been will continue to help.

This has been and will continue to be a tremendous exercise in patient and perseverance.  Patience with my body and staying the course after a stumble.

I was so happy with my physical activities and that  its results on my body.  I guess with that came the feeling of  strength and invincibility which normally shows itself when I am feeling mighty good about myself.  When I feel invincible I tend to overdo it and disrespect nature and myself. Then, this very patient teacher called Life steps in, and once again, attempts to teach me to listen and respect my body.

Life also uses this opportunity to test my patience and ability to persevere. Am I going to fall apart now and revert to couch potato sugar eating junkie?  Or am I just going to weather this storm and continue slowly but surely towards my goal of a life of moderation, equal parts of fun and hard-work?

I want my chocolate cake and eat it too! I want to do all in moderation and not feel I am depriving myself of anything.  I want to exercise, but also watch tv and eat a chocolate chip cookie.  To me it is dangerous to veer off too much to one side versus the other.

And speaking of cake, as I am turning 47 next week, the age factor is also weighing heavily on me. Can I still do everything I want to do (tennis, skiing, and a lot more new things) or am I just showing up too late for this party?

I don’t know what my body will be able to accomplish until I try it.  I am going to put age and pain aside and work smart and steady.  I am not going down without a fight!! 🙂

Be good to your hip!

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Day 15: … and the chocolate cake of choice is

06 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by A Star on the Forehead in Dating, Food

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Chocolate cake, Dating, football, sugar

So here it is the cake of choice:

Bittersweet Chocolate Cake (Milk Chocolate Ganache)

It was delicious but it didn’t taste like I expected it would.  In a way it was kind of a let down.  Chocolate doesn’t taste the same to me anymore.

I feel chocolate doesn’t have a hold on me anymore.  I feel freed from an addiction!  Even though AL and I shared that small dessert, there was even some left.  Today I bought hot chocolate for a co-workers and chose coffee for myself.

I know that at another time of the month (pms) I will crave chocolate and indulge in it, but it feels great not to feel controlled by it anymore.  It feels great not to want it!

Don’t get me wrong, I battle sugar constantly, some days are easier than others, but I feel that conquering chocolate is progress and brings me closer to having a normal relationship with sugar.

***

So last night, we had a great meal at a local restaurant called Alvin and Friends http://www.alvinandfriendsrestaurant.com!  I had Caramelized Salmon with Roasted Potatoes, Asparagus, Pot Likker Butter Sauce.  AL had Braised Curried Lamb Shank with Black Eyed Pea Vegetable Salad, Lemon-Truffle Vinaigrette.  Both dishes were delicious!  But we both still vote the duck the best dish there – and I am not even a duck person!!

Followed by conversation, music and even some Sunday night football!

Life is amazing and it keeps getting better all the time!! 🙂

 

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ONE YEAR WITHOUT CHOCOLATE!!! -Day 14

04 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by A Star on the Forehead in Daily Life

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

challenges, Chocolate cake, goals, invincible, Rudy

Well, well, well,  the day that I thought would never come it is finally here!!  The day that I can start eating chocolate again!!  Truth is, today is a bit anticlimactic. I didn’t wake up thinking or even wanting chocolate.

Now that the day is here it feels I could go another year without – but I will not! 🙂

As I mentioned many times before I was searching for something specially scrumptious to eat today.  I didn’t really spend much time in that search, but I am happy to say that AL came through with flying colors and asked me on a date tonight to one of my favorite local restaurants. This restaurant has a famous chocolate cake that I am dying to try. I will take a picture and report on it tomorrow.

The feeling of being able to go one year without something that I love and had everyday make me feel very proud, powerful and somewhat invincible.

I am taking advantage of this feeling to come up with some news goals and put some plans in motion. Stay tuned for my new challenges!

Just watched the movie Rudy, and of course I cried! That kid had so much heart – it is such an inspiration!!

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