Mistake, what mistake?

I can be forgetful sometimes. This is definitely true when I'm baking. I have made break without yeast and without salt before, neither are any good, believe me. The other night I was making some apple cinnamon donuts from a King Arthur's mix. Except, I forgot to spray the donut pan first. There was no way I was pulling the mini donuts out in one piece. I ended up with a pile of donut chunks.

Yes you could just eat the chunks as it, but that isn't pretty or fun to bring into work.

So donut bread budding was made.

I sued a bread budding recipe from King Arthur's website and it worked out really well. I added some of their Boiled Cider to make it extra apple-y.

Add some fresh whipped cream and you have a party!

Ice Cream Machine in Action

How pretty does that look? We went to a BBQ last night and I was asked to bring fruit salad.  Well.... I hate fruit, the texture, sometimes the smell, it just isn't appetizing to me. But if I puree it then it's all good. So some sorbet sounded like a good compromise.  Still fruit but in a form I can enjoy. Plus I got to pull out the ice cream maker.

 My recipe:
- About 2.5 lbs. peaches
- 12 oz. blackberries
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup water

Mix the above and simmer until peaches are soft enough to puree.
Puree the whole thing (I used a stick blender).
Strain out the blackberry seeds.
Chill over night in the fridge.
Add 3 tbs of vodka for sccoopability and 1 tbs lemon juice, then throw it in the ice cream machine. My machine is the Kitchen Aid attachment that you put the bowl in the freezer ahead of time and then let it churn.

   

Some more pretty things: The wonderful cheese at Bocado. I love the Niche Hospitality restaurants and miss being able to go to them in Worcester. Well lucky me, my favorite one opened up a second in Providence!!! Jer surprised me with the news and took me there Friday night. It was everything I remember and I left feeling wonderfully stuffed and happy on sangria.  He definitely earns his socks.

Dreaming of Bunnies and Coffee

There is a movie or TV show out there somewhere, or just in my memory, where a child is having very bad dreams about monsters.  He/she is told to try to not dream about bunnies.  By not thinking about bunnies the child obviously dreamt about bunnies and not about monsters.  I feel like anxiety is a lot like bad dreams that way.  When you are trying not to think about the things making you anxious, you think more about them.  The challenge is finding your bunnies.

Knitting is definitely one of my bunnies. The past few weeks I have been knitting almost nonstop and I have felt a lot calmer and lighter.  My brain is occupied so it doesn't drift down those not so pleasant paths as often.  Also, the wonderful weather we have been having has helped. Some rain but also a lot of sun and warm enough breezes to keep the windows open.

There is a little bit of downside to knitting all the time.  After spending a good chunk of the weekend curled up on the couch, my lower back was starting to hurt.  Last night, I pulled out my exercise ball and plopped down on it.  I have enough balance that I can knit while sitting on it!

Not only is this nice weather making feel good but it's causing me to start craving ice coffee.  I'm not sure if Starbucks is just having a sale or trying to get rid of their Tribute blend to bring in something new. But whatever the reason, their Tribute blend is buy one get one free for all bean, kcups and via packaging.  I've tried the k cups and really liked them so I figured I would stock up on some ground coffee.  At buy one get one and fresh grinding right there I couldn't really say no.

I no longer have a drip maker, my Keurig replaced the last one that broke. I've found that when I want to make a larger quantity of coffee then just one cup (which is very rare) my french press does the job fine and doesn't take up any extra counter space.  Also, I can easily make it stronger if I need the coffee for baking. So when I get ground coffee I get the french press or course grind.

I've tried making ice coffee at home but it never tastes as good as when I stop at Starbucks.  The keurig method of brewing over ice makes watery lukewarm coffee.  And when I've tried previous drip makers it comes out tasting burnt, plus I don't really want to wait for it to cool.  I did a little web searching and found out about cold brewing coffee.  You mix coarsely ground coffee with cold water and just let it sit for 4-12 hours.  Still involves waiting time but I found that if I mix the coffee and water in my french press at night, then stick it in the fridge. In the morning I just need to press and I have delicious ice coffee all ready.

I have this 34 oz french press (the milk frother is fun for lattes).  I add 1/2 cup of coffee grounds then fill it with water, give it a good mix then put it in the fridge.  I may try it with more coffee to make a stronger concentrate that I can then water down if I need to with milk later.  Cold brewing coffee makes a less acidic bitter tasting coffee, which is perfect for ice coffee.  The coffee concentrate can last two weeks in the fridge so after I press I put the rest in a mason jar to use the next day.  Smitten Kitchen is a great food blog but she also has a good cold brew coffee post.

Cookie Satisfaction

There is something oddly satisfying about making a batch of cookies and getting the exact cookie count the recipe says it will make. It's like fate came down and shined upon my cookies or something when I fill up the pans in exact multiples of 12. I made two batches of cookies last night and had 24 oatmeal raisin and I was so close but only came out with 46 mocha chunk cookies. Cookie scoops are one of the best inventions ever.

I was on a cookie spree. Right after dinner I got up and start cleaning the kitchen. I went through my baking supplies cabinets and pulled out all my dried fruit/baking chips/extras. I either need to bake a lot more or stop buying stuff when it goes on sale. I have a bunch of chips from King Arthur Flour that I have been wanting to use so I put those on the top of the pile, and I have some "baking raisins" that go along perfectly with my oatmeal cookie craving.
 
I started with the oatmeal cookie dough in my mixer because it needed to chill before baking. This is my first time trying this recipe, and even with all the supplies I had, I was missing honey. I ran out the other day after adding some to an olive oil and sugar hand scrub. So I took the recipe's advice and added some light corn syrup instead. Molasses was the other option but I don't like molasses-y cookies that much. I don't love using corn syrup for things either but if I want to make marshmallows or really chewy cookies I give in to its gooey, stickiness. And boy do are they soft and chewy cookies. I was worried I baked them for too long because they were a little dark but eating them the next day they are still fall apart soft.

While the oatmeal cookies were in the freezer I mixed up a batch of chocolate espresso cookies. I decided to do these by hand. I was "pleasantly" surprised at how much hand strength that needed, since I haven't mixed a batch of cookies by hand in a while. These smelled fantastic! The dough is flavored with espresso powder and between the cappuccino  semi-sweet chocolate and cinnamon chips I used it smelled like a heavenly mocha latte. They do taste wonderful but I think my brown sugar was a little dry or a cooked them a minute too long because they are little crisp. Which isn't bad but it's not my thing. Maybe I will add a little corn syrup next time and cheat.

The Perfect Cookie

Inspiration has finally hit and I'm back to the blog. It's been a while and now Blogger has a completely different look, guess I should check in more often. I've made a lot of cookies, cookies are my general go to for baking, potlucks, general love sharing, random acts of sugar. I think I have found the perfect cookie recipe. Usually when I make a recipe I can think of a few things I would do differently afterwards. When I made peanut butter chocolate bacon cookies for my birthday I knew I needed to cook the bacon longer and maybe add a pinch of Cardamom. Or a cookie that was a hassle to make would just get an "eh" response. And what fun is that? Like knitting once a pattern is completed doing it a second time is more of a chore then fun and there are so many new things out there to try, so recipes are repeated infrequently. But this cookie is something I will definitely keep making and always in a double batch to share. These are easy, a little different, loved by all and just plain fun for any occasion. Maybe the secret to a perfect cookie is to use an universally loved base. The perfect cookie starts with the perfect, fool proof sugar cookie recipe. It's America's Test Kitchen sugar cookie recipe. By using melted butter and a great ratio of ingredients this recipe creates the perfect chewy cookie with great flavor (I used good vanilla too - Pure Vanilla from King Arthur's). Their secret ingredient is cream cheese. My secret ingredients are raspberry bits and white chocolate chips. Throw in about a handful of each at the end of mixing and you have now created a Raspberry Cheesecake cookie. I love cookies that start from something basic but become interesting with a few little tweaks and this is definitely it. I think my next cookie adventure will have to include the cinnamon or cappuccino chips I got from King Arthur's. Maybe I will have to search out the perfect chocolate cookie base, to keep with the basic + interesting formula. Once I find the perfect chocolate cookie base, yin/yang cookies might also be in my future. O the possibilities with cookies.

The Battle Goes On.....

I have a continuing battle with laziness and take out food. Since moving out of my parents' house I have spent way too many calories and paychecks on overly processed, fatty convenience foods with the mantra, "it will be easier when...." I have ups and downs with finding diet plans to at least give me a script for meal planning and a collection of cook books that rival my collection of knitting books, (I'm starting to think I collect more then do). Well I am finally deciding now is "when." I have my own kitchen for the most part since J doesn't really go in there except to grab stuff out of the fridge and help doing dishes. I am working as little as I probably will ever work, with a good schedule, so no more eating dinner at midnight or at 3 pm before practice. Last Sunday I had a great surge of motivation and decided to prep 3 meals Sunday afternoon to get us through the week, in the hopes that between Wednesday night knit night/take out and maybe dinner out once on the weekend we would be set. Since most recipes make enough for 4 people it makes sense that we would have a good amount of leftovers. I also wanted to use some of my freezer and pantry stash (FYI - consumables like yarn and food are definitely in the stash category while books are collectibles).

Now for the plan:
- Satay Chicken Burgers, with English muffins, string beans, and fries from the freezer

- Spaghetti and Meatballs

- Squash Mac and Cheese

Execution: I'll give myself a 6/10 because I need to up the lunch planning factor

My best meal was the squash mac and cheese, which was my first thing up. I was able to make enough to fill my half size baking dish and a freezer container. So the baking dish ready to go went into the fridge for Monday night and we had the leftovers Tuesday for lunch. Not starting this Sunday night meant no leftover for Monday lunch (-1)

I made and fried up the meatballs so Tuesday I could just make a quick sauce put the meatballs in to finish cooking while pasta boiled. Here is where I lost 2 points. The first -1 was not doing this Tuesday night but instead getting lazy and putting it off till Thursday. This then left Wednesday and Thursday lunch leftovers out, and there goes the second pt.

So now it's the end of the week and we both had travel plans on Saturday, me to the NE Fiber Fest and J to the Providence Beerfest and only 2/3 meals used (-1) and lunch bought almost every day :(

At least I froze the chicken burgers. I was able to defrost them and cook them up last night for dinner, so Yay!

Recipes:

Satay Burgers:
I originally saw this on the Rachel Ray talk show but since have estimated/made it my own.
1 lb ground chicken
1 large scoop peanut butter
A few table spoons soy sauce
Spoonful minced garlic
Some ground ginger ("fresh" if I have some in the freezer)
Black pepper
Chopped up scallions

Mix all the ingredients then add the chicken, make into patties and cook.

Donut Days

What's one of my favorite things about fall? Apple Cider Donuts!

This year I finally decided to try making my own. And what a production that has turned into. You would think it would be easy, make up a batter throw it in some hot oil, call it delicious? I had to do it right though. So Saturday I drag J out, wait in 3 hours of traffic to get to the apple farm, who's parking attendants pointed us right now of the lot and back into traffic on a one way road. (advice to any that go to Honey Pot Hill, plan for traffic and just park where you see an open spot) After probably a half hour of picking and walking around to get some cider we are on our way home again. Sunday I started the massive baking excursion which concluded in a very messy kitchen, a burnt caramel gel apple pie (ick), and some pretty good cider donuts. I used this recipe for the donuts: Food Network Recipe

Monday morning:



While delicious as they were a little under-cooked on the inside and just not appley enough for me. So now on to take two. My plan is to cook down and make apple sauce with most of the apples so I can freeze some of it and use the rest in more donuts. Then I'm going to cut up some of the apples into little cubes to add to the batter at the end. Hopefully this experiment will be better then my caramel pie....