custom house: Baking

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

banana muffins

This weekend, I went over to my friend Colleen's place to have a baking date. You may remember the visit we took to her apartment back in January? This time around, we made banana muffins with ginger cream icing in her perfect kitchen with whitewashed cabinets and rosy walls. We drank coffee and orange juice and listened to Ella Fitzgerald.

Happy Monday! Did you have any fun plans this weekend?

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Bootcamp vs. Baking Marathon

This year my friend Amy and I decided to do something a little different. Instead of spending most of our holiday days lounging around on the couch watching movies and eating chocolate, we decided to commit to a self-imposed Christmas Bootcamp. In other words, we agreed to motivate each other to workout most days during the two weeks we have off at Christmas......

....however, we had ALOT of baking to do this week as well.

I'm not kidding when I say "alot". Amy has been a baking fiend lately and she is so sweet about taking extra care to make things safe for everyone. She makes nut stuff, but then she dedicates a day to going nut-free for people like me and diabetic safe for people like her father. The time and energy to do it all just boggles me.

On this day we made 6 recipes, putting one in the oven and starting on the next one right away. With two blondes working in the kitchen we ended up making little mistakes on every recipe...twice as much green food colouring in one recipes, and extra cup of coconut in another. But they all seemed to work out great in the end.

These little guys are basically mint sugar cookies with a chocolate filling inside and a mint chocolate on top. They smelled amazing while they were baking. Mint chocolate has to be one of my favorite flavour combinations.

This is where things got dangerous....the extra pieces of chocolate.

We can't just let them go to waste, right?

My favorite dish that we made were these chocolate coconut bars. I'm hoping to grab the recipe from her and make a post about it soon.

Even though they weren't completely cooled before I left, I had to cut into them to get a little piece. Rich, decadent, chocolatey goodness :)

We also made white chocolate orange cookies with a little bit of Grand Marnier in there for kick.

Ever square inch of counter space was covered in goodies. It was so tempting to have some of everything.

But I knew that she needed all the goodies for her cookie tins, so I just grabbed one of the leftover Oreos and dipped it in icing like a grown up version of Dunk-a-roos.

Just look at all that icing! And this is where the Christmas Bootcamp becomes a predicament. Is it really doing anything to improve my health....or just keeping all the bad stuff at bay while I indulge during the holidays?

Friday, March 26, 2010

Kitchen Memories

Last weekend I was back in my hometown visiting my parents, when I started rummaging through the shelves of old cookbooks that my mother has. I was on the hunt for her infamous macaroni and cheese recipe (look out for that next week!) and I came across a small stack of very old notebooks.

It turns out that they belong to my great grandmother, the same woman who taught my great aunt and my mother to cook, who then taught me. Looking at these worn old books was like seeing where my love of cooking came from.

The books are full of recipes that she exchanged back and forth with family. This recipe for Chili Sauce that was given to her by my great great Aunt Betty, and I can just picture her lovingly writing this in her book while thinking about when she was going to make this.

There were also lots of clippings out of newspapers with recipes and tips that she'd liked over the years. I realize that in the modern age I do that too, printing off recipes that I see online or saving them on my computer. My own little form of clip and save. However there was one page that I found that immediately had me cracking up...

It appears that she had clipped an entire section of just recipes "for The Hunter". My grandfather never hunted and I can't imagine my great grandmother ever making "Roast of Moose" or "Partridge Pie" in a hundred years. But then it started to get a little weirder...

"Roast Squirrel"?!?!? I would like to state for the record that no one in my family has ever eaten a squirrel and I can only imagine that she had clipped this and kept it as a joke. During my weekly phone call with my great Aunt (her daughter) I brought up the notebooks and this particular section and she started laughing. She thinks that without a doubt this was intended as a joke. Maybe my great grandmother knew that some fifty years later I would be pouring through her notebooks soaking up recipes and then come to a full stop when I see this one. From what I remember of her, she was a happy woman and I always picture her with a smile on her face. Maybe I got more of my quirky sense of humor from her than I think :)

There were also these old themed cookbooks that were tucked in the pile. One each for New England, French and Scandinavian dishes.

My dad has spent a great deal of time in Scandinavian countries for work, and he is not a big fan of their pickled fish and things like that. But when I started going through this book there were lots of interesting recipes that caught my eye.

Like these recipes for Swedish Gingersnaps and Berlin Wreaths. I love the little detailed drawings on the top of each page.

But I would have to say that the one that was most up my alley was the New England cookbook. It was full of classic North American recipes that had my mouth watering.

But of course my favorite section was the cakes, cookies and frostings. One look at the words "Boston Cream Pie" and I was sold.

There was even a whole section on Johnny Cakes, which if you've never had them, are kind of like fried cornmeal flatcakes. I love the picture of the jaunty man heading out with his "journey cakes" in a little sack. And the damsel waving goodbye with her kerchief. Can you imagine standing at the door and waving someone off like that? Oh my how the times have changed.

There is also a section in each book for cooking and baking tips, things like how to properly fill a cake pan and where to place it in the oven. Important lessons that can make or break a good cake (literally).

But the part that I immediately copied down was the oven temperatures. I don't know how many times I've had to look up what the temperature is for a "slow oven". Once I desperately needed it for a crust I was making and my internet was down so I had to call my great Aunt. I think she was quite tickled that my precious Google had failed me and that I had to go back to her "old school ways" and look it up in her cookbooks.

I loved this little flash of the past and its sparked my interest in trying some of the recipes that my great grandmother loved so much. I figure that if I'm anything like her, than the ones with the most grease spots are the ones she loved the most :)

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Egg-cellent!

Today I learned a nifty little trick that I just had to share with you.

You know when you crack an egg and you accidentally get small bits of the eggshell in the bowl and spend ages trying to fish them out?

Next time take the empty shell half and use it to scoop up the small bits. I don't know why it works, but the shell seems to attract the smaller bits, unlike your fingers or spoon, which seem to repel them.

I tried it this morning while making an omelette and it worked! Woohoo!

Photo Credit: Shuttlestock

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Baking Cookies as Gifts?

Are you baking cookies as gifts this year? There are so many great cookie recipes to choose from. I know I will be baking soon and I still haven't totally decided which cookies I'll make yet.

Well, for sure, I'll make some Peanut Butter Cookies, some Russian Teacakes (aka Mexican Wedding Cookies, aka Snow Balls), but after that I just haven't made up my mind yet.

This picture is from last Christmas. This is what we gave my son's teachers. There are mixed opinions on giving cookies to teachers for gifts. On one hand, some teachers probably get a lot of homemade goodies at Christmas so why give him/her more? On the other hand, why not? If she/he gets a bunch they can share and serve them to others.

I like giving my baked goods in a nice jar that can be reused for something else later. I purchased these jars at Wal Mart. They carry them year round. They were very reasonable and I know the teachers were able to reuse them for storage at home or in their classroom.

I separated each layer of cookies with a piece of parchment paper and tied each with a nice ribbon. I made handmade cards that my son could write a personal message on.

I especially find it important to give gifts to teachers as my kids get older. My son is in 8th grade this year and he has 7 teachers. I know they would love a jar of cookies. Junior High and High School teachers tend to not receive as many gifts and/or thank-you's as Elementary teachers. That's why I really enjoy making something special for my son's Junior High teachers.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks has a super cookie recipe to share, go on over and take a look. And you can find tons of recipes for cookies at Martha Stewart, All Recipes, Better Homes & Gardens, and let's not forget the Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking Guide (mentioned in one of my previous posts), as well as this handy Cookie Recipe list that has been circulating in email inboxes for a while now. Just copy and paste it as an html document to keep all the links active or it will be here in my archive. Happy Baking!

Be inspired to bake some cookies! -Karol :0)

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking

Cook's Illustrated has a wonderful Holiday Baking Edition out now. Just look at the cookies on the cover! I want to make those.

I can't explain it better than they have:

Your Special 64-page Double Issue includes:

*Dozens of foolproof recipes for holiday favorites including Real Sweet Potato Pie, French Toast Casserole, Glazed Lemon Cookies, plus many more!

*Baking tips and shortcuts, and Chocolate 101

*Objective Equipment Ratings, including the best baking pan for your dough

And, as usual, it's packed full of tests and results for cookware, bake ware, utensils, recipes, ingredients, etc.

Do you have a serious cook on your Christmas list? Cook's Illustrated would be the perfect gift.

Be Inspired! -Karol :0)

Friday, November 2, 2007

My Owl Cupcakes

Today I'll just share a photo of my Owl Cupcakes with you. They were quite easy to make. If you haven't visited my blog before, this recipe/idea was my very first blog post.

I could not find Butter Rum Lifesavers to save my life (pun intended). So I opted for Werther's candies. Don't use them unless you are going to serve them the same day. The Werther's seems to melt with the moister from the frosting and cupcakes and "weep" butterscotch liquid from around their eyes.

The kids in my daughter's class didn't care. There were only a few that didn't like Werther's or didn't like almonds, etc. But out of a class of 20, about 17 kids ate them and one boy ate someone else's they didn't want. :0D

The only tedious part is placing all the almond slices around the eyes. I was a little tired of it after about the 10th cupcake. But, they were a hit so that's all that matters.

Here's the link again to make them: http://www.landolakes.com/tips/Halloween-Hoot-Owls-demonstration.cfm

Be inspired! -Karol :0)

Monday, October 1, 2007

Adorable Cupcake Idea!

Quick update: Here's a link for an instructional video for these cupcakes! http://www.landolakes.com/tips/Halloween-Hoot-Owls-demonstration.cfm

For my first real post, I want to share a great recipe magazine . Whooo knew owl cupcakes could look so cute?!

I just picked up this Land O Lakes Recipe Collection at the grocery store (couldn't resist). I am planning on making these for my daughter's class soon.

There's numerous cute Fall & Halloween themed kids recipes in the "Kooky Cookies & Treats" section as well as "Cranberry-Cashew Jumbles", "Glazed Cardamom Coffee Cake", "Apple Ginger Pie" from the "Harvest Baking" section -just to name a few.

Great Harvest Baking recipes. Each recipe has a photo (bonus!). You can check out many of the Land O Lakes Recipe Collections when you click on the picture and order. This particular issue is available now at stores.

More magazine reviews to come, that's a promise!

Karol :0)

custom house

About Me

Pages

Followers