Humor

Time for Chocolate!

Posted on by Tammy

It’s February. It’s the Love Month. It’s the Every Excuse to Eat Chocolate Month. Okay, well that might be my hubby’s thought on February!

I’ve often wondered why it’s only February we celebrate love. Or chocolate for you chocolate fans out there.

But we’ll leave this with the chocolate is for all the time for this post! In my newsletter that went out today to my subscribers. Wait. What? You’re not a subscriber? Well, you could be if you pop over to the Home page and scoot over to the top right of the right side bar and sign up!

Sorry – squirrel!

In today’s newsletter, I gave a recipe for the Chocolate Molten Lava Cake you see in the pictures below. What I didn’t share in the newsletter, is how many of these I’ve made, especially right after cooking school and we learned how to make Molten Lava cakes. This recipe is a bit different than the school’s recipe, smaller quantity for our family.


 The funny story about these little gems is the year after learning how to make them, I think I had to have made close to two hundred of them. No, we didn’t eat them all. But I seem to remember people asking for me to make them for them once they heard I knew how. They were pretty popular at restaurants and everybody wanted them.

I’d always tell them how easy they were to make, but they said mine were better. Yeah, right! Better because you don’t have to make them. I’m not lying to you, though, when I say these are super simple to make and would be a perfect quick dessert to have with tea/coffee if a friend or friends popped in to visit. I’m serious.

I even had this discussion on how simple they were with our daughter’s friend one time when she dropped in to hang out. The two of them came up from the basement and were plundering around the kitchen.

“Mom do we have anything good to snack on?”

“You know where everything is in the pantry, go dig.”

Her friend was already in there.

“Kristen, we should go get a cupcake at the store. Oh, we had these gooey chocolate cakes at the restaurant last week. But I don’t want to go to Cleveland for that.”

“Do you mean a Chocolate Molten Lava Cake?”

“YEAH.”

“Well, I can make you some of those in less than 30 minutes.”

“No you can’t. Those must be difficult to make.”

“Nope, I’ll make them if you two get the ingredients out of the pantry while I get the stuff going over here.”

By this time, I had made them so many times, I rattled off the ingredients and they dug them out and set them on the counter.

Kristen’s friend set the timer on her watch to see if I could really get them done in less than the 30 minutes I said I could.

Thirty five minutes later they were scooping ice cream onto their slightly cooled Lava Cakes! BAM! And THAT’S Love, my friends.

I made these the other day for hubby (and for photos!) and you can tell in the photo below I didn’t wait long enough before putting the whipped cream on them, they oozed right down the side! There are regular strawberries as well as the new Pineberries – the white ones in the picture. In case you thought I fed my husband very underripe berries. The pine berries are like a cross between a pineapple and a strawberry. They are sweet, that’s for sure.

If you’re not a subscriber and didn’t get the recipe, just email me at tammy@tammykarasek.com and let me know. I’ll be glad to email it to you. Besides, it’s Chocolate Day, er, I mean it’s Valentine’s Day this month and you might need a chocolate treat for the loves in your home!

Happy Birthday Tickled Pink!

Posted on by Tammy

Happy 11th Anniversary

 

Happy Birthday to my Tickled Pink Tammy Blog!

It was twelve years ago today that I decided to take the thought of “maybe I should write and do that on a blog” and made it a reality. 

It’s been on and off as we’ve traveled some odd family trials, but I’ve learned along the way, my desire to write and “talk” to all of you simmers continually. 

Towards the end of 2022, I realized how much I’ve missed chatting with you. I want to change it up, dust it back off (again) and try some new things with you. I promise to not overload your inbox, but I hope you’ll overload mine! I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments to what I share, as well as ask me questions.

We can’t sit across the table and talk over tea (OH HOW I WISH!), but we can pour a cup of tea and talk here! I’ll be doing the newsletter as well with different content than what is on the blog, so be sure to sign up for that back on the Home Page here on the website. Looking forward to spending some time with you this year. 

Happy 12th Blog-aversary to the Tickled Pink Tammy Blog!

 

Tickled Pink Tammy

Time to Draw the Line in the Sand

Posted on by Tammy

tammykarasek.com

I don’t know about you, but for me, I’ve spent too much of my life worrying about what others think of me. It’s not healthy, but it happens. Not having the “perfect figure” (what is that, anyway?), I’ve felt very self conscience often in public events. It didn’t matter if I was speaking or just attending, I felt out of place. Often I would make sure I knew where all the doors were just in case I needed to make an exit—stage left.

I’d worry and fret preparing to go and often talk myself out of going someplace I was stoked to go to when I signed up or bought the ticket.

But I had a real eye-opening experience this March when our daughter married her love. A moment of drawing the line in the dirt and the need to decide which side of the line I would stand that day and in my future. Would I allow MY thoughts to convince me of what others thought? How would I know what they thought. Oh, don’t get me wrong, there have been folks who made it very clear what they thought, whether with words or looks, I knew. But often nobody says or does anything. My mind just knows what they’re thinking.

Would I be so consumed with what I perceived people’s thought of what I looked like in my dress, was my hair too gray—do I have time to get it colored? It’s four days before the wedding, would it bomb and make it look worse? Would I let all of that ruin my day. Oh, I wouldn’t ruin it for the others, I’ve become quite the actress and have the strong ability to hide it.

I mentioned to our daughter that my dress arrived a little snug with no time for a re-order. She told me she’d purchased a couple full-body spanx and offered one to me to try. “Try this, maybe it won’t make you feel self-conscience, Mom. But I think you look nice in your dress.” My husband said he thought it was one of the prettiest dresses I’ve ever had and I looked great.

But I didn’t feel great.

So, I decided I’d better try on this tiny spanx item before the bid day that week
. I managed to get it to my knees. At this point, I knew it would take two of us for me to complete the task. Let’s just say – had it been recorded, I probably could have won the $10,000,000 on America’s Funniest Videos.

At the end of the thirty minute adventure, almost breaking bones and dripping with sweat, I had quite a “come to Jesus” moment when a scripture flashed through my mind. It’s one which I think on often “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” (Psalm 139:14 ESV) If my soul knows I am made wonderful by our Creator, why can’t my mind “know” that as well? My husband noticed my frozen posture and asked what I was thinking. I looked at him and with a confidence I’ve not felt before I smiled and said, “You know what? I’m not doing this anymore. This is who I am, at this moment. I’m going to go to that wedding in my pretty PINK dress that makes me look like a barrel and just have a barrel of fun.”

And I truly did.

tammy karasek.com

I’m including the entire story in this month’s newsletter – gosh, I don’t want that whole thing online! So, if you want the whole scene unfolded, you’ll have to sign up for the newsletter! If you need a good laugh, I believe you’ll get it with that story.