Something Shiny

52 Week Photo Project — Week 4: Self-Portrait

2012-01-29T18:21:00.001-05:00

I'd honestly intended to take a picture with my face in it. Kind of needed a new headshot anyway, but I had the idea for this shot and just knew it was what I wanted to do for this assignment. This is an accurate portrait of me in this time and space. Reveling in paint, ink, pastels—anything getting my hands dirty creating, making.

Permission Slip — Free Printable

2012-01-23T18:05:00.000-05:00

If you're anything like me, you find it really difficult to give yourself permission to want the things you want. We feel the need to apologize, rationalize or justify what it is we really want to do.

To help you out, I've created these little permission slips so you can finally take the time to acknowledge what you want. Big or little, it's time to give yourself permission to do the thing, that one thing you keep putting off. And I've made these 4-up so you don't get just one slip. Keep a stack handy and give yourself permission to dream, rest, be... whenever you need it.

Click here to download high-res pdf (500k)

Click here to download high-res PDF
(5MB sorry-smallest I could make it and keep it high-res!)

52 Week Photo Project — Week 3

2012-01-22T18:06:00.001-05:00

This week's theme is "Your Favorite Thing." LensProToGo elaborated on the theme on their blog:

We want everyone to get to the core of this and find something that they like more than everything else and hold close to their heart. What is the one thing you would most likely save if your house was on fire (considering your family, including all animals, were safe). If you could only keep 1 thing (again considering you could keep your family and pets) what would you want to save?

I like that they added the "in case of fire" explanation. It really made me think about the assignment. I, of course thought of things like all my photos, my computer or CD/DVD back ups, but that seemed too obvious. I wanted to dig deeper.

I mentally scanned my house, thinking of objects in each room, assessing their value. Not monetary but emotional. It was eye opening how many things I thought of as replaceable or not "fire scenario" significant.

As soon as I thought of this, though, I knew it was the one. I picked an oil painting that hangs in my home office. It's on the wall right now, up and to my right, looking beautiful against the "library green" wall. Neither the subject matter nor artist are what makes this painting so special for me, though. It's all of the meaning and emotion behind it.

My mom gave me this painting which was given to her by Marian, my godmother. I never met Marian. She passed away shortly after I was baptized. Marian was my mother's mentor, confidant and I suspect, a kind of second mother. They were very close. I know my mother cherishes this painting because Marian gave it to her, so it means that much more that my mom, in turn, gave it to me. I would be positively devastated if anything happened to it (which is why I should probably take it to a reputable restorer to make sure it is and stays in good shape. The label on the back is brittle and falling off and I noticed some crackling in the paint.

It most certainly qualifies for the "in case of fire" scenario posed by LensProToGo.

What about you? What is YOUR favorite thing, the one thing you'd want to save? Trust me, it's a very thought-provoking and emotional question.

Soft Sugar Cookies

2012-01-17T19:17:00.001-05:00

These aren't THOSE soft sugar cookies, the ones going around duplicating the grocery store cookies (although I DO want to try those). These are the soft sugar cookies my mom would make when I was a kid. She got the recipe from a neighbor who got it from... who knows. Basically, this is what I consider our family recipe. I've been wanting to share it with you for a couple of reasons. 1. Because they're awesome. 2. Because they're easy. And 3. Because I haven't had them in YEARS and I really needed to make them.

Doesn't my mom have pretty handwriting?

These are not pretty cookies.

They're not going to win any cookie beauty contests, but I'm betting they'll win your family and friend's seal of approval. They're light and fluffy and it's really easy to eat three of them and not even realize it. Wait. Ok, so that's probably NOT an endorsement if you're looking to avoid sweets. Feed 'em to your kids, co-workers and neighbors. They'll gladly take them off your hands. So let's make them, shall we?

What gives these their unique texture and taste is some fun chemistry. (Kids love this - I always did, and still do!)

You take a scant teaspoon of baking soda, put it in a one-cup measuring cup, add a tablespoon of white vinegar and watch the magic. Swirl it around to dissolve completely, then fill the cup with milk. Any kind is fine. We grew up drinking 2% but I don't see why skim or whole wouldn't work.

After you cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and vanilla, you add the milk mixture. It's going to get ugly.

But don't worry. After you add the dry ingredients, it comes together beautifully.

And sticky. You've been warned.

We're going old school with this, just like I did as a kid, and using a regular spoon to get these on the pans. I would normally use one of my cookie scoops, but I wanted to keep this authentic.

When you flatten the cookies slightly (you can use a fork like it says in the hand written recipe card, but my mom never did) be sure to dip your finger in water. It'll keep if from sticking. I forgot that on the first pan-full. Oops. Oh, and if you do flatten with a fork, dip that in water first. You'll thank me.

Now sprinkle some sugar on top and pop them in the oven.

Bake until the tops are no longer glossy. These won't get brown unless they're severely over baked. They'll melt and flatten, puff way up, the bottoms will brown, and the tops will look done. That's when you pull them out. I recommend NOT using insulated pans. The cookies don't puff up as nicely on them. If your pans are dark, turn the oven down a bit to avoid over-browning the bottoms.

You can sprinkle more sugar over them just as they come out of the oven if you like. You can also use colored sugar for a more festive look.

I hope you like these as much as I do. Let me tell you, a whole flood of memories came back when making and eating these. I love how food can do that.

Soft Sugar Cookies
Yields about 5 - 6 dozen cookies depending on size

Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter (Original calls for shortening. We always used margarine growing up, but these worked great with butter.)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 scant tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 cup milk
3-1/2 cups AP flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F if using lighter pans, 360°F if using darker pans.

Cream butter and sugars in mixer. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between and scraping bowl as needed.

Put soda in a one-cup measuring cup. Add vinegar and swirl until all soda is dissolved. Ooh and aah at the chemical reaction! Add milk to fill the cup.

Add milk mixture to butter mixture. It will look curdled. That's what it's supposed to look like. Really.

Add flour and beat until smooth.

Drop by spoonfuls on to parchment lined baking sheets. Flatten slightly with finger or fork, dipping whichever you choose in water first to prevent sticking.

Sprinkle with sugar. Bake 10-12 minutes or until top is no longer glossy and bottoms are lightly browned. Remove to cooling racks.

Best eaten the day you make them, but will keep 3 days in air tight container with layers of wax paper between. The tops will get a little sticky. That's normal. Just toss some more sugar over the tops. Problem solved.

Enjoy! And try not to eat too many all at once.

52 Week Photo Project — Week 2

2012-01-15T16:11:00.000-05:00

This week's assignment — Your Front Door

(I swear, the door is red, not pink. It's looking a bit pink on my laptop monitor.)

I'm participating in the LensProToGo 52 Week Photo Project. Follow along on their blog or flickr.

A Little Something for YOU

2012-01-12T19:26:00.000-05:00

I made another trip to Michaels last weekend. I needed a few things, including some yarn since I sold SIX of my scarves to co-workers. So exciting! While I was there, I thought of you guys and decided to pick up a little something to give away. Hooray!

It's not much, but these stamps are so darn cute, I should have picked up a set for ME. Here's what you'll get if you win: a set of five mini clear stamps (they're about 2" wide), a stamping block (2.5" square) and two mini ink pads, one in black and one in teal blue. Are you excited?

Just leave a comment telling me something you're looking forward to in 2012, and I'll use random.org to pick a winner. Open to all of my readers. I'll mail this anywhere in the world. Good luck!

(I'll draw a winner next Thursday, January 19.)

p.s. Be sure to leave your email address in your comment if it's not in your profile so I can contact you. Or you can email me your address if you don't want to leave it here- somethingshiny at frontier dot com.

Neither Michaels nor Studio G have anything to do with this giveaway, just little ole me saying THANKS for reading my blog. Disclaimer over.

52 Week Photo Project — Week 1

2012-01-08T20:28:00.000-05:00

I must admit, as much as I'd like to improve my photography, I just can't do a 365 photo project. I'm certain it would become a huge source of resentment despite the fact that it would probably improve the way I take and make photos. Once a week, though? Yeah, I can do that. A twitter friend, Rebecca (@hobnob) brought up the subject and I agreed that it would be a fun project. She found the LensProToGo 52 Week Photo Challenge and it looked the the perfect fit — once a week photo assignment, each week's theme announced at the beginning of the month.

Rebecca and I are Bread Baker's Apprentice "graduates" so this seems like a great way to participate in another group project. I'll be posting my photo each Sunday night in conjunction with the LensProToGo deadline. Be sure to kepp track of Rebecca's progress as well as mine!

The first assignment is to make a self-portrait without you in the photo (something that represents you). I started by gathering various objects and put them on my art table. I took several shots, but they just looked like a big ole mess. I decided to pare down and just pick a few key tools. I'm much happier with how this turned out.

Baking, art, artsy-crafty, photography, being tied to my Mac - all seemed a good representation. What do you think?

See you again next Sunday for Week 2 assignment — "your front door."

Oh, Shut up.

2012-01-04T20:12:00.000-05:00

What I said today to the gremlin voice in my head that whispered,

"Who do you think you are?"

in the form of self-doubt.

I'm working on permanently removing that voice from my head. In fact, I think that's something we ALL need to do, because I'm guessing we've all heard that voice, that nasty little mean voice that tells us we're not good enough. Well I say, screw that guy. I'm living my life on my terms, you rotten bastard, so jog on! (A million trillion bonus points if you know where I got that last phrase.)

"You don't have to live your life the way other people expect you to." -- Chris Guillebeau

I first saw this quote quite a while ago now, I think on Gretchen Rubin's blog, The Happiness Project. She did an interview with Chris and this statement took a few seconds to sink in, but when it did, whoa. It was such a powerful thing to read, kind of hit me as a bit of a revelation, although it's basically just a fact.

But I saw it again today and it seemed to come at the right time, so I started a new art journal and decided to use it as some inspiration (along with a photo of a hat I saw on NPR). The journal is just an old book that I'm painting over, first with gesso then whatever I decide to use. I glued three pages together with mod podge so that the pages would be more rigid. (I learned this book trick during one of Christy Tomlinson's workshops.)

I just used gesso and acrylic paint for these pages. Oh, and pen.

So let's kick that nasty gremlin voice to the curb. Who's with me?

Art Supplies!

2011-12-30T17:21:00.000-05:00

I'll be writing more later about art-related news, but right now I just want to share some of the goodies I picked up at Michaels today.

The bulk of my haul

First of all, let me just say that Michaels does a weird thing to my sense of time (Hobby Lobby is the same way). It creates some sort of time warp vortex thingy where I manage to spend two hours there and have no idea that I've been wandering the aisles that long. It's freaky. (My friend Laura reminded me that bookstores are the same way - YEP!)

Anyway, I went this morning and entered said time warp wherein I managed to find some pretty great things. Some things I knew were on sale and intended to pick up. Others were total and wonderful surprises.

Canson sketch pads were BOGO, so I picked up a 12" x 18" watercolor pad for $14.99 and got a Mix Media sketchbook for free (normally $9.99). Score. I'm close to the end of the first Mix Media journal and have another waiting in the wings, but they're so nice, I figured it wouldn't hurt to have another. I'm excited to have the heavy weight watercolor paper, too, especially the larger size.

As you can see, I also went crazy in the yarn aisle. 11 packages, to be precise. It was all 40% off, so I stocked up. I've added knitting (of a sort) to my list of creative outlets and I'm completely hooked (har). I'm making neck wraps and people are really liking them, so much so that I'm considering opening a etsy shop. I'll keep you posted!

Next up, watercolor pencils.

I already have a set, but I can always use more colors. Plus these were ridiculously cheap. Seriously. They were $4.99 for 24. That's insane. Most run 4x that price. Granted, they're "Artist's Loft" brand which is a ultra cheap line from Michaels, but you can't beat the price, and I've been happy with all of the things I've gotten from that line. I'll be doing a tutorial on a REALLY fun thing you can do with these pencils so stay tuned for that.

This picture just makes me happy. Look at all of the colors. Dreamy sigh.

I was very excited to find the next item as well. I was looking for water soluble oil pastels, but I saw these wax pastels and figured, "Close enough" especially at $9.99.

In the same section I had my FIND OF THE DAY.

As soon as I realized what these were, I gasped, audibly. (I talk to myself under my breath when I shop as it is, but this was a honest to goodness gasp.) They're ink pencils. "Big whoop" you're probably thinking. Here's the deal. After you draw with these pencils, you add water—like you would with watercolor pencils—but these turn to INK. As in, they're permanent when dry. This is big. Huge, even. What this means is that I can layer over the top of anything I create with these and they won't smear or run. The same can't be said of watercolor pencils unless you spray the page with fixative before adding another layer.

They had two kinds of packages for these, a 12 count tin and the 24 count one. The 24 count price wasn't marked but I didn't care. I had a coupon for 50% off one regular priced item and THIS was going to be that item. FYI, I just goggled these and found them on Amazon for only $41.10. They were regularly $59.99 at Michaels! I still saved, but not as much as I thought I did. Don't care. I'm still head-over-heels happy about these.

Next I found some stencils for a great price. I'd been wanting some larger ones, but when you look at traditional scrapbook/art stencils, they tend to be a bit spendy for what they are. I got the smaller ones for $3.99 and the large ones for $5.99.

I picked up a Crafter's Workshop stencil for $4.50 (which was the best price I'd seen) a few weeks ago and love it, but look at the difference in size to the large one from Michaels.

This next item has no right to make me as happy as it does, but I can't help it.

It's just a date stamp—something I'd planned on picking up at an office supply store—but this one had cute little sayings with it and it's the same price as the plain boring one I was going to get. It's from a new line by K&Company called Smash. When I saw the products, I thought, "It's like a non-digital version of pinterest." (Clearly I'm addicted to pinterest. It's impossible not to be, not kidding. ) It's a funky scrapbook/journal/lookbook, or as they describe it, "for the moments and musings that stick™." It looks like a really fun line. I probably should have picked up some of their SMASH pads. They're so cute.

And the last on the list that I'm sharing with you are these:

24" x 30" canvases. The largest I've ever bought and will be the largest art I've ever made. I'll talk about all of this in detail later, but I've signed up for Flora Bowley's Bloom True: the e-course, a five-week painting class. (You might have noticed the button over there on the right). These canvases are equal parts terrifying and exhilarating and I'm so excited to start the course on February 6 and see where it takes me. More later...

Wordy Wednesday — Christmas Baking

2011-12-21T05:58:00.000-05:00

So I did some baking this past weekend. Lots of it. On Saturday, I went to my mom's to bake with her, my sister and my nieces.

We had fun and managed to bake a ton of cookies in a fairly short amount of time.

This was about half of what we made that day.

My mom had made some dough ahead of time and baked the sugar cookies, so between that and the cookies we mixed on the spot, we were the model of efficiency. Fun and productive. Win-win!

Have cookie press. Will travel.

Quick! Look! They're getting along. Aww...

Hooray for making cookies - and memories.

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Sunday was all me. I'd also made all my dough ahead. I knew I had too much to do to try and accomplish it all in one or two days, so the weekend prior then a couple of times through the week, I mixed up batches of cookie dough. All that was left was the baking (and cooling and picture taking and packaging...) and it worked out so nicely that I plan to do future epic baking sessions like that as well. No messing with mixing bowls, measuring cups, ingredients everywhere - then having to clean them to repeat the process. Just lining up pans and baking all day. Awesome.

So here's most of what I made. Links for recipes below photos.

My favorite of the day — Pain d'Amande from Flo Braker (via David Lebovitz). Crispy, nutty, sweet with subtle but noticeable cinnamon. So easy and one of my new favorite cookies. You can keep this dough in the freezer to slice and bake whenever the urge strikes. I love how these looked when the light hit them as I sliced the dough.

Next up...

Molasses Ginger cookies from Farmgirl Fare —Big, chewy, super spicy and a close second to the almond cookies. This was the recipe one of my coworkers had to have. They're good. Really good.

Also from Farmgirl Fare...

Chocolate chip shortbread cookies — she uses toffee bits, but I didn't have any, so I threw in some cinnamon chips along with the mini chocolate chips. Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, not too sweet bites of bliss.

On to a pinterest find...

Lemon crinkle cookies — I wanted to "holiday" this up a bit, so I added cherry flavored dried cranberries. The texture of these is out of this world — slightly crunchy on the outside, super soft and chewy on the inside. I really liked the cranberries in these, but the lemon was too subtle for my taste. I even aded a bit of lemon extract, but I'd double the lemon next time. Still, these were excellent.

And the final one I'm sharing is the savory one of the bunch (apologies for terrible pic)...

Parmesan-Herb Biscotti — I used this recipe after doing a search for "savory biscotti". I love homemade cheesy crackers, but they don't stay crisp or keep very long, but I knew biscotti held up so I figured there had to be a savory version. The original recipe doesn't call for herbs, but I added some Italian spices along with a pinch of red pepper flakes. A nice little kick to go with the cheese and crunch. I halved the recipe. I did make this from start to finish on Sunday, the only dough mixing of the day.

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I also baked snickerdoodles, but can't recall where I found the recipe, so I didn't bother taking pics. It's just your basic snickerdoodle. I also made Browned Butter Rice Krispie Treats that I found at Smitten Kitchen. NOT just your basic treat. So good and so easy. Browned butter makes everything better.

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I packaged everything up and got them ready for gift-giving. I hope you are all having fun with YOUR holiday baking!

Quick Photography Tip - Avoiding Shadows

2011-11-27T16:48:00.001-05:00

I'm not even remotely a pro and honestly feel slightly weird giving photography advice, but I do know this. Where the light is coming from makes a huge difference in your photos. Here's a quick tip for avoiding unwanted shadows in direct sun.

Remember my trip to the corn maze? It was a very sunny day. Which is both good and bad when it comes to photography. Harsh shadows are almost a given in direct sun, especially for someone like me that ISN'T an expert (and relies on Aperture Priority a tad more than I probably should).

I took this picture as we reached the center of the maze. This was direction we entered so I just said, "Stand in front of the flag" and I snapped the shot. Fortunately, I immediately saw my problem.

The sun was at their backs, which meant their faces are all in shadow. Look at the shadows on the ground. You can see how the light is hitting them. I'm also getting a weird lens flare in the left midground (see the green blob?) and the sky is all blown out because the meter is compensating for the shadows.

Easy fix - I moved so that the sun was at my back. You risk squinty faces with subjects looking into the sun, but it worked out here. They are no longer all in shadow. I could compensate for this in post-production because I shoot in RAW, but it's easier to get it right at the time. Plus there are no weird lens flares or blown out clouds.

In photography, light is everything. Use it to your advantage!

p.s. photos are pretty much straight out of the camera, so no post processing with these (sharpening, straightening, contrast, cropping, etc.).

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T09:01:00.001-05:00

Just a quick note to say Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers and a great big "thank you" to ALL of my readers. I'm still surprised and humbled when people come here to read what I have to say and see what I've been up to in the kitchen or elsewhere.

For you, I am grateful. I hope you have a wonderful day full of all the things you are grateful for.

Photo Walk - RED

2011-11-13T08:17:00.001-05:00

Although I didn't mention it in the 6 'til 40 list I had in my post, one of the things I've wanted to do for a long time is go on a "photo walk." For me, that meant taking my camera when I went for one of my walks around the neighborhood. I was always concerned that I would look silly or people would think I was weird for walking around with my camera. Or worse - freak out that I had a camera and think I was a weirdo stalker-type taking pictures of their yard/house/sidewalk or canvasing the neighborhood with some evil intent. Yeah, I've got issues. But I have read about a few too many incidents where photographers were harassed or given grief over taking street photos. But I digress.

I decided that a photo walk would go on my list and on October 22, when the weather was just too nice to stay indoors, I decided to grab my camera and go for a walk. Before I did, though, I asked for suggestions on a theme for my walk on Twitter. My friend Barb piped up with "I vote Project Red." I thought, "Why not?" and headed out. I knew I'd find red leaves since it's autumn, but wasn't sure what else I would see. I needn't have feared. Having "red" running through my mind meant I saw it all around, like when you buy a new car and suddenly see that car everywhere.

I stepped outside my door and found red instantly.

And about five steps later, this:

I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that, hey! This isn't going to be as hard as I thought.

In fact, it was fun! Yes, there were plenty of red leaves.

But there were every day things I wouldn't have thought about had I not had the prompt.

I even found a theme within a theme - red litter. Kind of depressing, not exactly elegant, but interesting (to me).

Dying flowers took on a new life:

Common driveway sights become inspiration:

And when I looked at the temperature, I smiled... for a couple of reasons. *click*

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This is part of my 6 'til 40 list – a list of things all the fun things I want to do but have been putting off. I plan to tick off an many of them as I can before April 2 to celebrate turning the big 4-0.

Quick Tip – Making Use of Expired Herbs

2011-11-06T09:37:00.000-05:00

I tend to go a bit nuts when I order from Penzeys. It's easy to do! I put in an epic order usually once a year (just received one this week, as a matter of fact) but I still had some bulk basil from nearly 2 years ago. It's still usable but not ideal, so after I filled my jar, I still had some left but hated the idea of tossing it out.

*lightbulb*

When you find yourself with old herbs, here's a quick tip.

Put them in a small sauce pan with about a cup of water and simmer gently for as long as they are fragrant. Add water as needed. Your whole house will smell wonderful in just minutes. Combine spices as appropriate and toss in some orange peels or lemon peels if those scents will go together. An easy and natural whole house air freshener.

My house smells like basil now. Mmmm...

Corn Maze Adventures

2011-10-28T19:28:00.000-04:00

About 15 minutes from my house is a huge farm that creates a corn maze every year and is open from about the end of September until Halloween. I don't know how long they've been doing it, but long enough that I've told myself repeatedly that I'd like to go. I was hoping to go last year when a friend came to visit for a long weekend, but the weather didn't cooperate.

But on the 15th, I finally made the trip. The weather was windy but lovely — and I got to check the very first item off my 6 'til 40 list. Win-win!

I told my sister I wanted to go hoping she and her kids would come, too = extra fun and extra photo opportunities. She was game and on Saturday afternoon, she picked me up and we headed to Leininger Farms to walk the corn maze. Her oldest was with us and her middle girl was coming with our parents. So it was a whole family affair.

My sister and me

Except. My mom was creeped out by the idea of spiders in the corn, so she was NOT game for going through the maze. She was cracking me up. I think it was one of those childhood trauma things rearing it's head and she just wasn't having anything to do with walking though 7 foot high corn.

Well, she needn't have worried because these guys have this thing DOWN. It's pretty obvious that they plan out the maze even before they plant the corn, so the paths are made of packed dirt and really wide. It was really well maintained and really easy to get through. As a bonus, the corn blocked the wind AND the sun was shining like crazy. Beautiful!

Me and K

Lisa's middle girl, M, turned out to be quite the map reader. She became the official guide and earned the nickname "the human GPS." My sister and I joked that she certainly didn't get that from our side of the family, or at least from HER. Or me. I can read a map OK, but my sense of direction is pretty abysmal. I had no idea where we were it that maze, but my argument is that I was too busy taking pics and letting them lead the way.

M- the human GPS

One of the fun things about the maze is that they set up stations at various points along the maze. Each station is marked on the map they hand out and has a question pertaining to the theme of the maze. This year the maze was in the shape of Indiana and all of the questions had to do with the state.

You are here.

Many were really easy, some we THOUGHT were easy and weren't. We missed 3 or 4 out of about 14 or 15. M quickly discovered a way to "cheat" on the answers. The questions were multiple choice and there was a hole punch at each station, so you punched either A B C or D. M saw the punched circles scattered on the ground and found out what everyone else was answering. It was pretty funny.

Scattered answers

We made it to the middle...

The center!

And kept on going.

M & K

We even found a very elusive someone while we were in there.

Hey! I found him!

So if you're wondering where Waldo is, last time I checked, he was walking around a corn maze.

We kept going until we hit all of the stations (or so we thought - we missed one) then walked over to the HUGE selection of pumpkins and gourds. And went to town.

And my sister found a teeny tiny pumpkin/gourd. Awwww.

It was a blast! I'm so glad I went and got to spend time with my sister and two of my nieces and visit with the 'rents.

In case you want to see even more of the adventure, here's the whole flickr album:

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This is the first of many adventures I plan on having over the next 5 months or so (yep, already down a month - yipes). I'm turning 40 on April 2, 2012 and I've created a list of fun things I want to do between now an then. Stay tuned for more 6' til 40 happenings!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake

2011-10-25T07:00:00.001-04:00

Right off the bat, I'm going to let you know that I'm not including any recipes directly in this post.

Wait, don't leave!

There will be links to all of the recipes I used, though. This post is more about the IDEA of this cake. It takes basic parts — straight up yellow cake, my favorite buttercream frosting, chocolate chip cookies and a simple no-bake chocolate chip cookie "dough"— and brings them all together into something larger than the sum of it's parts.

Another confession — I first made this cake in February. I know. A thousand apologies, really. I totally meant to write it up way back then, but I don't even know why I didn't. But a couple of weeks ago, a co-worker specifically requested this cake for his birthday. As he put it, "It was the best cake I've ever had." Granted this kid would eat just about anything you gave him because he's a 24-ish year old guy and 24-ish year old guys will eat just about anything you give them. They're just grateful for the free meal. But I still took it as a huge compliment and happily whipped up another cake. Two cakes, actually (they were small).

And 12 cupcakes.

Because I'm crazy.

The inspiration for this cake came from two very talented bakers and bloggers who both happened to be named Amanda. Over at Fake Ginger, Amanda not only bakes beautiful deserts and breads, she's also a wonderful cook with a large collection of delicious and easy recipes. She's a mom of three little boys, so this woman knows the importance of quick, tasty food!

It was Amanda's Cookie Dough Cupcakes that caught my eye. Beautifully photographed and, hello? Cookie dough cupcakes? Sign me up! Obviously the flavors and the no-bake dough are where I got the general idea. The cake part, though, came from another Amanda.

If you follow baking blogs at ALL, you already know Amanda at i am baker. You do know i am baker, right? Do yourself a favor and just scroll through any of her recipe archives. Your jaw will drop and your stomach will growl. This woman is an amazingly talented baker with a flair for making the most over the top incredible cakes that will blow your mind. I'm not kidding.

It was her Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake that became the inspiration for the assembly of this cake. Go take a look at hers, but promise to come back, OK?

You start with a basic cake.

Wait! No, first you want to make cookies. Use your very favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. My new fave is from David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert. You can find the recipe here, but I highly recommend you check out the entire book. It's scrumptious.

Make small and medium size cookies if you're making a full-size layer cake.

NOW let's make the cake.

After learning how easy it is to make cake from scratch, I almost always use the 1-2-3-4 cake** you've seen on here a number of times before. There's a reason I keep using it. I tend to be fickle with a lot of recipes, but not this one. I haven't looked around for a new one because this never lets me down. It's always delicious and I always get compliments on it. It's also sturdier than a box mix, so If you plan on making this cake, I would honestly suggest you make a scratch cake.

**PLEASE NOTE: This cake will require 2- 9" cake pans. The recipe link above is for a 9" and a 6" that are cut in half. This cake just uses 2- 9" cakes that are stacked, not sliced in half. Just level the tops with knife before assembly. My apologies for any confusion!

(Unfortunately the frosting is the same color as the cake here, so it's nearly impossible to see the thick layer of frosting. Bummer. But this was a semi-failed attempt at a brown sugar frosting, so a white buttercream will show up better.)

Next you'll need a basic buttercream. You can use my go-to Best Ever recipe, or your favorite version.

Then you'll need the cookie "dough". Mix it right after you put the cakes in the oven so that it has a chance to set up a bit in the fridge. Makes it easier to form little balls of dough.

And here's where the magic happens. And where the Chocolate Covered Cherry cake inspiration comes in to play. I love the idea of a surprise center in a cake or cupcake and the idea of having the super thick frosting layer, so Amanda's cake stuck in my head and burst forth when I had the epiphany for this cake. Slather a thick layer of frosting in with a bunch of cookie dough balls. Sort of like cookie dough ice cream, but as the center of a cake.

I took the chilled cookie "dough" and made a bunch of small balls.

Then went to work assembling the cake. I put some frosting in a bowl, then added some dough balls, slapped it on the bottom layer.

Added more frosting, filled the gaps with more dough balls then added the top layer...

Then crumb coated the entire cake.

Popped in in the fridge to set up, then finished frosting it. I added medium size cookies around the base and small cookies along the top edge, sprinkled mini chips on the top and (literally) threw mini chips on the side. (It was a hoot. I was flinging chips all over the place.)

Some would stick, some wouldn't, but I just kept flinging until it was coated to my liking. For the 6" cakes I made for my co-worker's birthday, I just used medium size cookies, which took up the entire sides, then sprinkled chips on the top.

For the cupcakes, I just cut out a cone of cake, stuffed the hole with the no bake cookie "dough"...

(I totally ate almost all of that pile of cake bits. I'm not going to lie.)

...and piped frosting over the top using the Wilton 1M tip, my go-to tip. (It's only about $2 - you totally need to have one, if you don't already. They make your cupcakes look super purdy.)

Topped with mini chips, the cupcakes are ready to go.

So what do you think? Pretty awesome, right? If you have a few hours to wile away on a weekend, give this cake a shot. Someone will probably tell you it's the best cake they've ever had. For reals.

Pumpkin Yeast Bread — Three Ways

2011-10-22T10:10:00.000-04:00

One batch of bread dough, three different-yet-similar final breads. Brace yourself for a post of epic proportions. I'm not even kidding. This thing is LOOOONG. Ready? OK, good. Let's get to it.

I'll keep the words to a minimum because 1) I took a ridiculous amount of pictures so they'll take up a ton space and 2) let's face it, you'd *rather* look at (mostly) pretty pictures {I apologize in advance for the large number of blurry pics} and get to the good stuff, anyway — the recipes!

Let's start with the base — the dough.

It's vigorous. I hope you've got a big bowl.
("I hope you've got a big trunk, 'cause I'm gonna put my BIKE in it." Name that movie.)

Pumpkin Yeast Bread
adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients
1/2 cup warm water
2 Tbsp SAF instant yeast or 2 packets of rapid rise yeast
2/3 cup warm (NOT HOT) whole milk (or 2%)
2 large eggs, beaten
1-1/2 cups canned pumpkin (This is *almost* the entire 15oz can. I was tempted to just use it all. If you do, you'll just need to adjust the amount of flour needed.)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (can use light if you want, I just wanted a more robust flavor)
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon*
1/2 heaping tsp ginger*
1/2 tsp cardamom*
1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground cloves*
1/8 tsp nutmeg*
4 cups bread flour
2+ cups whole wheat flour

*I'm very willy-nilly with my spices. I just sort of toss them in until it seems like the right amount, so these measurements are approximate. I know, not exactly helpful. Use what YOU like and how much you like. Remember this makes 2 LARGE or three good-size loaves, so what might seem like too much probably isn't. I LOVE cinnamon so I tend to go crazy with it. Disclaimer over.

Directions
In bowl of stand mixer, add 4 cups of bread flour, yeast, salt, spices. Mix until blended. Add water, milk, eggs, pumpkin, oil, and sugar. Beat well about 2 minutes. Add whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup at a time until the dough comes together and switch to the dough hook. Knead until the dough clears the sides (you'll need to scrape them down once or twice) adding just a little bit of flour at a time. The dough will eventually clear the bottom as well. The dough should be slightly tacky but not sticky and should be fairly smooth. This will take about 10 minutes all told.

Put dough in a large, oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap (spray the wrap with oil so that the dough won't stick when it BLOWS UP. *ahem*) and put int a warm spot to ~~blow up~~ double, about 1 hour.

Get ready for the FUN to begin.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I divided this beast into three pieces, each weighing in around 20.5 ounces.

With the first piece, I made the easiest of the three — pull-apart bread. (Keep the other two covered while you work so they don't dry out.)

Roll, slather, cut, layer, cut, stack, put in pan. Wait....

Told you it was vigorous. Here's the pan of pull-apart bread after about 45min to an hour. HUGE and ready for the oven.

Oh, gracious. Would you LOOK at the bottom of that bread. Dreamy.

And here's the crunchy, sweet, cinnamon-y top. Equally dreamy.

Pumpkin Pull-Apart Bread
Ingredients
1/3 pumpkin bread dough
1/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
6 Tbsp butter, melted, divided

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray loaf pan with cooking spray, coating entire inside.
Using 1/3 of the pumpkin dough, pat into rectangle and roll out to approximately 18" x 10" or thereabouts. Mix together sugars and cinnamon in small bowl. Spread about 4 Tbsp of the melted butter over dough and cover completely with sugar mixture, reserving a tablespoon or two for topping.

Cut in half lengthwise and stack the two strips. Cut stacked strips in 2" sections. Stack these and place in well greased loaf pan. Drizzle remaining butter over the loaf and sprinkle reserved sugar over the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until top crest the pan about 1/2" to 1", about 45 minutes.

Bake approximately 30-40 minutes, until internal temp of bread is 190°F. Top will get dark. Cover after 20 minutes to prevent it from burning or getting too dark.

Remove from oven and let rest on wire rack just a minute or two. Run knife around edges of pan to make sure it's not sticking, then turn out onto foil or parchment paper. Let it sit there for a minute or so to let the gooey goodness distribute a bit. Flip again so the top is upright. Let cool slightly (5-10 minutes) before diving in. The sugar will be HOT and basically like caramel (oh, yeah) so it's easy to burn your fingers if you start devouring immediately. It'll be worth the wait.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Next up: Monkey Bread. But not just any old monkey bread. Oh, no. This is...

Cream Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin Monkey Bread

Did you're eyes just flutter and roll to the back of your head like you were going to pass out? It's ok. Mine did when I had the idea for this, then it was all I could do not to laugh like a mad scientist. "EUREKA! Bwah HA HA HAAAAAA!" *drumming tips of fingers together* I was just sure it was going to be amazing. I was right.

You're going to mix up a block of cream cheese with powdered sugar and spices.

Then you roll out the dough in no particular size, just roll it to about 1/4" thickness but no more than that. Thinner is ok.

Then cut into 1-1/2" to 2" squares. Cover most of the dough, then get to work. I'm not going to lie. This is time consuming, but oh so worth it.

Shape...

Dunk...

And repeat with all of the dough. Put in a greased bundt pan, cover and let rise...

Bake...

Nearly pass out again when you turn this out onto a serving plate...

Then bliss out when you take your first bite...

It's best cooled to warm-not-hot. So, if you can resist, let it sit about 30 minutes.

Cream Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin Monkey Bread
Ingredients
Filling
8oz (1 pkg) cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 heaping tsp cinnamon

Coating
1/3 pumpkin bread dough
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
dash nutmeg
any other spices you like - ginger, cloves, cardamom - go crazy
1 stick butter, melted

Directions
Spray bundt pan with cooking spray, coating entire insides well.
Filling: In medium bowl mix all ingredients until smooth. I used my hand mixer, but you can mix by hand with a spoon, just make sure the cream cheese is room temp - it'll be easier that way.
Coating: Melt butter in small bowl. Mix sugars and spices in another small bowl. Grab a slotted spoon and a large regular spoon.
Roll dough to approx 1/4" thick but not more than that. Thinner is ok. Cut into squares, covering dough as you work. Place a dollop of cream cheese mixture in the center of the square then pull edges of dough around the filling, sealing as best you can. Roll into smooth-ish ball shape and put in butter. Scoop out with slotted spoon and tap on edge of bowl to drain excess. Drop into sugar bowl, turning to coat with regular spoon. Place in prepared bundt pan. Repeat with remaining dough layering the coated pieces as you go. You'll end up with extra cream cheese, butter and sugar mix. No worries. You'll use them in the next bread. OR if you're only making this bread, save them to slather on pancakes or toast!

Drizzle a little bit of butter over the pan of dough and sprinkle on a bit more sugar, too. Cover and let rise about 45 min.

Bake in 350°F oven 40-45 minutes or until internal temp is 190°F. Cover the pan with foil if it's getting too dark.

Remove from oven and run knife around all the edges. Grab a large plate or serving platter. Place on top of the bundt pan. With one hand on the bottom of the plate and the other holding the pan (with an oven mitt or towel) flip them together keeping bundt pan on top of the plate. Let the weight of the bread pull it it from the pan. You might need to tap it a bit. Slowly pull the pan off the bread and marvel and what you've just created. TA-DA!!!

Let cool about 30 minutes before eating. I know you're not going to, but that's OK. I didn't either. But it DID taste better once it cooled a bit. Bring this to Thanksgiving or your next get together. Be prepared for the deluge of compliments and the "OMG-this-is-amazing" you'll receive.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Are you still with me? I'm so glad. We're almost done and this one is super simple because we've got everything ready to go since we're using the leftovers from the other bread(s).

Roll, slather, sprinkle, rollup, seal, plop in pan, wait...

Bake...

Realize you didn't roll the dough tightly enough...

Then shrug your shoulders and eat it anyway 'cause it's AWESOME.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Swirl Pumpkin Bread
Basically, this is a straight up cinnamon swirl bread but you use the cream cheese mixture in place of butter. Easy peasy. So if you take away anything from this post, just try this with your favorite cinnamon swirl bread recipe. You'll thank me.

Ingredients
1/3 Pumpkin bread dough
Cinnamon Sugar mix
Cream Cheese mixture (cream cheese, powdered sugar, cinnamon)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Spray loaf pan with cooking spray.
Roll out dough to approximately 10" x 10". Smooth cream cheese mixture over dough then evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mix. Roll dough pulling tightly to avoid gaping voids. Smooth edge into roll then pinch the ends to seal and tuck under. Place in greased pan, cover and let rise about 45 min or until dough crests edge of pan. Bake until internal temp is 190°F about 35-40 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Remove and place on cooling rack. Immediately turn out of pan on to rack. let cool before slicing and serving. Bread will smash and mush if you try to cut it while hot. This is really good toasted and I'm guessing it would make out-of-this-world French toast. Give it a shot!

WHEW! You made it all the way through. What a trooper. If you try any (or all) of these recipes, please let me know. I'd love to hear about it in the comments or shoot me an email.

ADDENDUM: I've linked this post up to the Red Star yeast Holiday Recipe Swap. Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Red Star Yeast.

Twisted Cheese Bread

2011-10-16T16:33:00.001-04:00

A few years ago, Dwight bought me 3 or 4 bread books for my birthday. One was the Bread Baker's Apprentice. If you've been with me for a while, you'll know that I joined a baking group that made every bread in the book from start to finish.

One of the other books he bought was Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. I'm pretty sure it would take nearly the rest of my live to bake through this one given that it has approximately 3 trillion recipes. OK, not really. There are at LEAST 200, though, so I don't have any plans to bake my way through the whole thing. But I hadn't made bread in what felt like eons, so I picked up this hefty book and searched for something that would strike my fancy. And involved cheese.

I found this one. It has beer (or you can use milk) plus 2 kinds of cheese. Some of you might gasp and/or cringe when I tell you that one of the cheeses used is... process American cheese. BUT! The other is Swiss. Will that help you get over your shock at the American cheese? No? What if I tell you that this bread rocks my socks and makes amazing sandwich bread? I knew I'd change your mind.

Twisted Cheese Bread
adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads
Yields 2 medium loaves

Ingredients
1 12oz bottle of can or beer, or 1-1/2 cups milk (I used a bottle of honey wheat beer.)
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
8oz process American cheese (recipe says you can use process Swiss if you prefer)
5-6 cups bread flour (can use AP if you don't have bread flour on hand)
1 Tbsp SAF instant yeast (or 2 packets if you don't have a large jar of yeast like I do)
8oz natural Swiss cheese cut into 1/2" cubes (Just realized the recipe calls for 1/4" cubes. I misread and made my large. Either size should be fine. Smaller cubes will be a bit easier to incorporate and will mean smaller but more frequent pockets of cheese.)

Directions
In medium sauce pan, combine beer (or milk), water, sugar, salt, butter and process cheese. Cook over medium heat stirring frequently until mixture is hot and cheese is nearly melted. It won't completely melt and will be thick. Remove from heat and let cool until temperature reads about 110-115°F on instant read thermometer. If it's too hot, it will kill the yeast.

In bowl or stand mixer, put 2 cups of flour and yeast. Add the warm (not hot!) cheese mixture and beat with paddle attachment for about 3 minutes on medium speed. Add remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough becomes too thick for the paddle. Switch to the dough hook and continue adding SMALL amounts of flour until the dough clears the sides of the bowl. It should be tacky but not slack or sticky. Knead for about 5 minutes.

Turn out on to lightly floured surface and add Swiss cheese cubes. Knead in the cheese until incorporated and evenly distributed. They'll want to pop out. Just poke them back in.

Place dough into a large, oiled bowl turning the dough once to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let proof in warm place for about an hour. It should double in size.

Prepare 2 loaf pans by spraying entire insides with cooking spray.

Turn proofed dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide in half. Roll out to about 1/2" thickness, about 6" wide and 12"long. Cut the dough in three strips down the length but leave them together at one end. Braid the three strands, pinching the ends together and tucking them under. Place into prepared pan and repeat with the other half of dough.

Spray the tops with cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap. Place in warm, draft-free place and let rise until the tops crest the pans about 1/2", 45 minutes or so.

Preheat the oven to 350°F about 15 minutes prior to baking. Remove plastic wrap and place pans in oven on the middle rack. You might want to have a large baking sheet on a rack under the loaves. The cheese bubbled out on mine and smoked like crazy before I got a pan under them. Here's what I like to do to avoid a smoking oven and setting off the smoke alarm. Fill the sheet pan with water before putting it in the over. The water is less about steam and more about having a place for the cheese to drip and not burn. If you just put a plain sheet pan in the oven, it will keep the cheese from dripping to the oven floor, but the cheese will still burn.

Bake about 45-50 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 190°F or the bread sounds hollow when tapping on the bottom crust. If you plan on baking much bread, it's best to invest in an instant read thermometer. You can find them for less than $10 at the grocery store or a discount store. They're handy to have for many uses other than bread baking. You might have to cover the loaves with foil after about 30 minutes so the tops don't get too brown.

Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Run a knife around the edges, especially where the cheese has oozed out so that it will release from the pan. Turn out and let cool before slicing.

This bread toasts up nicely and makes excellent sandwich bread.

What I'm going to do — 6 'til 40

2011-10-13T19:40:00.001-04:00

As you might recall, almost 2 weeks ago, I posted that it was 6 months until my 40th birthday. I threw out the idea – and question – about setting a goal to help me feel a bit better when I hit the big 4-0. So what did I decide?

Well, first of all, I stressed out about it. 'Cause that's what I do: make mountains out of mole hills and stress about making decisions on just about anything. It's the reason I hate shopping, for instance. I'm paralyzed by choices and then get overwhelmed, buy something I shouldn't have and the get pissed. Yay! Aren't I fun?!

I fully realize that most decisions on any given day are about as far from life threatening as you can get, so just make a decision and call it done, right? So I tried to chill out and I took my friend Barb's comment to heart. She wrote, "My only suggestion is pick something you'll enjoy the whole time, not just something you'll look back on and be impressed with but something you'll love at each and every step."

Wow, what a novel idea. Do something fun. Seriously, it was the gentle smack upside the head that I needed to hear (thanks, Barb). I hadn't even been thinking "FUN" just "SET A GOAL AND DO IT" — no wonder I was stressing. So I decided to do something fun. LOTS of something fun, actually.

I made a list. Not a "bucket list" because this is just for the next six months, but a list of all the little and not so little things I've wanted to do for a long time but keep putting off. Why? Various reasons. "I have to work" seems to be a popular reason. "It makes me a little nervous" is another.

None of the things on my list are earth-shattering, and some of you will be going, "Really? She has to put that on a goal list? Isn't that something people just DO?" But that's the idea; do the things that I SHOULD be doing to have a good time in this one chance we have at life. I'm sure I'll be adding to the list as I remember things, but here are some things I have on it now.

Go through a corn maze (I live in Indiana. Can you believe I've never done this??)
Go to the cupcake shop downtown. Ask if I can take pictures while I'm there (asking this is what makes me nervous)
Go to various local bakeries (Sense a theme? I want to sample each places "Best" or "signature" item... and see if I can make it better. *wink*)
Take Dwight to the Farmer's Market. He's never been to the one in South Bend and it's great. I know he'd like it.
Get a massage (or three)
Go to the local museum
Go to the Chicago museums (haven't been to any of them {except the Art Institute} since I was a kid. Very sad.)
Learn how to use the photography lights Dwight bought me for my birthday.
Join LibriVox and record a book (or chapter)
Hire a photographer for a photo shoot for just me and Dwight. We did boring old Olan Mills shots for our engagement photos. I LOVE the current style of couples photography and want some of us.
Go to the winery in Bristol
Throw a tea party
Learn how to use chop sticks
Have a smores party in the winter (use the fireplace for toasting marshmallows {note to self: get the chimney cleaned!!})

What do you think? Sound like fun? I think it's going to be GREAT!

Wordless Wednesday — More Fall Color

2011-10-12T07:03:00.000-04:00

From my walk on Sunday.

Fall Colors

2011-10-09T18:02:00.000-04:00

I just had to take photos of these beautiful leaves after I acquired them on a walk last Thursday. I couldn't help but pick up a leaf that caught my eye.

Then one turned into five, which turned into 15.

They were so pretty I just couldn't help myself. Leaves are changing fast and furious around here, and falling will equal vigor.

I hate to see them go, knowing that means winter is whispering in the background.

By my goodness, it certainly is breathtaking while it happens. Isn't fall wonderful?

p.s. I saw some leaves move in our sad looking flower garden and knew it wasn't the wind. I went to investigate and found this little tree frog and his buddy. And by "buddy" I mean "dinner," at least that's what I assume Mr. Frog wanted with Mr. Bug. I got too close for Mr. Frog's comfort so he hopped off just after I took this photo.

6 'til 40

2011-10-02T17:48:00.000-04:00

Six months ago today I turned 39. Which means six months from today I'll turn 40. *gulp* There's a better than average chance I'll not handle that well. Just being honest. But I'd like to try to mitigate that by setting some sort of goal. I have six months. What can I achieve?

I've been thinking about it, and a lot of things are swirling through my head. Should it be something physical, i.e. learn how to do a one hand pushup or 100 push ups in a row, something like that? Or should it be a creativity challenge: take a photo every day, learn a new art technique, write here every day, work my way though another cookbook? Should I take this 6 months to finally declutter the way I've wanted to for so long but just never have?

I still don't know what it will be, but I think it should be concrete, measurable, and broken down in steps so that I can reach it in six months.

I want it to be challenging, but something I actually WANT to do or something that should get me closer to an even larger goal.

I'm reminded of a woman I read about on the Weight Watchers forums years ago when I was an active member. She was at her goal weight and decided to set challenges for herself to keep her motivated and on plan. One of the things she did was train to be in a body building competition. For real. This was a woman that had lost a lot of weight, was no spring chicken and I don't think had ever exercised much before WW. But she did it. She worked for it and made it happen.

I'm not saying THAT is what I want to do, but the way she went about it is pretty cool. I know some people operate like this on a daily basis. It's just part of their nature to set goals, make plans and execute them. Unfortunately, that's not me. I'm a go-about-my-days-without-much-of-a-plan kind of gal and I'm drifting too much for my liking, something that bothers me more and more, especially as I near *gulp* 40.

So what about you? Do you regularly set goals and make the necessary plans to make them happen? Or have you done something like I'm talking about here—have a future date in mind and work methodically toward it with a plan in hand?

I'd love to hear about it! Share in the comments, or link to a blog post, if you have something similar on your own blog (or a blog you read).

Halloween Canvas

2011-09-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

Although I'm behind on just about everything else going on in my life, I somehow managed to get ahead of the game on this one thing — my Halloween Witch mixed media canvas.

I had the background, or at least some of the background, done for some time. I had a purple canvas and some leftover paint. I combined them, knowing it would be a fun start to a Halloween background, then set it aside. A few weeks ago, I went back to that canvas and finished it up.

Using techniques I learned in the She Art Workshop, I came up with the witch, then used some newly purchased burlap and the end of a ruined paintbrush to make her broom. The paintbrush handle was already that bright yellow, so I just left it that way. The burlap is just frayed, wrapped around the end and hot glued. Then I took a strip of non-frayed burlap and wrapped it around the top to finish it off.

The poison label is one I found on Flickr here. Flickr is a wonderful resource for finding free printables and ephemera. Just do a search for whatever key words you're looking for, and loads of images are available. Check with each to see what permissions you have regarding use. To find this label, I searched for "free Halloween ephemera". Change to "free Halloween printable" and all sorts of other fun images come up. Pinterest is another great resource for free printables.

I found the font I used at dafont.com. I love that site and use it ALL the time for work and for personal use. They have tons of fonts all separated by category so it's pretty easy to find what you want. I found this font — Deutche Zierschrif — under "Gothic > Medieval". While dafont is my personal favorite, there are a number of other free fonts sites as well, such as Urban Fonts, Font River, and 1001 Fonts, just to name a few.

I'm mostly really happy with how this turned out. Now I just need to go finish all of the other half-started projects I have scattered around. I'm really good at starting things. Finishing is the real trick!

Wordless Wednesday — I'm really going to miss summer

2011-08-31T07:00:00.001-04:00

How I did It: Art Journaling

2011-08-20T21:22:00.001-04:00

You might have noticed that I have a "Big Idea Festival" badge on the left side of my blog. The Big Idea Festival, Words to Live By, is a free, 12-day workshop where each day, a different instructor gives a word of the day, and the participants use that as inspiration for their pages. Most participants are scrapbookers, but some, like me, are treating it as an art journalling class.

I've been getting some VERY sweet compliments on my pages in the gallery section of the workshop, and one person asked if I could elaborate on how I create my pages, the layers etc. So I took some still photos of the page and also shot a very amateurish video on Dwight's iPod, to walk through the steps. I seemed easier than typing it all out here.

Before I get into it, though, I do have to give a shout-out to Christy Tomlinson, a crazy-talented mixed media artist and creator of the She Art Workshop (and other workshops) where I learned a lot of the techniques I use. If you have any desire to do mixed media work, I highly suggest Christy's classes. She's incredibly generous with her talent and is just darling.

Now on to the show.

Here's a still of the complete page along with a shot of the supplies (most of them, anyway). I've labeled each supply and the place it's used on the page.

1. Acrylic paint
2. Roller stamp with more or less illegible script, perfect for texture
3. Watercolors
4. Book Paper from Chronicles of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader (my favorite in the series)
5. Scrapbook paper, used on bottom right
6. Stylized flower stamp
7. Starbucks brochure
8. Flower border stamp
9. Gear stamp
10. Punchinella (sequin waste)
11. Plastic thingy I found at a craft store. You weave on it or something.
12. Permaball pen for doodling
13. More scrapbook paper, used at top of page.
14. More book paper, from an old anthology of Shakespeare works. Page is from Much Ado About Nothing.
15. Bubble wrap
16. Martha Stewart butterfly stamps (found on sale at Michaels - score!)

Here are some detail shots of the page.

I hope you enjoyed this. Now that the cat's out of the bag, I'll probably be sharing more art pieces here. It's something I've been meaning to do for a little while now.

Tree Frog...not in a tree

2011-08-18T21:55:00.003-04:00

Isn't it cool? I love these guys. This one was hanging on to the side of the house between the garage door and wall. We're pretty sure he was hanging out catching bugs.

Last year I found this guy (gal?) snoozing in a lily.

They're all over the trees (and flowers and house) around here. All different kinds of tree frogs, in various sizes and colors. They make the biggest racket at night...and I LOVE it.

The best part about summer cooling down is having the windows open so I can hear them as I drift off to sleep. I'm sure it would drive some people batty, but for me, it's like a lullaby. A raucous, nothing-sounds-quite-like-it symphony of nature, right outside my windows.

It makes me smile every night.

Check out the markings. He's (she's?) green on the back, like leaves (don't the darker markings look a little like butterflies?) yet tan and brown on the underside - like a tree. Ain't nature grand?

I love this spot on the side of his (her?) head. It looks like bark. Awesome.

What a Difference Four Years Can Make

2011-08-08T18:43:00.002-04:00

Like so many things in life, time has a way of sneaking up on you and making changes right under your nose. Your kids (or nieces) go from little babies to young ladies in the blink of an eye. And in my case, the plants that at first looked swallowed up by the size of the bed now spill over into the yard, overfill the once seemingly large empty space, and transform it into a lush sanctuary.

At the beginning, four years might have sounded like a long way off, but it happened in the blink of an eye, or so it would seem. Plants were added, moved, divided. Furniture was stolen (really) and a pergola was added. A wall was removed and a hot tub added. So many little changes, bit by bit, all adding up to big changes.

Take a look.

First of all, not every change has been for the better. This bed has been overrun by a particularly virulent ground cover. It needs to die.

But most of it has been really good.

The tulips in this bed always get eaten by something. We're pretty sure it's deer. They chew off the young leaves and SOMEtimes they miss the flower head so that we get a few flowers. They leave the daffodils alone, though. It the current pic, they're long done for the season. By the way, the hostas around this bed all came from splitting up just two larger hostas. We can't grow what we'd like in our yard because of the shade, but we can grow the HECK out of hostas!

Isn't this something? The tulips still bloom like the before pic, but now the day lilies are huge. They started out as TINY single bulbs and have multiplied steadily each year. It's quite a sight!

This is the furniture that was stolen. We're guessing they took it to sell as scrap. But now this corner of the house and yard is incredible. All of the plants have grown up to create a really beautiful space. You know those goofy self-portraits I took? I was on the deck. Oh, and my About Me pic is set there, too.

We're pretty darn thrilled with how the yard has grown over the years.

Blueberry Crumble Pie

2011-07-25T06:57:00.002-04:00

So you might have seen where Dwight and I picked pound after pound of blueberries and thought to yourself, "What the heck is she going to do with all of those berries?" Aside from shoving handful after delicious handful directly into my pie hole... I made pie. Twice. And then I shoved slice after delicious slice of pie into my pie hole. Mmmm...

Up until last year, I'd never had blueberry pie. The thought of it made me want to vomit. Quite literally. See, when I was about 9 or 10 years old, I got sick on a day when I'd had pancakes with blueberry syrup that morning. I don't recall if I liked them when they went down, but they were NOT good coming back up. *Urp*

Since then, I'd been completely horrified by anything containing liquid-y blueberries or even eating fresh berries. I could eat blueberry muffins, or scones — something like that — but never, ever anything like pie, or even a blueberry-filled breakfast/granola bar or cookie. If the blueberries were not evenly distributed in individual form throughout a baked good, forget it. I was totally grossed out.

When Dwight insisted on making blueberry pie last year after our massive haul, I was sure that pie was going to be all his. But then he made me taste it. "Just TRY it. One bite." Fine. Oh my goodness. Much to my surprise, I thought it was amazing. And I didn't throw up. HOORAY! I became a blueberry pie convert and looked forward to making some with this year's berries.

The company I work for printed a cookbook for a local non-profit organization with recipes submitted by regular home cooks. Pretty much your typical church or school-type of community cookbook. I got to design the project, so I was able to see all of the recipes. A few caught my eye, but the one I just had to make was called "Blueberry Pudding Pie." Odd name, but it sounded good. This is a slight variation on that pie. What I love about this (aside from the fact that it's amazingly good) is that you don't use traditional pie crust. I'm a pie-crust-a-phobe. Many people are afraid of yeast (I have no such qualms) but ask me to make a pie crust and I'll break into a sweat. Which is why I buy these:

Yes, yes I do.

But this pie uses an oat-based loose crust that gets pressed into the bottom and sprinkled over the top. Let's check it out!

Blueberry Crumble Pie
(a.k.a Blueberry Pudding Pie, but I like my name better)

Ingredients
Crust:
3/4 cup butter (1-1/2 sticks), slightly softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Sauce:
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup water

3-4 cups (or more) blueberries (*see notes)
1 tbsp lemon juice
zest of one lemon (or 1/2 tsp dried lemon peel**)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Sauce:
Whisk together sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Make sure all of the cornstarch is completely in blended into the sugar. It'll avoid the problem of having clumpy cornstarch. Whisk in cinnamon, then whisk in water. Heat over medium heat stirring constantly until the sauce boils and thickens. Remove from heat and let cool while preparing the crust.

Crust:
Combine all crust ingredients in large mixing bowl using a pastry blender or process in food processor. I used a food process, but mine is small, so I did half at a time.

Grease 9" pie plate. Put 2 cups of mixture in bottom of dish. Press evenly along the bottom and up the sides of the dish.

Fill prepared dish with blueberries.
*NOTE: If you plan on packing the top crust like I did, you can get away with more berries. If you plan on having a loose top, i.e. just crumble, not pack it in place, only use enough berries to fill plate to the top edge, no higher. The sauce will bubble out ALL over the edges. Trust me.

Drizzle lemon juice and zest over top of berries. **If you don't have fresh zest you can use Penzey's dried lemon peel like I did. But fresh is best.

Pour sauce over top of berries, evenly coating them, scraping pan to get all of the saucy goodness.

Put remaining crust mixture on top of coated berries. You can press it down like you see in the photos above or keep loose.

Line baking sheet with foil, place pie dish on lined pan and bake for 50-60 minutes until filling is bubbling steadily. If the top is getting browned too quickly, cover loosely with foil.

Cool pie completely on wire rack before serving. Store covered in the refrigerator.

ENJOY!

Blueberry Picking 2011

2011-07-19T21:10:00.000-04:00

As of today, Dwight and I have picked blueberries three times this season. The Blueberry Ranch opened Friday, July 8, a full week later than last year due to a cool, wet spring. We went first thing the following morning to beat both the heat and the crowds. My parents came with us.

First picking is always a treat. The first variety up for picking is Duke. Unlike some of the other varieties we've picked, these tend to ripen in full clumps, so you just grab handful after handful of berries.

The same wet, cool spring that delayed picking also produced bigger, sweeter berries. We could tell the difference immediately. Picking has been a real treat. We picked Dukes first, missed the next two varieties because they were picked so quickly, then went last Thursday after work to pick Bluecrop.

8lbs I picked on July 9

Oh my holy heck. The Bluecrops are incredible. I'm not one to eat fresh blueberries. I tend to like them in baked goods or frozen and eaten with yogurt or in smoothies. But these. Wow. So sweet. We picked about 14 pounds on Thursday and went back on Saturday morning to get more. Twenty pounds more, roughly. We've already eaten about half of those. Well, we gave some away, but yeah, we chowed down. I froze the rest.

I don't have any pictures from the Bluecrop picking but they were larger berries, generally, much sweeter than the Dukes and you had to work a bit harder to pick them. They don't ripen like the Dukes so there isn't the same grab handful after handful, stripping the bush type of picking, but more of a pick individual berries approach. Lots of green berries still on the bushes.

But they were totally worth it. Even when we end up with unwanted hitch hikers.

I'll put up with an occasional bug for organic berries!

Coconut M&M Cookies

2011-07-11T06:00:00.000-04:00

I've never hated coconut, but if you'd asked me if I liked it, I would have wrinkled my nose and said, "No, not really. It's mostly a texture thing." While that hasn't completely changed, I will say that I'm kind of in love with coconut, at least in the right form.

I made this German Chocolate Cake for Dwight's birthday and swooned. Dwight said it was the best GCC he's ever had. Aw, what a guy.

Toasted coconut is a new favorite, too. I learned the bliss that is toasted coconut when I made "7 layer bars" for the first time just a few months ago and couldn't stop eating the leftover toasty bits of pecans, graham crackers and coconut in the baking pan.

Then I made that coconut bread. You know the one. This one. Browned butter, vanilla bean, coconut. Did I mention browned butter? All together in one heavenly bread. Aw, yeah. The new-found joy of coconut continued.

And when I just had to make cookies because it had been too darn long since I'd made any, I decided to use, say it with me... coconut. I'd recently read about a chocolate chip cookie that uses browned butter and I knew I needed to try it. It worked so well with the bread, why not cookies. So I modified the basic Toll House recipe, browned the butter and added coconut M&Ms instead of chocolate chips along with coconut and vanilla bean.

*Contains no actual coconut. Heh.

*Contains just the right amount of coconut. Mmmm.

Ding ding ding! We have another winner. The love affair continues...

Coconut M&M Cookies
loosely adapted from Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe

Ingredients
1 Cup (2 sticks) Butter, browned
1 vanilla bean, scraped reserving pod

2-3/4 Cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup coconut, packed

3/4 Cup brown sugar, packed
2/3 Cup granulated sugar
2 eggs

To make browned butter:
Place butter in small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Melt, stirring periodically. Once it's melted, continue stirring. The butter will get foamy - keep stirring. Once the foam goes away, you'll notice that it's gotten very clear with some solids at the bottom. Keep stirring! You don't want those to burn. You want the butter to start to turn a very light brown color and you'll definitely start noticing the amazing, nutty aroma. Let the solids at the bottom turn light brown then remove from heat. Let cool about 5 minutes, then drop the cleaned out vanilla pot into the butter. Do this too soon and you'll have fried vanilla bean — trust me — so wait the 5 minutes. The hot butter will draw the rest of the vanilla goodness from the scraped bean.

Let this cool about 15-20 minutes in bowl of stand mixer or mixing bowl. Add vanilla beans.

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk flour, soda, salt and cinnamon in medium bowl. Stir in coconut. Set aside.

Add both sugars to butter and mix until completely combined. It will be sludgy. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly between each and scrape down sides of bowl. Mixture should be noticeably lighter in color and texture.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture beating until full incorporated. You can mix in the M&Ms now or place them individually on the tops before baking.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. I used my large pampered chef scoop which is a scant 1/4 cup. You can make them any size you wish.

Place about 2 inches apart on sheet. (They will spread quite a bit.) Flatten and place M&Ms close together if adding them now.

Bake 9-11 minutes until light golden brown. (My were perfect at exactly 10 minutes.) They'll spread then puff up then turn golden. Don't over bake. Leave on pan 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

You can eliminate the M&Ms altogether and just have a coconut cookie. They're excellent plain.

Enjoy!

Day Trip in Michigan, July 3

2011-07-07T20:44:00.002-04:00

Dwight and I don't get away very often, so when we do–no matter what we do or where we go–it feels slightly indulgent and even a tiny bit exotic.

Like going to Michigan. That's exotic, right?

*crickets*

Well, it's not exotic, but it certainly is lovely. We live just south of the Indiana-Michigan border so leaving our state means only having to drive a mile north... and then we just keep going from there. On July 3 we hopped in the car with just the slightest idea of where were going and what we were doing and just decided to wing it.

We're wild and crazy like that.

We headed west on US 12 on our way to Three Oaks. It's a teeny tiny little town, but manages to draw quite a few tourists. They have a few cute restaurants, some really lovely galleries and shops as well as an honest to goodness old fashioned butcher shop that provided the meat for the hamburgers we ate at the Elm Street Bistro.

It's a really cute town and I've only ever driven through it on the way to somewhere else. It was nice to stop and spend some time there.

From Three Oaks, we headed north to intersect with Red Arrow Highway which runs along the Lake Michigan coast. We passed the INSANELY long line to get into Warren Dunes (uh, no thanks. It had to have been a madhouse) and kept heading north along the coast to St. Joseph.

We found a parking spot just a little bit out of the way and made our way through town. St. Joe is larger than Three Oaks by quite a lot, but still has that same small town feel. There's an old five and dime type of drugstore (NOT a CVS or Walgreens) along with ice cream and chocolate shops, boutiques and galleries.

St. Joe is also home to Silver Beach, a lovely beach on Lake Michigan. Clean sandy beaches, lots of places to picnic and a crazy-awesome water park. No slides or pools but tons of water jets to splash around in.

We weren't in "beach attire" so we stuck to the sidewalk at the edge of the beach.

We saw the lighthouse pier and headed in that direction. (You can see it off in the distance in that first beach photo.)

We didn't realize that the lighthouse was actually on the other side of the river. So... we walked down the other pier running parallel to it. They flank the St. Joe river which feeds into the lake. Boats were going in and out the whole time.

Sailboats

Tugboats (at least that's the style of this boat - I don't think it's *actually* a tug boat, but it's super cute)

And then there were the luxury boats. Oh, the life.

From there we decided to head back home with a stop at a winery. We went to a number of wineries just a few weeks prior for Father's Day (post to come) but didn't go to one that I really wanted to visit. Lemon Creek Winery has some really wonderful wines, all estate grown varietals with a long history of wine making and fruit growing. It's a fruit farm as well as a winery. Which brings us to our next unexpected adventure.

When we pulled up, there were lots of cars so we wondered what the heck was going on. Turns out they have U-Pick cherries—both sweet and sour—so we decided "What the heck. Let's pick some cherries."

It must have been one of the first days they opened because the fruit was loaded on the trees. The trees didn't look like they'd been touched, and that made for some quick and easy picking.

We went back to the farm stand to weigh and pay for our cherries, then headed into the packed tasting room to pick up the wine we originally stopped for. No need to taste, I knew exactly what I wanted: 6 bottles of their Compass Rosé – a French-style dry rosé that is, to use the vernacular, da BOMB.

We completed the trip home by getting lost and I loved it. It seemed the perfect end to a wonderful day. I knew we were heading in the right directions—south and east—and we'd eventually hit something we knew. And we did. And it was great!

We're experiencing technical difficulties-Updated

2011-07-06T07:41:00.001-04:00

If you're wondering why you can't find me at somethingshinyblog.com it's because I accidentally let the URL lapse. They (GoDaddy) had an old email on file and I didn't realize the URL was going to expire July 1. So it did and now things are, as they say, jacked up.

I'm hoping to get the URL back, but in the mean time, all of my old links are gone into the cyber ether. The blog and all its content are still here, but it still sucks. I can't blame anyone but me, though, so here we are.

I hope you stick with me through this rough patch. I know the RSS feed (along with google search links) is now junk but I won't be able to let you know what it will be for at least another 24 hours.

Keep your fingers crossed that my mess up will be fixed!

UPDATE:
So, yeah. I'm a total flake. I purchased my blog domain through Google Apps not GoDaddy. DUR. I did an email search around the time I purchased the domain and made that "discovery'. After lots and lots (LOTS) of looking and looking through all of the "help" areas on Google apps, I *think* I got it worked out. According to the order history, they said they sent me notifications to my current email. I definitely did not receive them (and it was the right email address), so not sure what's up that.

BUT! I now have a receipt in my inbox that says I purchased another year. I can't get the URL to work yet, so I'm hoping it's just something that will take a little while to activate.

Keep on keeping those fingers crossed.

Pale is the New Tan

2011-06-21T11:34:00.001-04:00

This post is part shameless plug and part PSA. First, let's get the shameless plug out of the way.

As you might have noticed, there is a JavaGirl logo on the left side of this blog that will take you to my CafePress store. Yep, I'm JavaGirl. I make a whopping $10 or $15 a month there if I'm having a good month, so it's not making me rich. But it is fun to come up with new ideas, slap them on some shirts and mugs and hope someone thinks they're fun, too.

My latest offering is this:

An assortment of items in 4 color variations of the "Pale is the New Tan" art which you can find here.

OK, enough with the sales pitch. Let's get to the reason behind the shirt. As you probably know, today is the official First Day of Summer. HOORAY! I love summer. It's quite brief around these parts, so I savor it while it lasts. I love to be outdoors, but that doesn't mean I bask in the sun. I prefer to view summer from a shady vantage point, and for good reason. Lots of good reasons, really.

In August of 1999, I went to the doctor because I'd finally called to make an appointment about the weird spot on my back. It had been there for a couple of years, probably, but I didn't think too much about it. Every now and then, I'd notice that it would bleed, but then it would scab over and I'd ignore it again. But that kept happening, and I couldn't keep ignoring it. So I made the call, and when I described the spot, I could tell by the reaction on the phone they were concerned.

They decided to remove the entire spot "just in case". Being the needle-phobe that I am, I wasn't looking forward to the whole procedure, but it went ok (aside from, you know, almost passing out) and 3 or 4 stitches later, I was out of the office and anxious to hear the results. They were pretty sure it was cancer.

And they were right. Basal cell carcinoma, to be precise. I was 27-years-old and diagnosed with skin cancer. Lucky for me, it's the most common and easily treatable of skin cancers. Basal cell is slow growing and rarely metastasizes unlike melanoma. Still, it's nothing to fool around with and I should have gone to the doctor years earlier.

Please. If you have a strange spot on your skin, go to the doctor. Have it checked out. It's absolutely better to be safe than sorry. You don't have to be super pale like me; everyone needs to be careful. And you don't have to be sun-worshipper to worry about it, either. I wasn't. Sure, I'd done the fake-n-bake and "laid out" a few times when I was a teenager. All of that adds up, but the real kickers are those times you weren't anticipating a problem and got a major burn. It happened to me a few times as a small child. I was so fair and would burn so quickly that my parents wouldn't get sunscreen on me in time. I'm NOT blaming them! They always did their best, but sometimes, the next thing they knew, we were out in the sun longer than anticipated, and oh, holy crap! We forgot to put sunscreen on Kelly.

See, the damage that turns into cancer doesn't just happen as adults. It builds over time, starting in childhood. I was diagnosed at 27 but that cancer had been there long before.

If you have kids, PLEASE slather them in sunscreen—every 2 hours and always after swimming. If you can, keep them—and you—in the shade when possible. You can absolutely still enjoy summer in the shade. Trust me. Plus you stay cooler, too.

You need to be diligent with your OWN skin, too. You don't wan't a leather chest, do you? I know you know what I'm talking about. We've all see the women that spend years and years in the sun and tanning beds in order to have a "healthy glow"... and end up with leathered skin. Any dermatologist will tell you the best anti-aging advice is to wear sunscreen.

From The Skin Cancer Foundation's "Go With Your Own Glow" ad campaign.

Use moisturizer, body lotion and/or liquid makeup with SPF (PABA free is best for your face, especially if you have sensitive skin like I do). Use mineral makeup. It contains zinc oxide, a physical blocker. Sunscreen can be a chemical or physical blocker. Use both for the best protection. And always use a sunscreen with both UVA and UVB protection. (Sunscreen can be confusing and the guidelines for labeling are set to change in 2012. You can read about it here.)

See how it says "waterproof"? I think that will have to go away in 2012.

NO sunscreen is waterproof.

So there you have it. I'm Pale and Proud. Remember, there's no such thing as a "healthy tan". Not from the sun, not from a tanning bed. If you want to have a bit of color or knock back the glare like I do with my legs, use a sunless tanner. They've come a long way, baby. They're about a hundred billion times better than they used to be back in the olden days, so find one you like and nix the tanning habit.

Wear sunscreen. The end.

Also? I'm not a doctor, so this is not intended as medical advice, just my 2 cents on the subject and my experience with skin cancer and sunscreen.

And also? Never let me get in front of the camera with a remote control. This is what happens.

HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE!

Wordless Wednesday — Kitties have to eat their greens, too

2011-06-15T08:00:00.004-04:00

Wordless Wednesday—German Chocolate Cake

2011-05-18T08:08:00.001-04:00

(Well, almost wordless)
This was Dwight's birthday cake back in March and was amazing. Recipe from David Lebovitz can be found here.

Dear Cold,

2011-05-17T08:21:00.000-04:00

Hey there, buddy. I notice you're still here, hanging out in my nose and chest. It's been 9 days, dude. What gives?

I know. I shouldn't have mentioned that I haven't been sick in a while and thought I got through cold and flu season unscathed. It was an open invitation, I see that now. Me, bragging. You, plotting your revenge until you found a weakness.

Well, mission accomplished. Congratulations—you got me. So..... can we call it even and you can take your snot and congestion and move on? Please?

Sincerely,

Me

Lehman's Orchard

2011-05-14T16:53:00.000-04:00

Dwight & I (and all of our co-workers) had the pleasure of sampling some of the goodies offered by a family-owned area orchard. One of our clients brought us a basket laden with fruit and nut mixes, hard ciders and some honey roasted cashew butter made at her boyfriend's family orchard.

Lehman's Orchard located in Niles, Michigan, is a family-owned orchard specializing in tart cherry production since 1929. Since then, they've branched into all sorts of other crops including apples and pears and also produce honey and offer a vast assortment of dried fruits and nuts. And in addition to all of that, Lehman's also makes their own hard cider from their apples and pears AND they offer a large variety of fruit wines.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to sample hardly any of the products, they were gobbled up so quickly at work - which I think is a testament to the quality of their products. Lehman's has received some really great reviews on Yelp and other sites, lauding the quality, taste and selection offered. Dwight and I are really looking forward to visiting the orchard in the near future, now that spring is in full swing. I'm very disappointed that I didn't get to try the honey roasted cashew butter. Man, that sounds SO good! Oh, and the chocolate covered cherries. Yeah, I'm all over that, too.

If you're in the Niles, Michigan area, I definitely recommend a stop at Lehman's Orchard. If you're around in July, they offer u-pick tart cherries! I KNOW I'll being going up for that. Just the thought of having a stash of tart cherries in my freezer makes me very happy. I mean, you know how nuts Dwight and I went over local blueberry picking. I think the blueberries need some freezer buddies.

Thanks, Brenda, for bringing us all of the goodies. We'll see you this summer!

Quick Tip: How I Freeze Hamburger

2011-05-06T19:00:00.000-04:00

This isn't earth shattering or going to cause world peace, but it's something I find helpful. Maybe you will, too.

I discovered, mostly by accident, that the best way to divide and freeze hamburger is to put it in a quart-size freezer bag, press it flat – to about 1/2" thickness or so – to the edges of the bag.

This is really convenient for a couple of reasons.

1. A quart size bag holds a pound of meat perfectly.

2. They stack —compact storage, saving freezer space.

3. They thaw SO much more quickly when only 1/2" thick. OR if you want to save even more time, you don't have to thaw it. Just open or cut the bag, pop into a pan. Cook over low heat to start, and you'll be browning in no time.

Hey, it works for me. I hope it works for you, too!

Browned Butter Coconut Bread

2011-04-18T19:00:00.002-04:00

Or what I'm now calling The Best Quick Bread I've Ever Made.

I'm not kidding. This stuff is amazing. I'm already dreaming of variations. (I've attempted one, but it's not perfected yet. Once it is, you'll be the first to hear about it. Psst... it involves alcohol. Oh yeah.)

But let's get back to this bread first. This fragrant, sweet, flavorful, addictive bread. And this from a girl who claims not to like coconut. Well, not anymore folks.

One of the best things about this bread — and really, everything about it is fantastic — is the crust. Oh, the crust. I think it's so amazing because of the mixing technique you'll see below. The crust is crunchy and full of vanilla buttery flavored goodness.

The original recipe calls for melted butter. Since I was melting it anyway, I decided to take it a step further and make browned butter instead. If you've never browned butter before, don't worry. It's incredibly simple and transforms butter into something even more magical. The nutty aroma is one of my favorite baking smells. That and vanilla.

Speaking of vanilla, you'll need a vanilla bean for this recipe. I know, they're crazy expensive. Unless, like me, you get them from ebay. Yes, really. I talked about it here. They're probably not the best nor the freshest, but when I can get 1/4 pound for nearly the same price as 4 measly beans from the grocery store, I'm not going to complain!

Let's get to the recipe. ("FINALLY" I can hear you say.)

Browned Butter (and vanilla bean) Coconut Bread
Adapted from Seven Spoons

Ingredients
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, browned and cooled slightly (see notes below)
Seeds scraped from a vanilla bean (hang on to the pod!)

2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups COCONUT milk (I originally wrote this as just regular milk but completely spaced that I'd used coconut milk (canned) - sorry!)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting the pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
5 ounces flaked coconut* (about 1 1/2 cups)

*I used sweetened. My store didn't have unsweetened. I think you'll be fine using either.

To make browned butter:
Place butter in small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Melt, stirring periodically. Once it's melted, continue stirring. The butter will get foamy - keep stirring. Once the foam goes away, you'll notice that it's gotten very clear with some solids at the bottom. Keep stirring! You don't want those to burn. You want the butter to start to turn a very light brown color and you'll definitely start noticing the amazing, nutty aroma. Let the solids at the bottom turn light brown then remove from heat. Let cool about 5 minutes, then drop the cleaned out vanilla pot into the butter. Do this too soon and you'll have fried vanilla bean — trust me — so wait the 5 minutes. The hot butter will draw the rest of the vanilla goodness from the scraped bean. And, as an added bonus, your house will smell incredible. Best. Air freshener. Ever.
Let this cool about 15 minutes or so.

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour a loaf pan.

In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk, vanilla extract and scraped vanilla seeds (here's a great post from Zoe Francios at zoebakes about vanilla beans and how to use them).

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and sugar. Stir in the coconut with a wooden spoon. Add the egg mixture and stir JUST until combined. You can leave some flour dry because you add the browned butter next.

Remove vanilla bean from butter, then pour over batter. Gently fold in the butter, incorporating all of it but don't over mix - be gentle!
**Here's where I think the magic happens in this recipe. Adding the butter LAST means that it's basically coating the batter, hence the crunchy, flavor-filled crust. At least, that's my theory.**

Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan and bake on the middle rack about 1 hour. The top will be golden brown (as you see in the photos) and a toothpick will come out clean.

Let the bread sit on a cooling rack in the pan about 10 minutes then turn out on to the rack. Let cool a bit more before slicing.

This is wonderful warm, but is equally fantastic at room temperature. It doesn't need a thing to make it any better, but I suppose you could spread some butter or jam over the top. I didn't bother. It was far too good all on its own to cover up with anything else.

Make this. Now!

Garlic Soup and Walnut Bread

2011-04-16T10:09:00.001-04:00

Social media is a funny thing. It is simultaneously a complete time suck–a veritable black hole of often meaningless chatter–and an infinite source of information and friendship. I often get gobbled up in the black hole, puttering around cyberspace, wasting time with things that honestly don't interest me. How does it DO that? But even more often, I get lost in new and interesting blogs and websites. I'm pointed in the direction of witty writers, brilliant photographers and talented artists. This is the bright spot of social media–the transfer of information and connecting with those that share our interests.

And, yeah, it's still a complete time suck... but not necessarily a time waste. This is why I love twitter. Yes it's often full of random bits of chatter, but it's a wonderful resource for new information. I can't tell you how many new people, blogs and informative articles I've found via twitter.

It was shortly after I joined twitter that I also joined the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. It was through both mediums that I connected with a number of talented bakers and all around nice people. Rebecca (@hobnob) and Daniel (@misterrios) are just two of these folks. And it was through some of that meaningless, idle chatter that the three of us decided to make the same garlic soup recipe and post to our respective blogs on the same day. Being the bread bakers that we are, we also decided to make walnut bread as it was mentioned in the soup recipe.

So here we are, the day of reckoning. Let's talk a little about the soup, okay? Daniel found this recipe at 101 Cookbooks. I won't write it out here because, as you will see, I was not entirely successful and I want you to get the recipe straight from the person that CAN make it successfully (read the comments - lots of people made this just fine, so don't let my experience turn you away from trying it).

The soup starts with garlic (NO, really??) Lots of garlic.

But before it becomes these lovely naked cloves, we have to strip them out of their papery clothes. Here's how I do it, making quick, easy work of peeling garlic.

First pull off the requisite number of cloves. Place one clove under a bench scraper, the side of a broad knife or other wide, flat surface.

Strike the scraper with the palm of your hand (or press down hard), but don't go nuts. The garlic doesn't need to be pummeled, just squished.

What this does is break the grip of the papery outside from the clove.

The clove is then easily peeled, no fussing, no swearing at the STUPID PAPER THAT WON'T COME OFF, GAH! You know, that kind of thing.

Back to the soup. Here are the basic ingredients going into the first stage of the soup.

Chopped garlic, bay leaf, thyme, and sage. The recipe calls for sage leaves but I couldn't find any fresh or dried, so I had to used rubbed sage.

I don't have any pictures of the rest of the prep, but let me walk you through it. I combined the above ingredients (along with salt) with 4 cups of water and let it simmer about 40 minutes. The recipe doesn't say to cover the soup as it simmers, but I was afraid of half the water evaporating away so I covered mine. Next comes the tricky part – making the cheese/egg/oil emulsion to add to the broth to thicken the soup and make it nice and creamy.

That's the idea, anyway. My lack of experience with this technique resulted in a mildly curdled soup that tasted pretty good, but looked pretty bad. The texture was just wrong.

You can see it in the photos:

Look at the spoon and the soup around it. You can see how it's separating. Such a disappointment. It looks like I need an extra set of hands to S L O W L Y add the broth to the egg/cheese mixture. It was difficult to keep a slow, steady stream while trying to whisk with the other hand. Practice makes perfect, right? So I guess I need to practice!

Now let's talk about the bread a bit. I had different issues with this part - it's always something isn't it?

I found this Apple-Walnut Bread recipe at King Arthur Flour. All I did was eliminate the apples. Their recipe is meant to be used as a fondue bread and I think it would be wonderful that way. I also think it would make for a fantastic panini if you shaped it into a boule or batard instead of small baguettes as I've done here.

You need to start the bread the day before since it utilizes a starter made of all-purpose flour, a bit of rye, some water and a tiny bit of yeast. It's about the consistency of pancake batter, you just mix it all with a spoon, cover it and let it sit out at least 12 hours or so. It'll get bubbly and have an almost beer-like smell. That tell-tale yeasty goodness.

You combine that with more flour, yeast and toasted, chopped walnuts, followed by a 60-90 minute fermentation. I used my baguette pan for shaping, but you can easily do these on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

As bad luck would have it, our power went out shortly after I took this picture. I wasn't too concerned since our power has never been out for very long. Weeellllll, it didn't come on until about 2 and a half hours later, a full hour longer than the bread needed to proof. I slashed the overproofed loaves — and sadly watched as they deflated like a popped balloon — spritzed them with water and popped them in the oven, hoping they weren't ruined.

They won't win any awards base on appearance, but they taste wonderful. I love the walnuts scattered through the bread and the fact that, unlike other breads I've made with walnuts, this bread is not at all sweet. It's a crusty, hearty bread itching to soak up some garlic soup – properly prepared soup, that is. Maybe next time.

I can't wait to see how Rebecca and Daniel fared with their soups and breads. Please check out their blogs with me!

Rebecca at GrongarBlog
Daniel at Ährelich Gesagt

Bedroom Redecorating: Complete (mostly)

2011-03-13T10:21:00.004-04:00

I realized that I never posted the photos of the completed bedroom re-do. I'd posted a sneak peek back in August and took this photos on October 10th. So much for being on top of things. *ahem*

Before (more photos here)

ANYway, here are the "after" shots, and I must say that we're very happy with the results. Most of them at least. The beadspread looks fantastic in these shots. After washing? Not so much.

I bought it from Target and while I love Target AND the beadspread, I'm not happy that it's so stinkin' large that it barely fits in my Whirlpool HE washer. But that's a big "shame on me" for not paying attention to that fact when I bought it. It says right on the box that it should be washed in a high-capacity commercial washing machine. Yeah, like I'm going to do that. I don't buy dry clean only clothes (or ignore the fact that they ARE dry clean only) so why the heck am I going to deal with a high maintenance beadspread. Again, shame on me.

The other flaw is the stitching on the cover. There's very little of it holding the layers together, so now it's lumpy lumpy lumpy — not cool. Lesson learned.

Other than the beadspread issue, the rest of the bedroom is great. Love the paint color, LOVE the wall decal and love the floor.

I still haven't gotten any drawer pulls —STILL! Told you I wasn't on top of things.

UPDATE:
Here are links to the products I used.

The decal went on great once we figured out the trick. The directions provided were useless and actually made it WAY worse. It's easier than they make it out to be. Just stick the paper up where you want it then use a credit card or other flat rigid utensil to rub the decal onto the wall. There's a low-tack adhesive on the paper so that it stick to the wall while you rub on the decal. That peels off and the decal remains.

We bought this one from Amazon, but there are a lot of other sellers. Etsy has TONS of sellers and there are so many gorgeous designs there.

Swirly Floral Decal

The floor is special order laminate from Lowe's. We love it, despite the fact that it's a lot noisier than carpet - kitty nails go click-click-click and you lose the noise dampening effect of carpet. But it's a breeze to clean.

Pergo Driftwood Pine laminate floor

BBA Challenge Bread #43—Roasted Onion & Asiago Miche

2011-03-01T21:16:00.000-05:00

Pop the champagne. I did it. I baked EVERY bread in The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Sure, it took almost a year longer than I thought it would but here I am.

Roasted Onion and Asiago Miche.

Otherwise known as The Final Bread. This bread was a spectacular end to a 22-month long journey of awesomeness.

I'm officially done baking my way through Peter Reinhart's award winning book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, along with a number of other amateur bakers. (I'm not sure how many are still with us. Many have finished - and some are just starting). Want to learn more about it? Check out the following links:

Pinch My Salt BBA Challenge page—master resource for the challenge

Buy the Book Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

List of Breads See what's coming up.

Blogroll See who's baking. Great list of some amazing foodie (and not-necessarily-foodie) blogs.

Flickr Group Photos, photos and more photos!

Facebook

Twitter Search for #BBAC to find challenge tweets.

Technically, I finished with the challenge about 4 weeks ago, but am now getting around to writing it up. I'll probably write a final-final post about the challenge, so for now, let's just talk about this lovely beast:

Roasted Onion and Asiago Miche. Let me tell you, the is one of the best smelling - and tasting - formulas in the book. AH-mazing. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll begin at the beginning.

As with the Potato, Cheddar & Chive Torpedoes, this formula is meant to be a mixed method of wild and commercial yeast, and like the PCCT, I opted to use a poolish in place of the wild yeast starter seeing as I no longer have one. I mixed that up 2 days before I wanted to bake the bread (this is a 3-day job).

The next day was most of the heavy lifting. I roasted the onions (a little TOO much)...

Shredded a pile of cheese (oh, yeah)...

Shaved a pile of cheese (oooooh, yeaaahh)...

And got to mixin'. This bread calls for scallions but I completely spaced that and decided to use my Penzeys dried shallots instead.

I mixed the poolish, flour, yeast, water, a bit of olive oil, that big ole pile of shredded cheese, along with the shallots and dried chives. I attempted to take a picture of the windowpane - which I really almost kind of achieved - but it's tough with just one hand.

After it was all mixed and at the right consistency I let it ferment about 2-3 hours. I have a new favorite place to proof my dough. I usually nuke a mug of water in the microwave until very hot then pop the dough in with the steaming mug, but Dwight installed these under the counter lights and they get... toasty. I just slide the bowl right under one of the lights and it warms it up nicely.

After fermenting, it gets shaped, covered and goes in the fridge overnight to let the flavors develop even more.

After I pulled the pan out of the fridge the next day, I realized the the original pan I had the bread on was going to be too small, so I moved it to my half sheet pan and let it sit at room temperature about 2 hours.

Then you're supposed to brush the top with olive oil (missed that step) dimple the dough, sprinkle on the cheese then the onions and let it rest about 20 minutes. But I didn't quite do that. I'd seen some of the other bakers' breads and noticed that the onions were, shall we say, well done. So I hedged my bets and put half of the onions under the cheese and half on top. And as you saw, I decided to shave the cheese instead of shred. Don't know why - just felt like it, I suppose.

And I forgot to let it rest. I just popped it into the oven after topping. Oops. *note to self: read ALL instructions*

I hearth-baked the bread as required and let me just tell you how amazing my house smelled right then. Asiago and parmesan (I used half and half) permeated the air. It was intoxicating.

Alas, the onions did burn. Charcoal bits of yuck on the top. It's the only flaw I can see in the formula, and in my opinion, a pretty big one. Either the onions should go on raw and roast as the bread bakes, or they need to stay safely nestled under a big pile of cheese.

I just pulled off the charred bits and dove right in. Oh, so good. I should note that due to the size of the original formula, I chose to halve it as Dwight and I were getting ready to try a new diet literally the next day. A "no bread" diet. I know, the horror. So I wrapped up the bread nice and tight and put it in the feezer to enjoy at a later date. Fortunately the diet allowed us to have one "cheat" day a week, so I broke out the bread each weekend.

We had friends over one evening and I turned it into cheesy garlic bread to go with lasagna. Holy WOW, this makes the best garlic bread. And, I can tell you from experience, that this bread freezes nicely. It was drier, but still delicious and is worth popping in the toaster for a warm up and light toasting before eating. Excellent!

So there you have it. The very last bread. Hard to believe, isn't it?! Thank you to all that have followed along the way. Here, have a big slice of bread...

Vlog — How to French Braid your OWN Hair

2011-02-12T12:57:00.000-05:00

And now for something totally different.

I kinda sorta managed to figure out how to use my iSight camera and iMovie to shoot a little tutorial for you today. In the past week or so, I've seen at least 2 references to French braiding your own hair, implying that it was impossible - or at least incredibly difficult. I taught myself how to braid hair on my OWN hair and that's when I was like 11 years old. So if my 11-year-old self can do this, so can you, it just takes practice.

Now on to the show...

Hopefully you found this helpful. If you need further clarification, just send me an email or ask in the comments and I'll be happy to help.

BBA Challenge Bread #42—Potato, Cheddar & Chive Torpedoes

2011-01-30T18:06:00.001-05:00

Oh, that sly Mr. Reinhart. He saved some humdingers for the final two breads in The Bread Baker's Apprentice – "the final grace notes" recipes. We've made it to the second to last – Potato, Cheddar, and Chive Torpedos – and they're wonderful. Let's take a look.

I'm baking my way through Peter Reinhart's award winning book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, along with a number of other amateur bakers. (I'm not sure how many are still with us. Many have finished - and some are just starting). Want to learn more about it? Check out the following links:

Pinch My Salt BBA Challenge page—master resource for the challenge

Buy the Book Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

List of Breads See what's coming up.

Blogroll See who's baking. Great list of some amazing foodie (and not-necessarily-foodie) blogs.

Flickr Group Photos, photos and more photos!

Facebook

Twitter Search for #BBAC to find challenge tweets.

Technically, this bread is meant to be a mixed-method formula, meaning it combines a wild yeast starter with commercial yeast. As I mentioned in my BBA bread #35, I managed to lose my starter and I never bothered to make another. I kinda sorta thought about giving it another whirl, but never got around to it. So when it came time for this bread, I diverged from the formula as written and replaced the barm (or starter) with poolish, a standard preferment we've used at various points throughout the book.

I made a half batch of the poolish formula in the book which would yield a bit more than I needed, but I wasn't concerned about that. I mixed it up on a Friday evening and let it sit out until I used it the next day. I didn't bother to refrigerate it, so all told, it was bubbling away for about 18 hours.

Before I put the preferment to use, I cooked up the potato, let it cool, then added it and about 3/4 cup of potato water to some flour, yeast and salt.

This recipe calls for fresh chives which is the one herb I actually DO successfully grow, but mine was under a foot of snow. Gah. If I'd picked up the pace last year, I could have used some, but alas, it didn't happen. Instead, I used this.

I would have picked up some "fresh" chives at the store, but they were ridiculously expensive for what you got, so I made peace with it, and bought the dried. The recipe called for 1/4 cup of fresh, so I guestimated on how much to use of the dried and went with one tablespoon.

Chives were incorporated, dough was kneaded and placed in an oiled bowl, ready to ferment to double in size. It did me proud.

The it was time to shape. I had my sharp cheddar sliced, weighed and ready to go.

I divided the dough, patted into a small rectangle, layered on the cheese and rolled into a log. Then you push down and roll the ends into slight tapers to give it the torpedo shape.

I put the two shaped loaves on the parchment lined, cornmeal dusted sheet and let them proof about 90 minutes.

By the time the loaves finished baking, it was dark so the next photos aren't the greatest, but you get the idea. Unfortunately, I didn't roll these tightly enough and they both oozed cheese out the side at the bottom. The cheese is *supposed* to ooze out of the slashes at the top, but I didn't have much luck with that.

Appearances didn't matter, though, because the bread was delicious. I kept coming back for slice after slice until I realized that I was way too full to eat any more.

There are only three things I'd change.

1) I'd add more dried chives, probably double the amount.

2) I'd divide the dough in thirds so that I could pat it out thinner and add more cheese (more cheese is always good)

3) I'd roll it nice and tight and keep the seem side up just to be safe.

These are all minor, nit picky kinds of things. Overall it was fantastic and in my top 10. OOH! I just thought of something. You know what would be amazing?! Combine bread #28, potato rosemary bread with roasted garlic with this. *heaven*

Fun with Photo Booth a.k.a. I'm a goofball

2011-01-29T14:11:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so I'm gathering and editing the RAW pics for my next Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge post, and got distracted by something — not something shiny but something silly.

If you're on a Mac, you probably already know about Photo Booth, the built in app that uses your computer's camera to take snap shots. Over the years, Dwight and I have had entirely too much fun with it.

These are some of the first we ever took, way back when Dwight bought his laptop. (These were taken at work, hence the horrible drop ceiling and fluorescent lights. For those that don't know, Dwight and I work at the same company.)

And these are some of my youngest niece and me (with Dwight in the background) when she spent the night back in April of last year. We had a ball.

And these are ones I took about 10 minutes ago. I was laughing so hard, I was crying. Man, I crack me up.

You're welcome.

Guest Post at Culinary Covers – Molten Chocolate Cakes

2011-01-27T20:02:00.000-05:00

Once again, I've written a guest post over at Culinary Covers, the cover recipe only site of Lori Lange, a.k.a RecipeGirl. I chose the cover of the February issue of Women's Day.

You can find the recipe, notes and review over at Culinary Covers, but I wanted to share some of the progress photos here.

Here's everything ready to go. Only 5 ingredients in this recipe - super simple.

Mixed, poured and ready to bake.

Out of the oven and ready to turn out on the plate. I did not bake them on this sheet. The ramekins were right on the oven racks. I just used the baking sheet to transport the hot dishes to the photo shoot.

Ready and waiting...

DIY Necklace Holder

2011-01-24T19:15:00.001-05:00

I've been wanting to get or make some sort of necklace holder for a little while now. Dwight likes to buy me necklaces and I let him, so I've managed to accumulate quite a few. I have two jewelry boxes but neither are ideal for necklace storage. They were becoming a bit of a jumbled mess.

I tossed around a few ideas but landed on this one when I saw the thread holder in the Wal-Mart craft section and a light bulb went off. I snatched up the holder and knew just what to do with it.

I decided to paint it the same color as the wall to make it blend in, but after seeing it up, I think a complimentary color would have worked, too.

This isn't an ideal solution because the pegs from lower rows are in the way, but it's a far cry from the pile of necklaces I was dealing with. One of the requirements for a hanger was that it would be out of kitty reach. I couldn't even think about getting something to put on my dresser – or hang anything too close to it because the cats would be able to reach it. And like me, kitties are easily distracted by something shiny. They'd see a dangling row of sparkly things and think. "TOYS!" So I hung the rack on the blank spot between the vanity area and the closet.

All in all, I'm happy with it. Once I live with it for a while, I'll see if the idea holds up to real life use.

p.s. The rack came with flip out arms on the back so that, if you wanted to, you could have this sitting on a desk or dresser. I removed those and added hangers to the tops of each vertical arm. The little hanger things were part of a multi-pack, multi-purpose hanging kit. It was a circle with a bar across the bottom that had two pointy ends that you tap into the wood in lieu of a little nail or screw. Super simple and easy to install.

BBA Challenge Bread #41—Whole-Wheat Bread

2011-01-21T18:54:00.001-05:00

(probably my worst crumb shot ever - most humble apologies)

Hey, it's January. New Year's resolutions are still fresh in our minds, many of us are vowing to eat better, so if you haven't given up carbs entirely, whole wheat bread is your ticket, right? So long as it tastes good! Let's find out if this formula fits the bill.

I'm ALMOST DONE baking my way through Peter Reinhart's award winning book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, along with a number of other amateur bakers (I'm not sure how many are still with us. Many have finished - and some are just starting). Want to learn more about it? Check out the following links:

Pinch My Salt BBA Challenge page—master resource for the challenge

Buy the Book Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

List of Breads See what's coming up.

Blogroll See who's baking. Great list of some amazing foodie (and not-necessarily-foodie) blogs.

Flickr Group Photos, photos and more photos!

Facebook

Twitter Search for #BBAC to find challenge tweets.

I haven't always been a fan of whole grain bread, and let's be honest, who can blame me. There are some seriously terrible "whole grain" breads lining the shelves of grocery stores everywhere. Dry, tough, full of mystery sticks and twigs as well as a whole host of artificial ingredients and/or fillers. Blech. As a kid I have to admit that I liked the generic, really bad for you white bread – not Wonder bread, we bought off brands or the store brand. My mom would buy the wheat bread and we grudgingly ate our whole wheat PB & J sandwiches for lunch.

But good wheat bread – REAL wheat bread, not a stripped-down version of it – can be exceptional, and I've had my share of out-of-this-world whole grain breads. So I was hopeful yet cautions about Peter Reinhart's whole wheat formula. I've made some bricks during this challenge and hoped against hope that this wouldn't be another.

This bread begins with two separate pre-fermets, a poolish and a soaker. The poolish is a combination of high protein whole wheat flour, yeast and water. The soaker is a just coarse grains and water. I chose to use coarse ground rye, of my own "grinding."

I still had (and have) plenty or rye flakes left over from my pumpernickel rye bread so I decided to grind some up for the soaker. I used my blender as it works WAY better than my food process for this.

I weighed it (and manage to grind just about the right amount), added the 3/4 cup of water and gave it a good stirring.

It soaked the water right up. That got covered and was left out all night for use the next day.

The other pre-ferment, the poolish, is meant to be thick, but more like a paste. It's mixed then covered and left to ferment for 2 to 4 hours or until it starts to bubble. After I added the amount of water called for in the recipe, I quickly decided that this was N E V E R going to "bubble" – it was far too thick.

It was all I could do to get all of the flour hydrated. So I made an executive decision based on the knowledge I'd gained from this challenge (yay, knowledge!) and added enough water to make it paste-like. Much better.

I let it do it's thang and it rewarded me with this:

Lots of lovely bubbles, telling me that this poolish was a winner!

I popped it in the fridge and went to bed, ready to put it all together the next day.

To the soaker and poolish were added more flour, yeast and water along with salt, a bit of honey and an egg, both of which were optional, but I knew the honey would enhance the flavor and the egg would help the texture. After some time in the mixer and on the counter, I put the kneaded dough in a bowl and let it ferment about 2 hours.

I divided it, shaped it, and popped it into two loaf pans and let those rise about 90 minutes. I spritzed them with water and sprinkled some wheat bran over the top for a bit of texture and visual appeal.

The loaves got zero oven spring, but were NOT bricks. HOORAY! In fact, the texture was excellent. Somewhat open, a bit soft and pleasantly chewy. But the taste... well, I'm sorry to say that it was lack luster. It benefitted from toasting and a smear of peanut butter, but was bland and boring on it's own. Bummer. I ate one loaf but decided to put the rest in the freezer for now, hanging out until I put it to another use. I think it will make excellent bread crumbs, so certainly not a bad thing.

If (and that's a pretty big "if") I decide to make it again, I'll add more honey and possibly some butter to help with the flavor. Chances are, though, I'll break out one of my other bread books and see what their whole wheat tastes like. Whole grain breads can be tricky, no question. Remember the 100% sourdough rye?

*ouch* That was tragic.

And the Winner is...

2011-01-15T09:02:00.000-05:00

Last night, with the help of a little wine and my husband, I drew a number for the Penzeys spice giveaway winner.

From the bowl, Dwight drew #2 — Lisa!

Congratulations, Lisa. I'll be contacting you momentarily.

Thank you to everyone who entered. I hope to do more of these types of little giveaways in the future, so stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday — More Malcom

2011-01-12T09:57:00.000-05:00

Lake Effect Snow

2011-01-08T13:11:00.000-05:00

If you live anywhere near the Great Lakes, you'll know what I mean when I talk about lake effect snow. For the rest of you, I'll give the Something Shiny Reader's Digest version of this weather event.

When especially cold air crosses over a large body of water, in my case Lake Michigan, it warms up as it passes over the relatively warm lake water. By most standards, the water is hardly "warm" but 45°F is significantly warmer than the air temperatures this time of year (generally speaking). This now warm-ish air then passes back over land — and this is when the fun begins.

Clouds form over the water and when they hit land and cool down— BAM! You've got snow. People right at the lake's edge remain unscathed because the air hasn't had time to cool just yet. A few miles out, though, they get nailed.

The really fun thing about lake effect snow is that it's unpredictable. It can change pretty much whenever it wants to; you're at the mercy of wind speed and direction. I live about 50 miles east of Lake Michigan about a mile south of the Indiana-Michigan border. I'm close enough to experience plenty of lake effect snow, but far enough away to not get completely blasted by it. Go 10, 20, 30 miles west of here and it's a different story each place. Now, that all depends on the direction of the wind, but they're pretty much in the "sweet spot" when it comes to lake effect snow.

If the wind comes directly from the north rather than northwest, which is the most common, we won't even see lake effect here. Ah, the power of nature.

Over the last 36 hours or so, we've been dealing with lake effect snow, most of it happening overnight. We had a couple of inches when I came home from work around 6:00 pm, but by this morning we had close to 8 inches. Dwight and I went out to shovel around 9:15 this morning. It looked like this:

After about 15 minutes, the snow really picked up again.

Dwight and I were covered and what we'd already shoveled was piling back up with fresh snow. The one good thing about it being so cold is that the snow is nice and light. None of that heavy, wet stuff that is a pain to shovel.

But three minutes later, the light started to change. "I think the sun's coming out." I turned to look at the sky and sure enough, it started looking like this:

The snow you see falling isn't from the sky, it's from the tree branches. The air had been completely still but the tiniest whisper of wind made the snow come tumbling out of the branches. As I said, this is really light snow and doesn't take much encouragement to blow around.

Then, 6 minutes later, it was brightening up even more.

And looking very pretty.

I put down the camera once again and got to work re-shoveling the walk up to the house. In that 20 minute span, we'd gotten another 1/2 in or so.

And it just kept getting prettier and prettier until it's was downright gorgeous out.

I'm no fan of snow, but you can't argue with how beautiful it can be in the right conditions. It cleans things right up, like a fresh coat of paint on a dingy wall.

It stayed sunny for a few hours, but it's snowing again now. I can't see the driveway anymore. And so it goes...

Feeling Spicy

2011-01-07T19:31:00.002-05:00

Shortly before Christmas, I placed what I can only describe as an EPIC order from Penzeys Spices. Oh sure, I could have gotten more (and should have since I realized just after placing the order that I'm out of oregano - the horror!) but it was indeed an order of rather epic proportions.

I bought mostly bulk items since I have plenty of jars. I bought a couple of BBQ styles, some bold taco seasoning, hot chili powder, Vietnamese cinnamon (holy cow this stuff is amazing), along with ginger, mint, bay leaves as well as lemon and orange extracts and many other things.

But I also got something for you:

That's right. I'm having a little giveaway and I'd love for you to win this box of baking spices. I'm keeping this giveaway low key because I'd like one of my regular readers to win, so no need to tweet this for extra entries or any of that. Just leave a comment on this post. It can be about anything: What's YOUR favorite spice? Any resolutions for the New Year? Have you been looking forward to a fabulous vacation?

I'm going to throw in this bottle of Turkish seasoning, too.

Penzeys gave it to me for free and I already have some — now you can, too. Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win. I'll keep this open until a week from today, so you have until Friday the 14th to enter. I hope you do!

Be sure to leave an email address in the comments if you don't have your email in your profile!!

p.s. I'll ship this to wherever you call home, so if you're an international reader, comment away!

Happy New Yaer!

2011-01-01T14:15:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is the banner I made for New Year's Eve using free printables from Love The Day which I found thanks to Tidy Mom. I was in a hurry and clearly wasn't paying close enough attention - I hadn't been drinking or anything! I was finished with it before I noticed. Being 1) pressed for time 2) lazy and 3) completely amused by the typo (a Kelly trademark move), I left it as is. It totally cracks me up.

I wish I'd taken a couple of minutes to take a picture of the decorated table (I took these pictures today). It looked really pretty, with all three of my white cake stands loaded with food, white Christmas lights snaked around the various plates and stands, and I was able to make use of many of my favorite glass dishes. It was just us and another couple, but I couldn't help myself and had to make it a bit special. I made far too much food, but that's pretty typical for me.

I hope all of you had a fun New Year's Eve. Here's to a fantastic 2011.

One of My Favorite Things — Everyday Minerals

2010-12-29T20:18:00.000-05:00

I love getting packages. Most of the time, they're found on the porch, in the unmistakable smiley arrow box (Amazon Prime is both a blessing and a curse). But sometimes, something special arrives the old fashioned way — via the US Postal Service.

I opened the mailbox tonight to find an eagerly anticipated package containing a little something for me, and a little something for my niece.

My sister told me about Everyday Minerals a few years ago and I've been hooked on them every since. They have an incredible selection of mineral makeup, amazing prices and excellent customer service. Plus their application brushes are by far the best I've found for mineral makeup. I started out with Bare Minerals and still use some of their product, mostly because it lasts so long, but I've transitioned over to Everyday Minerals for any new purchases and have been nothing but pleased.

My oldest niece turned 13 December 1st (yeah, I'm way behind), and to celebrate this milestone, I asked her mom if it would be OK to get her some makeup. She was fine with it, especially since she knew I'd be getting Everyday Minerals. So last week, I placed my order and found the delightful package in the mail today.

I love how Everyday Minerals packages their products. No wasted space, generally speaking, and everything fits perfectly in the smallest package necessary. Stacked, rolled and nestled together Tetris-style, the adorable vials of loveliness are always fun to unwrap.

Most of what you see is for my niece (I'm *dying* to see what the eye palette looks like, but it's got a plastic outer seal-darn) but a few of those are for me. Hooray!

If you love mineral makeup or have been anxious to give it a try, I highly recommend Everyday Minerals. They have sample sizes of almost all of their products and your first trial is free. You can't beat that. And as it says on the packaging sticker, their products are organic, all-natural, vegan and cruelty free. There's a lot to like about that.

p.s. This is not a paid endorsement. I just love their product and can't help but take pics of their packaging. I have other images from a previous order somewhere...)

p.p.s. I took all of these photos after the sun set. Thanks to my tripod, an 18 second exposure (really!) and Adobe Raw, I was able to use the tiny bit of available light and avoid turning on the overhead light. This is what it looked like outside!

Easy Weeknight Dinner — Smoked Sausage & Cabbage

2010-12-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

It's not glamorous and certainly isn't photogenic, but this one-pot meal is easy, delicious and (mostly) nutritious. I like to put a tiny spin on the traditional boiled cabbage and sausage and saute it instead. You'll need a head of green cabbage, a package of smoked sausage (I like to get the turkey kind to cut back on fat), some salt, pepper and a little oil and butter.

In case you're wondering, I use a cheese shaker as a salt shaker since

I use kosher salt for just about everything, including at the table.

Remove the outermost leaves then chop the cabbage, using a big honkin' knife! (Well, that's what I like to do. I *heart* my santoku knife.) Keep the pieces about the same size to help it cook evenly. How I chopped it is probably not ideal, but it worked.

Drizzle some olive oil in a large pan and add about 2 tablespoons of butter - salted or unsalted, doesn't matter. Put over medium-high heat until butter is melted and slightly bubbly.

Add cabbage and turn down to medium heat.

Toss the cabbage to coat evenly, add a bit of salt and pepper, then let it cook about 15 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning.

The cabbage will wilt and start to get a little brown and caramelized.

Now add the sausage...

and some water to deglaze the pan.

Cover and turn heat to low, cooking 5 to 10 minutes depending on how you prefer your cabbage. I like mine well done, so I let it go closer to 10 minutes.

Serve immediately. This also makes great leftovers. Enjoy!

BBA Challenge Bread #39—Vienna Bread

2010-12-26T20:23:00.000-05:00

BBA Bread #39—Vienna Bread, another rustic bread similar to French or Italian, but with some enrichments.

I'm ONLY THREE BREADS AWAY from baking my way through Peter Reinhart's award winning book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, along with a number of other amateur bakers (I'm not sure how many are still with us, and a number of us have finished). Want to learn more about it? Check out the following links:

Pinch My Salt BBA Challenge page—master resource for the challenge

Buy the Book Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

List of Breads See what's coming up.

Blogroll See who's baking. Great list of some amazing foodie (and not-necessarily-foodie) blogs.

Flickr Group Photos, photos and more photos!

Facebook

Twitter Search for #BBAC to find challenge tweets.

So the only thing I remember about this bread is that it gets the "Dutch crunch" topping. That's probably a bad sign, don't you think? I don't recall NOT liking it (how's that for a double negative) but it must have been pretty non-descript for me to remember almost nothing about it.

It's an old-fashioned rustic bread, like some others we've done, but this is enriched with an egg, a tiny bit of sugar and butter and a bit of diastatic malt powder to help with color. Italian bread was the other rustic bread to use malt powder.

The Vienna bread also introduces a new technique for bread topping called "Dutch crunch" which involves rice flour, regular flour, yeast, sugar, salt, oil and water. You make a paste then spread it on top of the shaped bread before proofing. It was an interesting procedure and technique, but a bit anti climatic for me.

The verdict: A good if forgettable loaf.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T09:50:00.001-05:00

I thought I'd share with you my favorite quote of the season. It comes from my youngest niece.

C last Christmas

C just turned nine on November 30 and she still believes in Santa, which I think is awesome. The longer kids hold on to that kind of optimism, the better I feel about the state of the world. So a few weeks ago, she came home and was talking to her mom about what the kids were saying at school about Santa.

"Some kids are saying that Santa is just parents, but I don't think so. I mean, there is NO WAY parents could afford to buy all those presents!"

Love it, for a couple of reasons. First, that she just dismissed the rumors and stuck to her guns. And the other, that she realizes what a big deal all of those presents are. Pretty cool, eh?

This is most likely the last Christmas my sister will have a Santa believer in the house, so she's holding on to it, begging the other two girls to play along and let C have this last one.

If you'd like to experience the optimism a nine year old has, head over to this post on The Bloggess. It just might restore your belief in Santa – or at least the goodness of people. It's easy to see, hear and read about all of the bad things going on, so it's nice to see the other side, too. Regular people helping other regular people, strangers helping strangers through this crazy little thing we like to call The Internets.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are happy, healthy and with the people you love and who love you.

Christmas 2009

Wordless Wednesday — Christmas Baking

2010-12-22T07:00:00.001-05:00

BBA Challenge Bread #38—Tuscan Bread

2010-12-12T17:25:00.000-05:00

BBA Bread #38—Tuscan Bread. It's claim to fame? It's salt free. Does that equal "taste-free"? Let's find out...

I'm "oh-my-gosh-so-close-yet-so-far" baking my way through Peter Reinhart's award winning book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, along with a number of other amateur bakers (I'm not sure how many are still with us, and a number of us have finished). Want to learn more about it? Check out the following links:

Pinch My Salt BBA Challenge page—master resource for the challenge

Buy the Book Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

List of Breads See what's coming up.

Blogroll See who's baking. Great list of some amazing foodie (and not-necessarily-foodie) blogs.

Flickr Group Photos, photos and more photos!

Facebook

Twitter Search for #BBAC to find challenge tweets.

I know, I know. I'm dragging my heels with this challenge, no question. Blogging about hasn't exactly been stellar, either. I made those lovely loaves you see up there nearly three months ago.

As I mentioned in the intro, this bread is salt-free, an anomaly in the bread world as salt adds considerable flavor to bread. But Tuscan bread ekes out flavor in another way – by using a flour and water paste prepared the day before final mixing and baking. Boiling hot water gelatinizes the starches in the flour, "releas(ing) flavors that give(s) this bread a distinct quality, quite unlike any other bread."

To the paste is added the usual suspects: bread flour, yeast, water and in this case, olive oil. Mix, knead, proof, shape, rise... and bake.

They certainly look lovely, but how do they taste? I thought they tasted darn good. Sure, a bit bland on its own, but I really liked it warm, dipped in olive oil and spices as shown in the first photo, and lightly toasted with a bit of butter. I'm not sure I'd make it again given the other outstanding alternatives in this book, but it was certainly worth trying.

See what other BBA bakers had to say:

Sally at Bewitching Kitchen

Phyl at Of Cabbages and King Cakes

Janice at Round the Table

Cindy at Salt and Serenity

Daniel at Ährelich Gesagt

I'm in love

2010-11-28T17:32:00.001-05:00

After 13-1/2 years, I have new car. A NEW new car, first one ever, and only the third car I've ever owned. It's a Nissan Juke and It. Is. Awesome. Don't get me wrong, I loved my 1996 Civic.

I got it in 1997 with less than 8000 miles on it - practically new. It held up like a champ and has maybe two tiny tiny spots of rust.

The only thing really wrong with it is the radio. It's kinda busted. It works, but you better not want to adjust the volume because it's a crap shoot on whether it will go up or down – regardless of which way you turn the knob. And the left speakers are touch and go.

Actual miles! I don't get out much.

But you who doesn't care? My dad. He bought my old Civic and is as happy as a clam. Win - win!

I looked at a 2011 Scion TC, a 2011 Honda CRZ, a 2007 Mini Cooper and the 2011 Juke. I sort of shocked myself by not falling in love with the Mini. It's the car I've wanted since the first time I saw one, about 7 years ago. But until there's a dealer closer than 100 miles away, I'm going to wait.

I was getting ready to make a decision on a car when I saw the Juke commercial for the first time. You know the one with the guy that has to pick up the donuts. I tried to decide if I thought it was really cool... or really ugly. I immediately went online to check it out. The next day, I asked a friend that works at Nissan if she had seen one in real life. After her praise of the vehicle, I decided to add it to my test drive list.

A week or so later, the local dealer had one! So Dwight and I went by that night after work and I gave it a spin. I really liked it, so my decision was down to the Mini and the Juke. I thought long and hard about it and... well, you know the conclusion. I picked one from the list of Jukes the dealer had allocated, gave them a deposit... and waited.

Super high-tech dash. A far cry from the Civic. And, hey! The radio works–WOO!

By most standards, it was a short wait – about 3 weeks – but for me, it felt like an eternity. It was worth the wait, though. I LOVE it.

Can't you tell?

Guest Post at Culinary Covers

2010-11-15T19:48:00.004-05:00

It's been almost a week, but I'm finally getting around to letting you know that I've written a guest post over at Culinary Covers. Run by Lori Lange (otherwise known as RecipeGirl), Culinary Covers is "a blog about investigating the cover recipes of cookbooks and magazines." When Lori put out a request on Twitter for people interested in guest writing, I jumped at the chance.

You might remember that I received David Lebovitz's latest cookbook Ready for Dessert My Best Recipes back in April, when it was first released. I poured over it the day it arrived, oohing and aahing over many of the recipes. As soon as Lori posted her request, I knew which recipe I wanted to make — the cover of Ready for Dessert.

Here it is — My reproduction of the cover shot

I've written about the cake over at Culinary Covers, but wanted to share some of the in progress photos along with images of the finished cake — since the cover image is only partially frosted!

Enjoy...

And here are some set up shots:

Shrug Pattern Roundup

2010-11-04T07:11:00.000-04:00

Remember this?

Well, Annette over at Craft Stew compiled a comprehensive and fun list of all kinds of free DIY shrug patterns, and she included mine! You can check out my How To: Make a Shrug from a T-shirt here.

Head over the Craft Stew for ideas and inspiration, including a few "no-sew" tutorials. Thanks, Annette!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T20:49:00.001-04:00

For whatever reason, my hometown decided to have trick-or-treating on Saturday the 30th instead of on Halloween. Turns out it was a great idea. The weather on Saturday was as good as you can hope to expect in the final days of October in northern Indiana and while Sunday's weather was decent, nothing beats having a relatively mild and clear evening for the kids (and adults) to have some fun.

We get our fair share of trick-or-treaters, and my sister and her husband take their kids around our neighborhood and have since we've lived here. I'm pretty sure this was the first time all of them stayed out until the very end. They had a great time.

M was dressed up as an M & M and C was a witch.

I decided to do a quick "costume" after seeing the no sew ideas on marthastewart.com.

Medusa!

I took a chance and stopped by Dollar General on my way home. Sure enough, I found what I needed—rubber snakes and fake hair. I bought two synthetic hair pieces—the quality you would expect for "hair" that cost $2—as the instructions suggested, but I ran out of time to braid and pin the second one to my head. So what you see is my hair, braided, plus a long plait of fake hair wound around the top, with 50¢ snakes scattered throughout.

It was so much fun. I got many compliments. And one girl (she was probably 12-years-old or so) wouldn't even come up to me, she was so freaked out by the snakes. Success!

I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween and are now basking in the glow of a kickin' sugar high.

BBA Challenge Bread #40—White Bread

2010-10-03T19:01:00.001-04:00

Another out-of-sequence bread from the challenge. I skipped to this one because I had limited about of time to bake and wanted to take advantage of it. This bread is completed in just one day, so it fit the bill. Easy, delicious and versatile — BBA White Bread (Variation 2).

I'm ALMOST DONE baking my way through Peter Reinhart's award winning book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, along with a number of other amateur bakers (I'm not sure how many are still with us, and a number of us have finished). Want to learn more about it? Check out the following links:

Pinch My Salt BBA Challenge page—master resource for the challenge

Buy the Book Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

List of Breads See what's coming up.

Blogroll See who's baking. Great list of some amazing foodie (and not-necessarily-foodie) blogs.

Flickr Group Photos, photos and more photos!

Facebook

Twitter Search for #BBAC to find challenge tweets.

The Bread Baker's Apprentice offers three variations on white bread, playing with a few ingredients and methods. Breads 1 and 2 are almost identical with the exception of milk. #1 used powdered and #2 uses buttermilk. Variation 3 uses a sponge method – mixing the flour, yeast and whole milk and letting that sit for 45 minutes before moving on to the rest of the process.

One of my oft-made pre-challenge bread recipes was for a buttermilk bread, so I opted for Variation 2. Not that I have the others to compare with, but I think I made the right choice.

Here's the ingredient round up. Bread flour, buttermilk powder (love this stuff!), salt, butter, yeast, egg, sugar and water.

Mix all that up, knead, pop it in a greased bowl and let it ferment 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until doubled.

Shape it into a boule...

And let it double in size.

I decided to leave all 36.44 ounces of this dough as one giant boule. I just bought a crazy cheap Dutch oven and wanted to put it to use.

The good folks at America's Test Kitchen tweeted about their Dutch oven test and a surprising recommendation was revealed. It turns out WalMart had one for about $40 and it fared well in their tests. I immediately went on line and snatched one up. I didn't want to risk not finding one at my local store, so I shipped one right to my door. It did a bang up job!

I thought this bread was very tasty. Soft, tender and entirely too easy to just eat and eat. It's definitely worth repeating.

Check out some other BBA baker's white bread variations:

Cathy at Bread Experience Version 3

Paul at Yumarama Bread Blog Version 1

Anne Marie at Rosemary & Garlic made all three!

BBA Challenge Bread #37—Swedish Rye (Limpa)

2010-09-28T20:13:00.001-04:00

Another rye bread, but not an ordinary one. I loved it — Swedish Rye (or Limpa).

(Full disclosure: the recipe called for aniseeds. I don't like anise, therefore don't keep it in my spice cupboard and did not use it in the bread. You may proceed.)

I'm (very, very slowly) baking my way through Peter Reinhart's award winning book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, along with a number of other amateur bakers (I'm not sure how many are still with us, and a number of us have finished). Want to learn more about it? Check out the following links:

Pinch My Salt BBA Challenge page—master resource for the challenge

Buy the Book Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

List of Breads See what's coming up.

Blogroll See who's baking. Great list of some amazing foodie (and not-necessarily-foodie) blogs.

Flickr Group Photos, photos and more photos!

Facebook

Twitter Search for #BBAC to find challenge tweets.

I made this 4 months ago, so the details are sketchy, but I definitely remember being thrilled with this one – the way it came together, the way it smelled, the way it looked (gracious, these were gorgeous loaves) ... and the way it tasted. Delicious.

Slightly sweet thanks to the brown sugar and molassess, fragrant and flavorful thanks to the fennel, cardamom and orange peel, with a lovely chewy crust and perfectly dense crumb – chewy without being the least bit heavy.

This was a keeper, most certainly. Unfortunately, it killed my baking stone. Not sure why, but shortly after putting the bread in the oven, I heard a "pop" and realized my stone broke. But it split really cleanly—if you put the two pieces together, you can't even tell it's broken. I'm keeping it since it still works. (Someone let me know if that's a bad idea, using a broken stone!)

Please check out other BBA Baker's posts. It looks like a lot of us were pleasantly surprised by this one!
Phyl at Of Cabbages & King Cakes
Sally at Bewtiching Kitchen
Janice at Round the Table
Oggi at I can do that!

Guest Post - Tiffany Inspired Cupcakes

2010-09-20T20:56:00.003-04:00

After my Dangerously Decadent Cupcakes got some exposure from Cupcakes Take The Cake (and tumblr) I got an email from Jeris Donovan, the woman behind Sahmmy.com, "a monthly Ezine of comic blogs by comics, comic writers, and actors who are now parents."

September is sahmmy.com's one year anniversary and Jeris asked me to come up with a cupcake to mark the celebration. I thought quite a bit about it and decided to go with a Tiffany-esque cupcake, because who wouldn't like a little something from Tiffany's on her anniversary?

Head on over to sahmmy.com and check out the post. A link to printable recipes isn't working properly on the guest post, so you can access it HERE. (I noticed a typo in the printable recipe. I referenced "baking soda" in the directions but it should be "baking powder" as listed in the ingredients.)

In the mean time, here are a few images from process. Enjoy!

Here are two ways to pipe frosting, both using the 1M tip. Left is shown starting from the center and winding out. Right is starting from the outside and working in.

I asked my nieces to taste test the various flavors to determine their favorite. Yeah, I'm the best aunt ever. (The chocolate caramel candies were the hands down fave, followed closely by Butterfinger.)

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

2010-09-11T20:39:00.003-04:00

As much as I hate to admit it, summer is coming to a close. Some might say it's over. I say, "Shut up" because even though I do love fall, it's far, far too short. And then it's winter. But I'm going to go all Scarlett O'Hara and not think about that right now. Let's focus on the joy that is fall.

Cooler temps, no more A/C, windows open, and fall flavors. They are my favorites. Warm, spicy, inviting. So with that in mind, I did some baking last weekend and had some leftover cinnamon cream cheese buttercream frosting. What's a girl to do? Make caramel apple cupcakes, of course.

While these were very good — I had some really nice complements from my co-workers — I will be tweaking the recipe, mostly having to do with the caramel. I used Werther's soft caramels, and while they melted nicely in the oven, they set back up once cooled creating a much more solid caramel experience that I would have liked. Even so, they were super tasty, so here's the recipe.

Yellow Cake
This is basically 1-2-3-4 cake cut in half. I didn't have lots of frosting left over
and didn't need a ton of cupcakes just lying around.

Ingredients
1 stick (1/2 cup/4 oz) butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsps baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Filling
Apple preserves
Caramels

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with liners.
2. In separate bowl, whisk flour and baking powder together.
3. In large mixing bowl or bowl of stand mixer, beat butter until smooth. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl as necessary. This will take a few minutes.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating for at least 1 minute between, scraping bowl before adding each egg. Add vanilla and beat until combined.
5. Add milk and beat well. Ditto for the flour. Beat until light and fluffy.
6. Scoop into prepared cupcake tins, filling 2/3 to 3/4 full.
7. Place 1 heaping teaspoon of preserves in the center of each cupcake. Place 1 caramel on top of the preserves pressing lightly to flatten the batter slightly.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until tops are lightly brown.
9. Cool in pans on racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
This recipe made enough to generously frost approx 24 cupcakes. If you find yourself with leftovers, I was thinking it would be amazing on cinnamon rolls or pancakes.

Ingredients
4 oz (1/2 block) cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick (4 oz) butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp Penzey’s Cake Spice (or just add more cinnamon)
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions
Beat butter thoroughly until smooth. Scrape bowl and add 1 cup sugar beating thoroughly. Add vanilla; beat. Add remaining 2 more cups sugar and mix until combined. Add cream and beat on high until light and fluffy. This will take a few minutes and you’ll need to scrape the bowl a few times during the process. If the mix seems too thin, add more sugar a little at a time until it reaches piping consistency. If it’s too thick, add more cream (or milk).

Printable recipe here.

Oatmeal, Cranberry & Almond Cookies

2010-09-02T08:00:00.009-04:00

Last Friday night, I had the baking bug and wanted something quick and not too sweet. So I flipped through a few cookbooks, seeing if anything caught my eye. The words "Oatmeal Cookies" jumped off the page—I do love oatmeal raisin cookies; they're one of my favorites. I decided to try the recipe I knew was lurking on the inside of the Quaker Oats lid. I made some modifications, of course. I can't help it.

I saw the dried cranberries when I grabbed the oats, so I decided to use those instead of raisins and I had some sliced almonds just begging to be added, too. Then I remembered that I bought some caramel extract and knew it needed to be in these cookies. Man, was I right. These smelled so good baking and tasted even better.

Oatmeal, Cranberry and Almond Cookies
adapted from Quaker Oats package top
Yields approx 24 large cookies

Ingredients
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, very loosely packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp caramel extract (or other flavor of choice)
1-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Penzeys Baking Spice (or cinnamon)
3 cups rolled oats, old fashioned or quick
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup sliced almonds

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine flour, baking soda and spices in small bowl, whisking until thoroughly combined.

Cream butter and both sugars in mixing bowl. Don’t over beat, just mix until smooth. Scrape down sides of bowl.

Add eggs and flavoring, beating until fully incorporated. Scrape sides of bowl as needed.

Add flour mixture to wet, mixing well.

Add almonds and cranberries and fold in with a wooden spoon until evenly distributed.

I used my large Pampered Chef scoop to dole out the dough, which is approximately 3 tablespoons or a scant 1/4 cup. Flatten the mounds slightly with your hand or the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in water. These don’t spread much on their own and will cook too fast on the outsides before the insides are cooked through.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned and no longer glossy looking. Let sit on pan for a minute before transferring to cooling racks. Let cool slightly and ENJOY! These are best the day of or day after baking. Longer than that and they start to dry out, but will keep for a few days in an air tight container.

Download Printable Recipe Here

(Not Quite) Wordless Wednesday—Bald Faced Hornet Nest

2010-09-01T08:00:00.002-04:00

This started out as a small, papery tube hanging from the soffit. It kind of grew. A lot. The critters you see are called bald faced hornets. They chew on wood and turn it into a paper-like construction material. You can see that different kinds of wood make for very interesting strata lines.

Despite the fact that these buggers have built a nest right by our garage, we haven't had any problems with them. After it gets cold, the wasps with eventually leave and/or die and won't come back, so we can knock this down. I'm really curious to see what it looks like inside!

You can click on any of the photos to see larger versions in flickr.