Will I ever bake again?

It has been a long hot summer. A summer that I spent on having whooping cough and that's not fun, I felt like I had been run over by a train. But (finally) I am starting to feel better. I miss the baking but it's been too hot... I did bake Will's "Cheeto cake". That, of course, was a hit. He wants me to make one without icing for his girlfriend (she's diabetic). I have managed a few thrown together dinners. Luckily for me, Craig doesn't seem to mind eating lots and lots of sandwiches. But today the weather cooled off. And I thought "hey maybe tomorrow's that day" The day for what, you ask? The day to make a Sunday dinner, the day to make bread sough (man I miss that). I think a nice roast beef with veggies and some yeast rolls will do just fine. I'll use one of my favorite bread recipes - Bernard Clayton Jr's potato bread recipe. It always turns out perfect. I have only used a few of the recipes in his book. I may like to experience with cakes and brownies, but with bread, I pretty much stick to the recipe - unless I don't;) I need to explore the book a bit more so I can make other goodies. Maybe I'll do more bread experiments in the fall, when it is cooler. Baking bread is a great experience because I believe if I can bake bread, I can do anything if I put my mind to it. And sometimes I just need to knead the bread, it's very relaxing

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.

1/10/10

For New Years' Eve, I made chicken and noodles. Not exactly a traditional dish, but good all the same. I didn't even make a cake. I'm slipping.

I haven't baked much this week. It doesn't make any sense since I have been home (on vacation) this week, but we still have Christmas goodies to eat. I did make some shortbread cookies from
I made them into thumbprint cookies by sticking my thumb in to make a small bowl to hold seedless raspberry jelly. They have disappeared.
The other thing I baked I never baked before was chicken parmigiana pizza, I used the Art Ginsburg recipe in for the thick crust pizza. That worked out pretty well, too. Even my beloved ate the pizza crust and he likes the thin crust. I did use some drippings from the chicken in the pizza dough. It gave it a better flavor.
As for brownies, haven't made them yet. I do plan to make them, I think I will add some Ghiradelli chocolate to the batter. I have found that "blooming" the cocoa in the melted butter before adding it to the batter seems to bring out a deeper chocolate taste. I should try some dutched cocoa to see how that works in the recipe. It will be interesting.

brownies

Well, here it is, most likely the last post of the year for this particular blog. I can't believe it. The days are long but the years are short. I know that doesn't make any sense, but there you are.
Last week I bought 4 dozen eggs, bringing the total amount of eggs in my fridge to approximately 52. Today I have _3_ eggs in my house. So I must have been busy baking.

I actually didn't make anything special for Christmas. I know, hard to believe. But I was exhausted from work and running around trying to get things together. I feel like I woke up 2 weeks ago and I need to do everything right now.

Christmas dinner went well, except my younger son complained about the Swedish meatballs;) He always says they are terrible and he has to eat them all to save us from them. I did notice he took the leftovers home;)

This week's brownies were fairly straightforward. I "bloomed" the cocoa in the melted butter and added a few Ghiradelli chocolate chips to the melting butter. It gave the brownies a more complex taste, deeper chocolate. SO you know that's good by me.

That's it for me this week. I probably will be cooking chicken and noodles for New Year's Eve dinner. I think my brother and sister-in-law are coming over. I even think my sons might stop by. I might even feel froggy and bring a few rum cakes to work on Thursday....maybe. We'll see.

the baking action

Not too much this week, I'm afraid. I was very sluglike this weekend. I made brownies, with 5 eggs instead of 6 and a heaping tablespoon of Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa added to the Nestle's cocoa I've been using. I also added a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. I thought about topping it with chocolate frosting, but I decided it would be _too_much_chocolate_. I know, who would guess that I'd think something had too much chocolate?
And I made a blondie, which really just looks like a giant chocolate chip cookie pressed into a brownie pan. And that's what it tastes like. My younger son Will claims he's never had a blondie before, so once he has one, he won't be able to say that anymore.
That's it for now....

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?