#1Ranchmama: I've Been Busy This Year !

    Sometimes it seems like I just don't get much done that really needs to be done around the house. Cleaning and projects and organizing in general. But between the both of us fighting aging health issues and life it has not be UN busy! Since January I have been fighting kidney stones and blood pressure issue. Most of all my health issues have be made / caused by medications I "thought" I could handle compared to others I have used but it turns out although the immediate side effects were not obvious the long term issues raised their ugly head. I have since dropped a lot of the meds like Blood pressure, antidepressant and some asthma meds and started using what "I" thought would be better. I found that a tiny bit of ativan does wonders for controlling blood pressure and even asthma meds are needed less! I use homeopathy meds and chonca piadra for the kidney stones that I think I have cleared out now but not sure. Problem is the kidney stones I passed was as large as a 8 and others were a size 5, 3, and a lot of sand. Evidently they did some damage I'm not sure I can totally fix but I'll keep trying.
    Hubby's parkinson's is under control but he's thinking of looking into the brain stimulation for his issues. Just thinking believe me. It's a scary thought someone messing around with your brain.
    Other than all the normal age issues with our health I have been enjoying baking. I got to looking and I have done a lot of baking so far this year! I know there are 2 more birthday cakes I haven't got in here yet. Maybe I will find pics and put them in. One is Nikki's crazy keto carrot cake with no cal Swerve powdered and granulated sugar and almond flour. Found It !

I didn't dare even taste that one. Last regular chocolate cupcake I had 2 bites and my blood pressure dropped to 90/60 and heart rate was 160! My daughter told me don't even think of taking a bite of that cake with all the artificial stuff in it!
The other is Nikki's 88 year old grandpa's cake I tried out. The cake tasted really good but boy was that recipe a mess! Supposed to make one layer so I doubled it. Well I turned up with 4 layers! Then the Chantilly "frosting" tasted really good and although I went exactly by the recipe it was mushy. So the cake turned into a really large fruity ( blackberry, strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry) shortcake with cool tasting kind of cool whip! Thank goodness they don't mind my experiments in baking! LOL

I don't care how much I clean as I go ........ i tall makes a mess....... this is from the cake above. I had good berries left over for a few days to enjoy though! This is just the parting it together part. Mixing etc. is a mess on the other side of the kitchen. LOL

      Here it is the end of September and I am getting ready for the holiday baking season. I am picking up extra's here and there of olive oil, butter, cream cheese, chocolate chips, cocoa, pecans, coconut and whatever I can squeeze into the basket every now and then. I still need to order bakery boxes and containers to carry stuff to houses and offices I give goodies to. (expensive)
     I'm looking at my kitchen and baking storage and what a mess. I need to just totally empty a cabinet or 3 and totally start over. In other words my whole baking area needs to throw up on the kitchen table and counters and floors and just rearrange everything and toss what has been lost that's old and put in the proper categories. I might be able to find things when I need it! LOL
    I have a flour bucket or two I need to fill because I really go through the flour. I hope I have enough brown sugar I know I have 3 or 4 - 7 lb bags of brown sugar and powdered sugar each. I know I have at least 25 lbs of granulated sugar but that never last long. I have a 32 ounce bottle of vanilla I'm about half way through and I just ordered a 32 ounce bottle of almond extract I hope is a good one. Reviews were good but I might be pickier than them we will see.

Well wish me luck !
Love
Ranchmama

February
carrot cake