baking — Page 5

Sunday Bits

June 10, 2012 at 9:11 am by Claudia

A gorgeous morning. Rain may fall at some point in the day. It probably will. (It’s been like this for days.) I have to mow today…and clean…and organize. We have guests coming to stay for a couple of days mid-week. Nothing like the prospect of visitors to sharpen your ‘house and yard vision.’

I was looking for something yesterday and found something else. Didn’t I post about that sort of discovery earlier in the week? I found the door knocker I used in our little rental cottage. It’s such a pretty acorn and oak leaf design. Our doors, however, are metal and I don’t want to mess with all that. Since we have no doorbell, I thought I’d attach it to one of the porch posts – right by the porch entrance.

Now instead of shouting ‘Hello?’ (which is fine, by the way) perhaps a visitor will eye that door knocker and give it a nice, sharp, metallic rap.

I’m afraid I succumbed again.

I made more of the Rhubarb Snacking Cake.

I couldn’t help it. Rhubarb is only in season for a short time. And this rhubarb was grown locally. I mean, it’s my civic duty, don’t you think?

If you love rhubarb, make this. We are in love with it. It’s fabulous right out of the oven, but I like it refrigerated as well.

Don had some when he got home late last night. I had a piece this morning. And I’ll have another shortly.

Happy Sunday.

Random On Wednesday

January 19, 2011 at 6:14 pm by Claudia

:: Letitia has taken to wearing my ratty old parka and snow shoveling hat (faux fur, of course.) Perhaps that’s because I’ve been wearing it a lot myself lately. Of course, I don’t wear the flower when I’m outside in the snow. Yesterday was just a horrible, terrible weather day. Snow came down and turned to sleet, then turned to freezing rain, which turned to ice. All the trees and plants are coated with it. Our driveway, which slopes down to the street, was completely iced over this morning. Oh joy. Don salted it and about an hour later, there we were, hacking away at the ice. It’s a long driveway, so excuse me while I pause for a moment to curse. I’m also dealing with sinus/allergy/whatever and feel a more than a bit under the weather. Thank goodness I didn’t have to be in the city yesterday or today. I wouldn’t have been able to make it.

Spring cannot come soon enough.

:: After trying a new recipe for Oatmeal Cookies yesterday, I wasn’t sure I liked the results. Today, however, they taste great. But during the time I thought the cookies were a bust, I quickly scoured the pantry to see what else I had on hand to make another batch. Ah, molasses. So I baked this favorite of ours:

These are “Ben’s Favorite Molasses Sugar Cookies” from The Bake Sale Cookbook, which you can get here. I may not like to cook, but I do like to bake. And I have a sweet tooth. Which is why I don’t bake very often.

:: I’ve just finished another obsession scarf. I haven’t blocked it yet. It’s for my best friend, Laural. Since she doesn’t read this blog, I don’t have to worry about her seeing it. Debi and Karen, I had to special order the yarn for your scarves and it just got in today. Hopefully, I’ll be able to break out of my prison house tomorrow and pick it up from the yarn shop.

:: I’ve decided I’m going to post something about the dollhouse every week. That way I will be forced to keep plugging away. It’s been completely primed. Now I have to paint the outside and figure out what I want to do with the rooms. I’ve been pouring through my catalogs and am getting ready to order baseboards, crown molding, window trims, spindles and railings for the staircases….if I let myself, I could go nuts. Working on this dollhouse is tricky because it was already assembled when I found it on Craigs List. Usually, all the painting, etc. is done before assembly. Since I can’t do that, I have to work in very tiny spaces and it isn’t easy. The dollhouse came with this door:

I don’t particularly like it and it doesn’t close. So, I bought another door.

What do you think? I like it much better. It’s a bit larger than the other one and that means I might have to do some sawing…any tips from my mini friends on the best way to do it? By the way, that plant and urn came from my friend Jayne of Tallulah – Belle Originals. She sent me lots of wonderful things for my dollhouse – she’s incredibly generous.

I’m off to drink hot chocolate and blow my nose.

On Food & a Sweet Tooth

January 18, 2011 at 2:11 pm by Claudia

We’re in the middle of a snow, sleet and ice event here at MHC. Can I tell you how sick of winter I am? It hasn’t even been a month since the blizzard that came our way the day after Christmas and we’ve had 3 major snowfalls and now this. Last night, as we listened to the weather report, Don immediately worried about whether we had enough sweets in the house in the event we were ‘trapped’ here.

I looked around and announced that I had enough on hand to make oatmeal raisin cookies. I will be starting on those shortly…after I recover from yet more snow shoveling. We aren’t doing too well with our addiction to sweets, are we? It’s always harder in the winter months and this winter is a pain in the….

Since it is cold and gray and snowy, I treat myself to this everyday:

Wouldn’t you? But it can’t be any cocoa, it has to be this cocoa:

Double Chocolate or Hazelnut Chocolate. Ummm-mmmm good.

When we lived in San Diego, the local Whole Foods carried a cookie that I was addicted to. Chocolate Truffle Heart Cookies. They were more like a cookie sandwich and they were the best cookie I’ve ever had. I would treat myself to one or two every week. (Of course, I was thinner then and sweets didn’t immediately go to my waist.) I longed to figure out how they were made. Never did. And after a while, whoever was making them stopped supplying them to Whole Foods. I went into mourning. Believe me when I tell you that I have googled and googled and have never found the right recipe for them.

I’ve also misplaced some of my Grandmother’s recipes. She was the baking queen. She made the most wonderful Butter Tarts and a little treasure called Current Cakes. Can’t find the recipes. Maybe they are buried in a box in the shed, but I don’t think so. I get sad when I think I may have misplaced them forever. Meredith, do you have copies of them?

But I do have her recipe for Cloud Biscuits. I make these often, especially this time of year. They are really just a variation of Baking Powder Biscuits, though I personally think they are the best version.

Cloud Biscuits

2 cups flour

1 tsp. sugar

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter

1 egg, beaten

2/3 cup milk

Mix together dry ingredients. Cut butter into dry ingredients until well chopped. Beat the egg with a fork and stir into milk. Add egg/milk mixture to dry ingredients. Mix together thoroughly until dough is formed. Put on floured board and knead until blended. Flatten out until smooth and cut with cookie/biscuit cutter. Place on oiled or buttered cookie sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 10 -12 minutes. Depending on the size of your biscuit cutter, the recipe makes about 12 biscuits.

A few notes about this recipe: The original recipe called for much more salt and I’ve cut it back for health reasons and also because I thought the biscuits tasted too salty. You’re welcome to up the amount of salt if you choose. Don’t make the mistake of flattening out the dough too much (as my niece and I did the first time we made them together.) The dough should be at least a 1/2 inch or more thick. That’s the secret to the ‘Cloud’ part of the biscuit. They rise beautifully that way.

My oven seems to take a minute or two longer than the 10 minutes called for in the original recipe so I’ve changed it to 10-12 minutes.

Mark this day down in your calendars: It’s the first, and perhaps last, time I’ve shared a recipe on this blog.

Be sure to scroll down to read my book review of The Death Instinct. It’s a fascinating book.

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