baking action for Easter week

well, let's see. I baked a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting to take to my oldest sister's house. I usually take a cake and it would have been my father's 83rd birthday. He loved my mother's chocolate cake. Mine isn't as good as my mom's but it's good - at least that's what my sons say. They manage to "choke it down";).
I also baked brownies for the week, but nothing too special about them, just the "usual" tinkered with Hershey's brownie recipe. I didn't put icing on them this week. I found out that putting icing on brownies you are going to cut and take to work in a plastic sandwich bag makes more of a mess that I want. Plus, really, the icing is overkill to me.
I also made potato bread from the Bernard Clayton book. My poor book is falling apart - the spine is split and you can definitely tell what recipes I use the most. I probably should transcribe the recipe to my computer cookbook. I got a ton of them to do, though, and I get lazy. Anyway, they turned out great. I love potato bread - well, truthfully, I just love bread.
This week's baking? I'm not sure. I got a new recipe for brownies that uses cooking oil instead of butter. It's from a small cookbook I got at the thrift shop. I thought I would try something different. It still calls for cocoa, so I'm ready for that. I don't know if they will be drier or wetter - though it calls for oil instead of butter, it still calls for 5 eggs. The usual recipe I use calls for 6 eggs.
I don't know if I am going to make a cake or not. I want to, but time might slip away from me. I don't know what kind of cake I want to make, but I want to make one. And probably no bread baking tomorrow - we are going to a baby shower type of thing and I doubt I will cook a "big" dinner tomorrow. We'll see
_enjoy_

hey

I'm still here, still hanging on. I always try to take one day at a time, but quite a few ganged up on me;)

I've been baking brownies, of course, for my sons. I've started adding 1/4 cup of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips to the Hershey recipe I have been tweaking. The Hershey brownie recipe is from Hershey's website: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yec9rl5
I have "bloomed" the cocoa in the melted butter and added the chocolate chips to that mix. I've even cut the butter by 1/2 cup and replaced it with vegetable oil. The vegetable oil does not seem to make a large difference in the taste or texture of the brownies, but "blooming" the cocoa does - it makes it a more chocolately tast. Adding the melted chocolate give the brownies a fudgey texture. I have also adjusted the baking time. I am baking the brownies for 45 minutes at 325 degrees for a 9"x13" pan. So far, this has given the best results.


I've made some bread from the Bernard Clayton Jr's

as well as the "Touch of Grace" biscuits. They always turn out well.

I have offered to make my sons chicken and noodles, but every time I do, it snows - a lot - like 20 inches or more. I didn't even offer to make any today and we're still supposed to get about another foot of snow. I guess I will continue to nimble on my brownies and drink hot tea.
I think for my honey I will make some raspberry thumbprint cookies, but I will shape them into a heart for Valentine's Day.

That's all for me, stay warm and enjoy.

May Fourth (be with you)

Awful pun, isn't it? I just had to share it.

This week's brownies were made the "normal" way with 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce standing in for 1/2 cup butter. I used all Hershey Cocoa this time. I love the texture and the taste. Ooops, almost forgot. I grated a part of a bar of Ghiradelli's Cark Chocolate with the citrus flavoring in with the brownie batter. It turned out great. No "yums" from my son, however.
I received one of those "add beer" bread mixes. I'm not really a drinker, so I added 12 ounces of orange soda instead. It was okay, but not really outstanding. As much as those mixes go for, it should knock my socks off but I can't say it did.
And yet another "oops". I made baking powder biscuits - I put regular milk in instead of buttermilk. The biscuits still rose, still had the same texture, just a slightly different taste. What was I thinking? TOss me out of the "southern cooks class"...
My beloved's cake was the "best vanilla cake" in the recent "Woman's Day" issue, with the "best vanilla buttercream". "Woman's Day" recipe uses 1 jat of Marshmellow Fluff to give the frosting a wonderful light flavor. I kept the cake vanilla, but I made the frosting raspberry flavored. It turned out pretty good.
I also made a chocolate chip cake. That's because I was too lazy to make chocolate chip cookies. It worked out pretty well, I think. I took it into work and they loved it.
Wonder if I'll bake next weekend with it being Mother's Day and all that?