Yesterday was one of those days that was just chock full from beginning to end. I have a lot of holiday projects that are kicking into full gear and I had to get started on those. Then I had all kinds of food stuff I had to do. Chili was on the menu for dinner last night and leftovers for tonight so that means I had to hydrate the beans which heated up the joint. My mom asked me like 3 weeks ago to do cake balls for her and I'm gonna tell her that's the last batch I'm doing for someone else. I did a cake ball class for her and my aunt this time last year so I
wouldn't have to make them for either of them ever again and yet I said yes by reflex when she caught me off guard. Grr...why do I do that knowing it was going to be a busy time!? The Mr is dropping them off to her tomorrow and they'll come with a note..."enjoy...I'm never making them again." :-) She said on the phone she didn't want to "mess with them." Well, guess what, neither do I. Every time I make those stupid ass things, I am quickly reminded why the frustration, irritation and more importantly time I didn't have isn't worth it. Don't get me wrong, I
love my mama and will do stuff for her but cake balls just aren't gonna be on that list. (Especially when she knows how to do them!) In my transitioning to middle age, my already short patience fuse is fraying at an alarming rate.
Plus I know I took in calories I wasn't planning on with the occasional finger lick. Okay that and we may have had 2 cake balls for our night time snack since they wouldn't fit in the tin. It was a shame, really. We would've had one anyway just for quality control. I won't have my name being bandied about as the creator if they taste like candy coated poo. Do taste test calories count?
Don't answer that.
I already know.
But in the end, while they're good, they're only worth all the bullcrap if you're going to be making them for something for you not for a bunch of other people you don't even know. I'm not in catering for a reason. I'm about to rant...let's move on.
We did Turbo Fire last night and I burned just over 1000 calories so that felt good. I feel like we're pretty much back to pre-vacation workout stamina but tonight will be the real test when we do kettlebells. Thankfully it usually goes by pretty quick even though it's a butt kicker. I know the 20 pounders will be challenging but I'm going to try to push through with them and listen to my body.
Do you agree to doing/making something even though your plate is already full and later regret it when the time rolls around?
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Mmmm Cakeballs.... What were we talking about? Oh yeah. Definitely only worth it if it's for something really special to us. No sense making them if we don't even get to be there when everyone enjoys them so you can bask in all the credit!
ReplyDeleteI know, they're good but they're 130-150 calories per ball with a ratio of 2 hours of frustrating, wall punching assembly. Which makes them not worth it all the way around. Hope you enjoyed them because the only way you're having them again is if we buy them.
DeleteMaybe you are the best cakeball maker in all the land and your Mom knows this, hence why she asks. ;)
ReplyDeleteNo, she just said she didn't want to mess with them and I'm a sucker. No more...I just do not have the patience for those stupid things...especially on an Aunt Flo week. I made up new curse words and overslept this morning which I NEVER do. I now respect why bakeries charge $1.50 per pop for them.
DeleteI love the picture you put up, I feel like that some days.
ReplyDeleteI don't intentionally take on too much (I don't think anyone does it on purpose), but it seems like somehow everything comes down to the wire at the same time. I don't blame you for not wanting to make them. You posted the recipes and a tutorial last year and although they looked yummy, I wasn't even tempted a little bit to try them just because of the work and frustration involved. I hope that now that the cake balls are out of the way you have a less frustrating rest of the week.
I know, I found that pic after the search for "twitching heap" revealed no matches.
DeleteYeah I think sane people don't intentionally do it but sadly I knew this was going to be an insane week when I agreed. If you remember, my first cake pop attempt, while very cute, also resulted in one getting flattened with my fist it utter frustration. I will leave that kind of thing up to food bloggers. I will only do them again if the Mr begs me, does dishes for a month no matter what day it is, watches Steel Magnolias and Clue in the same day without falling asleep or getting on the computer and some other intolerant demand to be named at a later date. On to a less "twitchy" week!
Arghh,...dont get me started on "oh can u make them I dont know how"...well we learnt too..not like we were born with the recipes programmed in our head....bleh bleh bleh!!!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's like I know I like to bake and stuff and doing up something less labor intensive like cupcakes or slapping some frosting on a cake would've been better. She kind of gave me an out when I told her earlier how busy I was that week but I'm not the type of person who tells someone they're going to do something and then back out. I wish it were in my DNA but it's not.
DeleteBoy, do I ever relate to that! Not the cooking, that's not my thing. But in the last two weeks, while I was supposed to be turning out a 25,000 word novella, I have agreed to beta read two or three other people's work, agreed to list the errors in one of them (not edit! he has to find where they were made), agreed to crochet Minion hats for my granddaughter and her mom and now for the daughter of my friend's husband's step-brother. Oh, brother! Oh, and a shawl for my friend. As a result, the cross-stitch gift I started for my twin daughters three years ago is less than half-finished and so is my novella. Hey, I'd better get to work. Thanks for the rant!
ReplyDeleteUgh, that makes me tired just reading all of that. I think I'd only take on reading one person's other project at a time because that's a lot of extra eye strain! Now...get to work! HA!
DeleteAll the time! I can't count the number of times I have made mints for weddings, graduations, showers. NEVER AGAIN! I Swear!!!
ReplyDeleteOooh, you mean those cream cheese mints they use to do when I was a kid?? I wanted those for my wedding and never got them even though I had the mold and everything. I DEFINITELY want them for our 25th wedding anniversary, you available? HA!
DeleteYep! Work is insanely stressful and I'm desperately trying to move two projects through the contract stage and into construction winter sets in. And somehow I have found myself baking and decorating cookies, cupcakes, and mini cheesecakes every evening for the last four days in preparation for a charity bake sale. I love to bake but I'm not loving this.
ReplyDeleteI did have to have a quality check cupcake last evening and I'm glad that I did. I knew they didn't look quite right, and when I bit into one it confirmed that something was wrong. They didn't rise as well as they should have and were doughy in the centre. Okay for me to serve to family but not good enough to sell to the general public (aka co-workers). I'll call them a factory second. Glad I tested them before frosting them. That quick test saved me from frosting another 23 cupcakes. And my stress level went down just that little bit. I wonder if I sabotaged myself?
If something doesn't look right, especially for a public bake sale, you've gotta taste it. But yeah, that's a LOT of work for one person. I hope others are contributing as well!
DeleteCakeballs are a pain in the ass to make! UGH I have often agreed to do things I don't want to do, to be nice. I've gotten better about it, but I still do it sometimes out of guilt. I volunteer a lot at my kids school, and I love doing it, but sometimes it irks me that it's always the same parents volunteering and spending money to send things in for the class. We aren't rolling in dough, and we manage to do it, so it irritates me that the kids would go without if us same few parents didn't always go in. They do a bike ride in gym class for a few times each year, and they can't do it unless they have at least 1 person come in. Someone needs to check the helmets and help them adjust their seats, and supervise while the teacher rides with them. She said some weeks the kids don't get to go out and they are heartbroken. I made sure we came for my son's class, and my husband came even after working all night long. Anyway, like I said, I don't mind helping, in fact, it makes me feel great. What I hate is people who constantly expect things out of you, but never give back.
ReplyDeletePreach it girl. They are good but man, I just go straight into the crapper doing the second half of the batch because they balls start to warm up a bit and slide on the toothpicks, drop in the coating, slide down the toothpick when you're trying to let them dry. IRRITATING.
DeleteSchool stuff is just like the workplace...some people pull their weight and then some to make up for the slackers who benefit (or in this case, their kids.) It's not fair and unfortunately, unlikely to change. :-(
I do a lot of baking, but I like it to be on my terms (I've never made cake balls). I don't mind volunteering for something, but I do dislike being asked and put on the spot. I will say no. I have a hard time ever asking for anything either ...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I do too but when I'm face to face, it's hard to say no especially when I'm talking about in the future. I made it pretty clear I'm not doing them again because they're such a pain in the butt and gave her some alternatives to dipping them which she can't do because of knee pain. But the coating I used was microwaveable so I need to remember to tell her that.
DeleteUh no, calories never count when you're tasting something to make sure it's good. Anyone who says different is a liar!
ReplyDeleteWell you're a cookbook author so that's about as official as it gets! :)
DeleteI used to commit to all kinds of things that I had no interest in doing and/or time crunched. But a few years ago when I started in a recovery meeting, I learned a whole host of things about myself and realized just how unhealthy that was for me (codependent extraordinaire was I). It's taken time, but I've gotten so much better about saying yes when I mean yes, and no when I mean no. I keep that saying in my head, "Say what you mean; mean what you say." And I can honestly tell you that it has made a world of difference in how I feel about myself (putting myself first) and about my relationships, because I'm not harboring unspoken resentments anymore. And the constant inner anxiety is dissipating more and more.
ReplyDelete