You have to see this! Oh, and its safe for the kids!
http://chiccookiekits.blogspot.com/2009/10/emotional-life-of-candy-corn.html
Friday, October 30, 2009
Update on My Baking Ability - I REALLY SUCK AT IT!
My sister was coming for a visit with my nephew and his wife and their three daughters, all under four! He was moving from GA to Maine where he grew up and my sister and her husband flew down to help drive them up. A stop at my house was in order for a one night-quickie sleep over visit! It was fun, crazy and loud as my family often is. I was in heaven!
So, before they came, I decided to make some quiche for their departure morning...easy to slip in the oven and bake off in the AM and some cornbread and ham (they are meat eaters, so I obliged) and for dinner the night they arrived it was TAKE OUT! These guys love coming here and having hoagies and cheese steaks. Something they can't get at home that are this good.
So, the weekend before I decided to make an applesauce cake and a Jewish Apple Cake.
The latter I'll write further on at another time, but as for the applesauce cake, it is a perennial favorite of mine and comes from an old Betty Crocker book that asks you to place everything in one bowl. Just the kind of baking I like!
There I was on a Sunday afternoon, making soups and salad needed a payment to my friend was helping me with a computer connection problem. His wife was chatting with me and I finished up the batter and poured it in the pan, slipped it in the oven and thought the batter to be a bit thick, but baked it anyway.
About 30 minutes in, I took a peek. Something didn't look right. It wasn't rising up and glistening like it usually does. Kinda sunken in the center. It smelled great with all that cinnamon and cloves, nutmeg and vanilla wafting out of the oven.
I pulled it out after using the toothpick method and set it on a rack. I turned to the left and there's a whole jar of applesauce I never opened!
You got it! I forgot the applesauce in the applesauce cake! How lame is that? What a goober!!!
The pigs and chickens had it as a treat and I have to say, they are my biggest baking fans!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Baking and Caking Horrors...
I suck at baking. No, really I do! I can't measure well and I don't follow directions very well, so those qualities do not make a good or even adequate baker.
I do, however, want to learn and will be focusing more on this in 2010. I have to give myself challenges once in a while.
In the meantime, I watch baking. You know, The Food Network has tons of shows where people get in front of cameras and bake stunning examples of cakes, tarts, tortes, bread, pies, galettes, merengues, sweet rolls and the like.
I think my favorite show on that channel is Ace of Cakes. Not that they show you much baking, but they show these wonderful cakes and the process by which they make them. That's the part that facinates me. All the quirky, technical details they work out to make things like stadiums, The Stanley Cup, an giant replica of an Old Bay seasoning can and the planet Jupiter. BTW, I love the cast of characters!
Well, seems there's a woman out there with a blog called Cake Wrecks that is just hilarious! I've included the NYTimes link to a story about her and her blog link as well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/dining/14cake.html?em
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
Wish me luck...making a Jewish Apple Cake and Applesauce Cake this weekend for the family's visit! I may just post some pix here!
I do, however, want to learn and will be focusing more on this in 2010. I have to give myself challenges once in a while.
In the meantime, I watch baking. You know, The Food Network has tons of shows where people get in front of cameras and bake stunning examples of cakes, tarts, tortes, bread, pies, galettes, merengues, sweet rolls and the like.
I think my favorite show on that channel is Ace of Cakes. Not that they show you much baking, but they show these wonderful cakes and the process by which they make them. That's the part that facinates me. All the quirky, technical details they work out to make things like stadiums, The Stanley Cup, an giant replica of an Old Bay seasoning can and the planet Jupiter. BTW, I love the cast of characters!
Well, seems there's a woman out there with a blog called Cake Wrecks that is just hilarious! I've included the NYTimes link to a story about her and her blog link as well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/dining/14cake.html?em
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
Wish me luck...making a Jewish Apple Cake and Applesauce Cake this weekend for the family's visit! I may just post some pix here!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Another Important Article from the NYTimes
This time it's about foodborne illness and worth a read. The link within the article is very interesting too, about the ground beef...all the more reason for my decision to be vegetarian!
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/top-10-food-poisoning-risks/?hp
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/top-10-food-poisoning-risks/?hp
Sister Stuff
My sister is one of the best cooks I know and a woman who can bake anyone under the table with her delicious homemade goodies at holiday time. There are some signature dishes she makes that when we get together, she has to make them for me.
Kath is in Maine and I am in Pennsylvania, so we don’t get together as often as we ought or want to, considering we are the only siblings in our family of deceased parents. We share a father and have different mothers. She looks exactly like her mother (who died before Kath was a year old) and I look just like mine. We both have our father’s sense of humor, which seemed to help us survive some very difficult times over the years.
Mom and Dad married when Kath was about 8 years old, so there’s quite a difference in age, but you’d never, ever know it.
My mother wasn’t terrifically enthusiastic about cooking, but her mother was and took my sister under her wing and showed her some tricks. Along with her high school home economics classes (yup, we’re so old we can remember them) and Grandmom, she turned into quite the capable cook.
Kath has quite the repertoire of dishes…let me see if I can list them here…
Spaghetti – made with homemade tomato gravy
Jewish Apple Cake
Creamed Cabbage
Beer Bread
Pizzelles
Baked Beans
Thumbprint cookies
Kilbasa and Sauerkraut
Conga Bars
Fried Chicken
Meatball sandwiches
Chicken Salad
Fried Cabbage and Noodles
Macaroni Salad
Potato Salad
Broccoli Casserole
Did I mention Jewish Apple Cake?
Cheese cake --- she could go into business and retire in a year with this recipe!
Russian Tea Cakes
Apple Pie
Summer Squash Casserole
Meat pies
Lobster rolls
She is always making something when I call or just made something in the past week for someone’s birthday party, baby or bridal shower or someone’s funeral. Kath loves to cook and bake for others.
Food is not only part of our culture as a people, but for many of us, it’s a display of love and affection for those around us. Do something nice for me and I’ll cook you dinner to show my appreciation. Holidays are the times to be with loved ones and food is just one way of expressing love. I don’t bring lots of food to a gathering to show off my talents. I bring it to share what I love with those I love. My sister is the same way and how I appreciate getting together with her!
As a cook myself, it is hard to not cook for her when we visit one another, but she wants to make the meals…starting with breakfast and while we’re eating that, she’s planning what to have for lunch or if we’re going out that day, we’ll eat out, so we discuss the items we need for dinner. I have to slow her down, but with her energy it can be hard. When she’s on the prowl for something yummy, there’s no stopping her.
I often think I’d like to go into business with her and open a small breakfast/lunch place up in Maine. She’s a hard worker and takes an almost severe sense of pride in her cooking and baking talents. We could clean up, that’s for sure! Her with the cooking and baking, I with my marketing experience and my restaurant/cooking background, we could have a grand time and really enjoy being with one another.
I just know Maine would be so much the better for it!
Kath is in Maine and I am in Pennsylvania, so we don’t get together as often as we ought or want to, considering we are the only siblings in our family of deceased parents. We share a father and have different mothers. She looks exactly like her mother (who died before Kath was a year old) and I look just like mine. We both have our father’s sense of humor, which seemed to help us survive some very difficult times over the years.
Mom and Dad married when Kath was about 8 years old, so there’s quite a difference in age, but you’d never, ever know it.
My mother wasn’t terrifically enthusiastic about cooking, but her mother was and took my sister under her wing and showed her some tricks. Along with her high school home economics classes (yup, we’re so old we can remember them) and Grandmom, she turned into quite the capable cook.
Kath has quite the repertoire of dishes…let me see if I can list them here…
Spaghetti – made with homemade tomato gravy
Jewish Apple Cake
Creamed Cabbage
Beer Bread
Pizzelles
Baked Beans
Thumbprint cookies
Kilbasa and Sauerkraut
Conga Bars
Fried Chicken
Meatball sandwiches
Chicken Salad
Fried Cabbage and Noodles
Macaroni Salad
Potato Salad
Broccoli Casserole
Did I mention Jewish Apple Cake?
Cheese cake --- she could go into business and retire in a year with this recipe!
Russian Tea Cakes
Apple Pie
Summer Squash Casserole
Meat pies
Lobster rolls
She is always making something when I call or just made something in the past week for someone’s birthday party, baby or bridal shower or someone’s funeral. Kath loves to cook and bake for others.
Food is not only part of our culture as a people, but for many of us, it’s a display of love and affection for those around us. Do something nice for me and I’ll cook you dinner to show my appreciation. Holidays are the times to be with loved ones and food is just one way of expressing love. I don’t bring lots of food to a gathering to show off my talents. I bring it to share what I love with those I love. My sister is the same way and how I appreciate getting together with her!
As a cook myself, it is hard to not cook for her when we visit one another, but she wants to make the meals…starting with breakfast and while we’re eating that, she’s planning what to have for lunch or if we’re going out that day, we’ll eat out, so we discuss the items we need for dinner. I have to slow her down, but with her energy it can be hard. When she’s on the prowl for something yummy, there’s no stopping her.
I often think I’d like to go into business with her and open a small breakfast/lunch place up in Maine. She’s a hard worker and takes an almost severe sense of pride in her cooking and baking talents. We could clean up, that’s for sure! Her with the cooking and baking, I with my marketing experience and my restaurant/cooking background, we could have a grand time and really enjoy being with one another.
I just know Maine would be so much the better for it!
Monday, October 5, 2009
American Food
Joanne and I were talking a couple weeks ago and she is working with someone who is here on an educational exchange from Germany and she and her coworkers are trying to get her to try some American food.
I started thinking...what's really American? Aren't we the melting pot? Or referred to as the Salad Bowl of the world with all sorts of cultures adding to our culinary repertoire?
I thought of course of two so-called American favorites - Apple Pie and Hot Dogs, but we're talking about a woman from Germany...she has bratwurst and struedel...how can ours be any more original for her since they've both derived from the German cuisine.
So, here's my project to those of you who are reading this...what is American Food? Can you give me some ideas?
I started thinking...what's really American? Aren't we the melting pot? Or referred to as the Salad Bowl of the world with all sorts of cultures adding to our culinary repertoire?
I thought of course of two so-called American favorites - Apple Pie and Hot Dogs, but we're talking about a woman from Germany...she has bratwurst and struedel...how can ours be any more original for her since they've both derived from the German cuisine.
So, here's my project to those of you who are reading this...what is American Food? Can you give me some ideas?
Fig Season is Here!
I love watermelon and it truly is my favorite 'affordable' fruit that I can enjoy for a long time starting in late spring and through the summer. So, what's this have to do with figs, you ask?
Figs are an indulgence for me. First, I have to find somewhere to purchase them that they aren't all mushy, over weepy and moldy. That's a big challenge as my local grocery store's produce folks get few in, as I suspect they aren't a big seller here on the East Coast and they tend to be handled by many people who don't know what they are nor understand their fragility.
So, when I can find them at a produce dealer that treats them well they are somewhat pricey and I can often only afford about 2-3 of the precious fruits, leaving me with little to indulge in a recipe other than maybe some goat cheese or with some good ice cream.
I found this link from the Serious Eats Newsletter and thought maybe, just maybe I'll indulge a bit more and make something special...so I'm passing it along...
http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/09/in-season-figs-choosing-storing-recipes-20090926.html?utm_source=Serious+Eats+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=6c017a488a-Serious_Eats_Weekly_Newsletter_October_5_2009&utm_medium=email
Take a read and tell me what you think!
Figs are an indulgence for me. First, I have to find somewhere to purchase them that they aren't all mushy, over weepy and moldy. That's a big challenge as my local grocery store's produce folks get few in, as I suspect they aren't a big seller here on the East Coast and they tend to be handled by many people who don't know what they are nor understand their fragility.
So, when I can find them at a produce dealer that treats them well they are somewhat pricey and I can often only afford about 2-3 of the precious fruits, leaving me with little to indulge in a recipe other than maybe some goat cheese or with some good ice cream.
I found this link from the Serious Eats Newsletter and thought maybe, just maybe I'll indulge a bit more and make something special...so I'm passing it along...
http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/09/in-season-figs-choosing-storing-recipes-20090926.html?utm_source=Serious+Eats+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=6c017a488a-Serious_Eats_Weekly_Newsletter_October_5_2009&utm_medium=email
Take a read and tell me what you think!
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