One Smart Cookie

Back to Reality

2011-01-25T12:06:00.005-06:00

I don't think I ever mentioned it here, but I had my house on the market for a good bit of last year. When I listed, I thought selling would be a snap. While I joke and say I live in the ghetto, my neighborhood is not the greatest but my house has been lovingly maintained and in good shape compared to some of the others on my street. I really thought it wouldn't take that long and I'd be closer to work, in a little bigger place, by the end of the summer. What I didn't realize was that some of my slumlord neighbors were trying to unload their investment properties at the same time. Adding those properties to the rest for sale on my street brought the total to more than a dozen. I took my house off the market in August and since then, there have been at least 15 house for sale on my street at any given time and as far as I know, none of them have sold.

So now I'm trying to make do with what I have. I don't want to make expensive improvements that won't see any return but at the same time, I want to improve my living space. I've come up with quite a list and prioritizing has been... interesting.

Replace blinds throughout the house

Replace kitchen faucet

Replace shower heads

Replace outside spigot/s

New garbage disposal

Replace door sweeps on front & garage door

New main breaker box

New master toilet

Re-caulk master bathtub

New oven

Paint kitchen cabinets

Paint kitchen

Remove downstairs carpeting and replace with tile or alternative

Replace counters & back-splash in kitchen

I realize those last two are probably the most pricey and give me the most pause. One of the houses for sale down the street has dropped its price by nearly 20 thousand and they made all kinds of big improvements - siding, full bathroom & kitchen renovations, etc. I'm sure they're not making any of that money back.

At least I can do most of the items on the list myself or by enticing some friends with the promise of beer/pizza/cookies/babysitting.

Feast or famine

2010-12-07T20:11:00.008-06:00

And now, we wait. My sister-in-law is currently 39 weeks pregnant with my first niece and we are all very anxious for her arrival. The shower was lovely (I made yet another diaper cake) and this kid will be very well dressed for some time. One of the shower games was basically guessing which day you thought the baby would be born and the closest (with closest weight) gets a prize. After seeing the most recent belly pictures, my pic of the 9th is looking fairly promising. It's isn't that I want to win the prize, I just want the baby here to cuddle with and spoil rotten!

I'm actually rather proud of that cake. It's 4 tiers tall and over 100 diapers went into it. I even managed to coordinate the colors with minimal insight from the hostesses (not that I blame them - it's just hard that I live 200 miles away from everyone else).

GIS Day was mid-November and I made globe cakepops. They were such a big hit I'll bust out with Christmas tree ones later this month. Please forgive for the globes not being geographically accurate. Working with candy melts is harder than it looks; that's why most of them just spell out G-I-S D-A-Y in the background.

Following that came Thanksgiving where I spent I week in the frozen tundra that is Wisconsin. My grandmother and I covered a lot of ground - she supervised me making a batch of rolls, making little suggestions along the way, I baked a batch of Martha's Grammy's Chocolate Cookies which my grandma liked as well as 2 batches of her famous Christmas cookies. First we made the cut out cookies and I was impressed with how few times she rolls her dough. I positively let mine get tough but I think it's easier to cut that way. She did like my idea about chilling the dough for a while although we didn't really need to. We also made some of her spritz cookies that are colored like Christmas trees. I made the red dough, so my hands looked like I'd murdered someone. Here she is in her tiny kitchen. Isn't she cute? She said the rolling pin fell of the table many years ago and that's why it only has one good handle. And she really only busts out that table cloth when she's baking, even though it is holiday appropriate right now.

I made sure her pantry and freezer were stocked and left my present with her - 4 trips to beauty parlor. The big family Thanksgiving dinner was downsized a bit since part of the family branched off on their own this year. We didn't mind - it meant we could actually have a conversation over dinner and more leftovers for Grandma.

Secret Santa has started at work and I have a new employee. He filled out his form rather thoroughly as far as likes & dislikes but I had a hard time finding things to get him. So improvised and basically, all he's getting from me is goodies. Mostly store bought, but tonight I'm testing out Martha's peanut butter cookie recipe from her book. She hasn't steered me wrong until this point. The recipe says the cookies bake for 25 minutes, rotating halfway. I adjust time and temp down due to my wacky oven but even then, my cookies were burnt. I lowered the time again and yet another tray of blackened cookies. If it weren't for that dozen cookies, I would almost have the amount called for in the book and a few leftover to share at work. It looks like he'll get most of them. I guess that's OK.

My littlest helper, Bert, isn't so little anymore. He weighs at least 10 pounds now and doesn't fit in that blue bowl anymore so I have a hard time weighing him. He's discovered that he can jump up on the kitchen counters without assistance, so no place is safe anymore. He's also renewed his love of boxes and I'm afraid if we'll need to stage a box-hab intervention.

My new assistant

2010-09-23T17:53:00.004-05:00

As I've mentioned before, earlier this year, one of my cats took ill and passed away. After mourning what I thought was an acceptable amount of time, I adopted a kitten in July. Actually, Julian was driving me nuts; he was so lonely and clingy, I figured a new friend would help things out. They've finally settled into their new relationship and get along as well as an 11 year old fat kitty and a 4 month old kitten can.

Meet Bert.

He's my new baking assistant. He loves to "help".

Apologies and Dewey News

2010-09-15T22:01:00.006-05:00

First and foremost, I need to apologize for my complete lack of posting for the last 6 months. Loosing Mustardseed was completely unexpected and spun me so much I can't even describe it. Well, I tried to, but never posted what I wrote because it seemed to self-indulgent. I really wrote it for me anyway. Long story short (too late, I know), he was a very special cat and Julian & I miss him terribly.

On to the good stuff... it's Dewey Donation time again! If you're unaware of the program, go check it out. They are really making a difference and every little bit helps. I loved going through the wishlists and picking out the books to donate. It felt like holiday shopping! But time is running out - the drive ends on Monday, so act fast!

Other news... Bakerella's book finally arrived and I'm feeling very inspired. I've got quite a few events coming up and I can't wait to start making cute cake pops. I even stopped for supplies today and spent entirely too much money. Pictures and descriptions of my attempts are guaranteed.

I'll be spending Thanksgiving with my grandmother, so I'm sure I'll be put to work on her Christmas cookies. I'm even going to bring her another new recipe, since she liked the Snickerdoodles I made when I visited her earlier this summer. I can't believe she'd never had a Snickerdoodle before!

Thanks for all of your patience and I'll try to not have such a large gaps between posts next time. Happy baking!

Baby Shower Bonanza

2010-03-23T18:47:00.006-05:00

My best friend is having a baby and I co-hosted her shower this weekend. Since I live on the complete opposite side of town and she's really good friends with her neighbor, she (her neighbor) and I teamed up to host at her house.

I found the cutest invitations weeks ago at Hobby Lobby (quickly becoming my favorite store, btw) and slowly put together the rest of the paper products in the same pattern. The only picture was taken with my camera phone, so I won't bother posting it. You'll just have to take my word that they were cute. We all got together about a month ago to prepare the invitations and we heard back from nearly everyone. I must say it is nice when people are polite and RSVP.

So the week before, we started checking things off our lists. We'd decided to make a diaper cake for Momma and I found some interesting decorating techniques online. For example, I made washcloth roses.
I can't even begin to tell you how easy they were to make! I'm sure with more practice they would look better, for a first attempt this are pretty good.

We just decorated the diapers with ribbon and baby accessories (in this case, a teething ring and pacifiers). We thought it would take hours and it took less than one. While uncomplicated, I recommend working on this with a partner when assembling all of the diapers into the layers.

And of course, I baked. My mother came down from DFW for the shower and she was a big help. She'd given me a magazine full of cake-mix ideas, so I used one of those recipes for our cupcakes. I don't usually do cupcakes because I have a hard time judging how full to make the cups. We did a double batch, just be safe on the numbers. I didn't want anyone to miss out on seconds because we didn't have enough cupcakes. I also made the icing from scratch and while a bit of a pain, it was totally worth it. Homemade frosting with ingredients I can pronounce = win.

These are just a white cake mix, injected with lemon curd filling and topped with vanilla butter cream frosting. Mom insisted on mixing up lemon curd with bean curd, so we lost a lot of time due to hysterical laughter. She did offer an excellent suggestion of using my cooking press fitted with a frosting tip to inject the filling. While messy, it was a lot easier than how I had planned - using a plastic bag with a corner snipped off.

Focusing on the shower has helped me a lot this last month. February was probably the least fun month of my entire life and I'm still dealing with the loss of Mustardseed. I've been working on a tribute posting for him, but it just never seems finished. I think of new things I miss about him everyday.

The Mega X-Mas Cookie Marathon

2010-01-06T21:36:00.005-06:00

Or "How I Spent the Winter TV Doldrums..."

It's taken two weeks to recap my holiday baking because I'm still recovering from all of it! I had an overly ambitious idea this fall to send boxes of cookies to friends around the country as well as to my dear grandmother who did the same for me in college. So technically, it's all her fault.

Because of the overwhelming scope, I made a plan. I made a list of recipients and whittled it down to a manageable number - 16. I found perfect plastic containers at the local grocery store which were thriftier than buying new tins. I measured the tubs to determine the boxes I would need for shipping and ordered them from USPS.com in what I thought was plenty of time. More on that later, on to the baking.

I broke the baking into 2 segments - shipments & out of town deliveries vs. local deliveries. I knew I had to get my shipments out by a specific date so they would arrive well before Christmas. I chose three types of cookies (down from 6, plus fudge and/or candied pecans, like I said, I was very ambitious at the start) - Gingersnaps, the classic Iced Sugar Cookie, and everyone's favorite Chocolate Chip. All Grandma's recipes, all time-tested and taste bud approved. To fill the first 10 tubs for shipment, I made double batches of the gingersnaps and chocolate chips and a single batch of the sugars because that makes a ton of cookies. After filling the tubs, I realized I probably could have added one more variety but I just didn't have time. I baked the cookies over the course of a week, as well as a batch of pumpkin bread to fulfill a Secret Santa obligation.

At the very latest, I wanted to send the boxes out 2 weeks before Christmas itself, to ensure delivery. This is where the postal service failed me. The boxes I ordered were free, and the website said they would be delivered within 7-10 business days of the order. I even got an email notification when they were shipped but the notice offered nothing as a means of tracking my shipment. I received that notice a week before I wanted to send them out, so I thought I was well on my way to making this work. As the baking week progressed, the boxes didn't come. I took a partial day from work to start a long holiday weekend and the boxes hadn't arrived. So I loaded all of the tubs in the trunk and headed home for a weekend with the family. I ended up taking the tubs to the UPS store and paying 3x what I would have paid at the post office. By that point, I was so upset I didn't care - I felt like I was protesting the post office. Ultimately, I shipped 8 boxes since one was delivered en route to my parents to my college roommate and the other went to my brother & his wife.

The next round of baking was much less hectic as I didn't have a set deadline. I wanted to deliver over the weekend before Christmas, so I just needed to get things finished by the weekend. I think I did actual do a batch of cookies on Saturday morning, and delivered that evening. Having learned the capacity of the tubs, I decided to include 4 varieties of cookies and I changed things up a bit since they didn't need to be sturdy enough to handle shipping - Gingersnaps, Iced Sugar, Pressed Sugar (they crumble if you look at them funny, but boy, are they yummy!), and Martha's Grammy's Chocolate. The yields of the various batches worked well enough that each tub had a few more than a dozen of each type with a little room to spare. That iced sugar recipe turns out so many cookies - I tried to use similar sized cutters to keep baking even - that I had quite a few of those left. So I brought 2 tubs to work and the remainder went to friends.

Not wanting to waste those left over cookies, I made good on a promise and delivered those as well as a Christmas Eve batch of chocolate chip cookies to my favorite fire station. Those were very well received. It wasn't until the end of my visit with them that I saw the pile of goodies they had in the kitchen. If that shift didn't eat them all, I'm sure the next shift didn't mind the leftovers!

I tried to summarize the amounts of butter, flour and sugar that I used during this after the fact but I can't process that right now. I'll try to do better next year and keep a tally as I go. Best estimates were around 4 pounds of butter, 10 pounds of flour and 12 pounds of sugar, but that's just a guess.

Now I'm considering shipping cookies to soldiers overseas. I'm a glutton for punishment.

It's Always Something (Icebox Cookies)

2009-10-25T18:51:00.006-05:00

The other day I was shopping and passed by Sur La Table and for those of you unfamiliar, it is a higher end kitchen & cooking supply store. It's a lot like I would imagine heaven would be like, actually. I couldn't skip by without peeking inside so I made my way to the back, where all of the baking supplies live. Granted, most of the things that I need I can find at the grocery store for a better price (sanding sugar, vanilla extract) but if I ever need a kangaroo shaped cookie cutter, I know where to find it. I also noticed that they had some really nice baking chocolate and different varities of cocoa powder. That's been sort of a quest for me lately so I had to check it out. And I found this...
I realize that it isn't my precious dutch process powder, but come on, it's Valrhona! Probably one of the best chocolate makers in the world. I had to have it. So I bought it. And then I had to scan through "the book" to find recipes I could use it in.

Icebox Bull's Eyes & Spirals sounded easy enough, even if it was a little futzy, with dividing the dough into portions and rests in the refrigerator. The only modification I made was using 1% milk rather than whole, only because I didn't want to make a trip to the store on a Sunday.

Bull's Eyes, pre-oven

Spirals, pre-oven

Martha would not be pleased with the shapes of my spirals and bull's eyes but cut me some slack, it's my first try.

Bull's Eyes, post oven

Spirals, post oven

Since I had so much down time while the dough rested, I tried to keep up with the mess I'd made. I put the mixing bowl in the sink and filled it with warm, soapy water to let the other utensils soak for a bit. Me being the klutz that I am, I managed to knock it over, spilling a lot of water on the counter, on "the book" and all over the floor. I salvaged the book, although now a lot of the pages are going to show some wear. And on the plus side, I've put a little dent in washing the kitchen floor!

Not for lack of trying

2009-10-13T16:34:00.005-05:00

If I were a regular reader of a blog, I would start to get concerned after a certain point. I'm alive, I promise. I just haven't been baking as much since I'm trying to deal with some weird cards the universe decided to deal me. I'll cover the baking first, because that's the good part.

A couple of batches of Grandma's reliable chocolate chip cookies. We've had a few birthdays in the office and these are always crowd-pleasers.

Alton Brown's Moo Less Chocolate Pie. I altered this since it coming to the office with me. I'd feel a little weird since the recipe calls for Kahlua and the alcohol does not cook down. In the past, I've brewed strong coffee or used instant, but I just didn't have the time. I went to Starbucks and asked for a triple shot of espresso. Apparently, espresso "turns" quickly - I don't normally drink it, how would I know? - so the barista offered to put some soy milk in there. The pie uses tofu, so that worked out well. No one was able to guess the secret ingredient and were shocked when it was revealed. I like adding some drama to my goodies.

Martha's double chocolate brownies. I'm a convert to making brownies from scratch. I don't know what's taken me so long! These were rich and straightforward, mixing melted chocolate with cocoa powder. These brownies don't need nuts or frosting or anything like that - just a cool glass of milk.

Life

Some background. I moved into my house nearly 10 years ago, fresh out of college and rather shocked that I could get a mortgage and become a homeowner. My neighborhood is what Planners like to consider a transitional neighborhood, meaning a mix of homeowners and renters. I've been relatively happy with the neighborhood (I wish I had more parking to have people over, etc) and most of the people are great. I've had some run-ins, mainly with renters who no longer live there. Until this summer. Some rather unsavory folks have moved in on end and brought some unwanted elements to the street. We can't really do anything but ask the police to patrol more, which they have, but it's still uncomfortable.

A few weeks ago, I enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon doing laundry when I noticed some movement on my driveway. The windows on my door are frosted so I could see but I could tell someone was out there. So I peeked through the blinds and discovered a strange car in my driveway, blocked in by a police cruiser. I decided that it was time I got dressed, in case the police needed to talk to me. Now, don't panic. I was never in any danger. I never spoke to the police so the rest is speculation. On of my good neighbors had a better view of everything from his house and told me his thoughts. The police signaled to the car to pull over and rather than pulling to the curb, they decided to act like my house was their destination and pulled into my driveway. They tried to convince the officer that they intended on coming to my house. While he was talking to the driver, the passenger dumped a suspicious substance out the window (my neighbor is certain it was cocaine). The officer called for back up and by the time they arrived and searched the car, they didn't find anything but empty baggies. No one was arrested and the police left. The strange car remained on my driveway for about half an hour - it seemed like they were having a hard time getting it started again. But eventually they left.

It was bad enough to think of some of the things that were happening in the alley or down the street but now it's in my driveway! So, I called up my mortgage company and got myself pre-qualified for a home loan. I'd thought about moving closer to the office when I first started but the timing wasn't right. I'm working on purging the house of clutter before contacting a realtor and moving forward, but I'd like to be moving by New Years or close to it. That's the plan.

On top of all of this, my hands have been giving me trouble again. My mother had rheumatoid arthritis so it's very likely that I will too, eventually. A few years back, I woke up one day and my hands felt strange. That's the best I can describe it. My joints weren't swollen and the pain wasn't sharp. Just constant. I've always been a little clumsy and seemed to get worse - dropping my keys, alot. I went through the whole process of tests and x-rays with the specialist but it was all inconclusive. And then one day, I woke up and my hands felt better. Apparently, this does happen. So right about the time of the driveway incident, my hands started bothering me again. I actually dropped a knife on my foot while baking and that's when I decided I needed to see the doctor again. Don't worry, I was wearing shoes! I see the specialist the first week of November.

As if things are complicated enough, I got a wild hair to bake and ship cookies to out of town friends (that means you, Patty!) for the holidays. I think I'll use the fixed price boxes from USPS but I need to double check the sizes. It will a mix of my usual suspect cookies - chocolate chip, grandma's frosted & sugar cookies. I'll take special requests, within reason.

Team Colors Day

2009-09-06T17:49:00.003-05:00

Since Saturday was opening day for college football, we decided to participate in College Colors Day at the office on Friday. We had a nice hotdog cookout at the new Rec center and had some fun competitions that included Sweet Team Treats. There were only 3 entrants (my Grandma's go-to cookie cutter cookies, a peanut chocolate pie thing and a triffle) so we all won prizes. I know I should be humble and take my prize - Most Creative - but I still feel somewhat gipped. I mean, I included team colors and the logo! Last time I checked, there weren't any pie or triffle logos or mascots out there.

At least I got to use my Texas shaped cutter, my awesome Secret Santa present from last year.

As a side note: there were only 3 casualties during the frosting process - one longhorn broke (many broke during transport), one Texas lost El Pas county and one helmet lost the face mask. I kept offering the broken-horned longhorns to the Aggies in the crowd but they declined - their loss. I still ended up with more than 4 dozen cookies for making a half-batch recipe.

Baby Shower cookies

2009-09-06T17:48:00.003-05:00

The fun group I cruised with last summer gathered in August to celebrate a baby shower for one of the ladies. Naturally, I volunteered to bring some deserts. As she knows that she's having a little girl, I decided to alter Martha's Sugar Cookies to utilize pink sanding sugar. I'm somewhat pleased with the results.

I still don't have the recommended scoop so I formed these by hand.

The sanding sugar I used is a very fine grain and I think a larger grain would have looked a little better. They still tasted really good, so it doesn't matter that much. I also made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, because, really, who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies. I made sure Mommy-to-be took them home to share with Daddy-to-be. :)

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Splenda

2009-08-04T12:35:00.005-05:00

Another friend at work (different department than me) asked for cookies for her birthday. As usual, I was more than happy to accommodate her. She did ask that I make the cookies with Splenda to make the cookies marginally healthier so she could share them with her pre-Diabetic father. Not a problem - I have some of the "for baking" blends at home.

I haven't used them much as the texture of the doughs tend to be different than when I use sugar and I generally don't like to experiment with people's birthday presents. I searched online for an established, suitable recipe written specifically for Splenda use, rather than adapted for it. I also opted to use SmartBalance's baking blend rather than Crisco. The dough came together well, although I questioned the directions a little. It said to blend the vanilla while creaming the "sugar" and the fats. I didn't want to do it, but I did it anyway and it did eventually get to a nice creamy consistency. I knew going in that these cookies would be on the soft side since the recipe called for more brown "sugar" than white, although since it was Splenda, I wasn't entirely sure if the brown blend has the same moisture qualities that brown sugar does. The fact that the dough looked more like normal dough made me happy - my previous attempts using Splenda I ended up with dough that would hardly hold together.

As I baked up the cookies, I noticed that they didn't spread that much. I'm not sure which is the cause of this - Splenda or SmartBalance - but I don't really care. The end result was a very cakey cookie with good flavor, even if the recipient called in sick when I brought them in. We saved some for her. :)

Grammy's Chocolate Cookies

2009-07-27T21:03:00.005-05:00

We had another birthday in the office last week and despite the record breaking high temperatures we've been experiencing here, I offered to turn on my oven for some birthday cookies. I debated the recipe as this coworker had not noted a favorite from Martha's book. And while I love my coworker, she opted for the "whatever you want to bake" option.

So I chose Grammy's Chocolate Cookies from the book. The picture was very appetizing and the recipe didn't call for any odd techniques or outlandish ingredients (who am I kidding, I now keep at least 2 whole vanilla beans in my pantry at all times!). It did call for Dutch Process Cocoa Powder, which I recall seeing on Good Eats - Alton Brown, I love you! - that there is a difference between regular, natural cocoa powder and dutch process. Something with alkalies and chemical reactions. I had regular cocoa powder in the house, 3 kinds, actually. One kind being particularly good - Scharffenberger. Try their bars or chips; you'll thank me later. The 2 others are readily available at the regular supermarket. I made a couple of stops at a few different stores looking for dutch process but couldn't find any. A friend suggested one other store before heading to the specialty shops and I found a dark blend that included dutch process and figured that was better than nothing.

The recipe was straightforward and easy to follow. The dough needed to rest in the refrigerator for an hour before rolling into balls so that gave me a little time to catch up on my TiVo backlog. I rolled the dough, rolled the balls around in white sanding sugar and baked em. I used up every last bit of white sanding sugar that I had.

The dough looked like pretty little rum balls before going in the oven!

These cookies baked up beautifully! They were crisp, but not break-a-tooth-when-you-take-a-bite crisp. They were a little on the dark chocolate side, considering the cocoa powder I used, but still very tasty. They'd go perfect with a nice, cold glass of milk.

Almost like homemade Oreos, but better!

As usual, they went over very well at the office. I should have saved some for my neighbor but I didn't want to share my leftovers. :) This is definitely a recipe that I will repeat.

Post Script: At the store today, the regular store on my way home from work, I found the dutch process cocoa powder in the baking aisle. I almost didn't look, considering the luck I had (I even called Central Market looking for it but got disconnected twice). So now I have some. Friends on Facebook suggesting looking into King Arthur and I think I'll order from there, too. Who knew they did more than flour?!

Post Post Script: I found a book of ice cream and sorbet recipes at Half Priced Books over the weekend. Maybe I'll bust out with ice cream this weekend!

Procrastination Zucchini Bread

2009-06-22T21:04:00.003-05:00

A week or so ago, one of my work friends brought in a bunch of squash from her mother's garden. Naturally, I have Grandma's Zucchini Bread recipe, so I took a few home with me. Trouble is, I got busy with other things – chocolate chip cookies for a work meeting and a weekend jewelry party – and sort of forgot about them in my vegetable bin.

Since we've been experiencing July temperatures in June, going for a walk in the evening has been questionable at best. For the most part, it's just too darn hot. Rather than going for a walk on Monday I decided to use the zucchini. A couple of months ago I ruin the base of my food processor bowl, so I grated the squash myself. I'm really glad the recipe didn't call for more! By the way, I discovered something rather interesting about Bed Bath and Beyond – if they don't have what you're looking for in stock but carry it online, you can order in the store and still use your coupon! With the shipping, the discount was more like 10% rather than 20% but hey, I'm getting exactly what I wanted. Moving on...

The recipe calls for drained crushed pineapple which makes it very moist and cuts some of the vegetable taste of the squash. I love the fact that on the copy of the recipe my grandmother wrote “This is my favorite when you can get the squash” in her perfect could-have-been-a-teacher handwriting. Crushed pineapple really only comes in one size can and the recipe doesn't call for the whole thing. Next time I'll plan a little better and use the leftover pineapple as an ice cream topper (mixed with some rum, of course).

I did deviate slightly from Grandma's recipe. I know she only uses pre-ground spices but this time, I remembered I had a couple of whole nutmegs so I grated one as best I could on the zesting side of my box grater. I really need to get myself a micro-plane. Anyway, me being the klutz that I am, the nutmeg slipped and fell into the batter. I fished it out, rinsed it off and set it aside to dry so I can use it some other time.

The "mini" loaf pan - isn't that clever?

Depending on the pan size, the recipe can make 2 to 3 loaves. I knew I needed to make a couple of small loaves, so I pulled out my nifty 4 small loaf pans in one out of the back of the cabinet and gave that whirl along with 1 regular sized loaf. The four loaves finished baking a little early but they browned up nicely. The larger loaf took the full hour to really come together. I let them rest and cool before trying to get them out of the pans. Even after a generous dose of cooking spray, one of the four-pack did not want to come out. The loaves were fairly delicate because of all of the moisture but they held up well.

The "regular" loaf

The damaged loaf

Grandma's recipes are pretty much sure-things – the only time I ever have issues is with execution.

One More Thing

2009-06-07T22:25:00.005-05:00

I made oatmeal raisin cookies earlier this week, too. I don't know what I did differently, but this batch looks much prettier than the last one. The batch before this spread really thin; it seemed like the only lumps were the raisins themselves. The texture this time is what you picture when you think of oatmeal raisin cookies. And these are healthy for you because there's wheat germ in there! Yeah, that's the ticket.

I was too lazy to grate the zucchini I have, so I'll make that bread tomorrow. Then, no more baking for a while. The next work birthday isn't until July.

My Inspiration

2009-06-07T18:43:00.012-05:00

I've been home for a little more than a week after visiting my Grandma. She sent me cookies that were a complete finals life-saver while I was in college. And she makes the most amazing yeast rolls you will ever taste.

Grandma in her tiny little kitchen with her enormous "baking pan". Look at how smooth that dough looks! Isn't she adorable?!

Since she lives in Wisconsin and I live in Texas, I don't see her as often as I would like. She's also getting a little older and not baking as much as she used to. She's been kind enough to share most of her recipes with me since I've taken an interest in baking for myself. In past visits, I've worked with her while making those fabulous rolls, but she doesn't really follow a recipe and moves to fast to take good notes. This time, I had technology on my side and recorded her during the initial stages - it's amazing what she can do with just 6 ingredients.

Armed with the video, a new giant bowl (Grandma said I could have her baking pan someday since none of my cousins are interested in it) and the yeast I had to go to 3 different stores to find, I started a batch of rolls by myself yesterday. Other than the texture of the yeast being questionable and the general stickiness of the dough, I think I did alright for my first attempt. I didn't kill the yeast like I thought I might. I was reminded about a story that Grandma shared with me about the first time her sister tried to make bread when they're mother was away. Her father (my great-grandfather) told her they would turn out better the next time. These were good but they'll get better each time.

It doesn't look as nice as Gran's but not bad for a first try.

Here it is after its second rise. That's pretty much doubled, right?

The first pan out of the oven...

Three trays of regular rolls (not quite 3 dozen) and one tray of cinnamon rolls. Yeah, I burned my mouth.

Turtle Brownies

2009-05-18T18:39:00.010-05:00

I've had the Martha book for over a year now so you'd think that I would know better than to not heed her advice. Always, always, always listen to Martha!

Assembling the brownie batter was not that difficult. Pretty standard stuff, actually. I was frustrated that HEB did not have ANY Ghirardelli baking chocolate in stock but the Hershey's worked out fine. I think next time I might try melting the chocolate and butter in the microwave rather than the double boiler because I'm rather clumsy and one day, I will seriously burn my hand. As Alton Brown would say, "Not good eats". That, and I have a hard time scraping all of the chocolate out of the bowl I use for the double boil. I want to use every single drop or at least as much as I can. Grandma would not be impressed by my bowl scraping abilities. The brownies baked up nicely and I had no trouble toasting and chopping the pecans myself. The major challenge with this recipe would be the caramel topping.

I have worked with sugar before, but not to the point of peanut brittle or other hard candy. I've made a few batches of my non-baking-inclined grandmother's peanut butter fudge and can confidently say that I've mastered that recipe with one minor modification - taking Alton's advice by adding a bit of corn syrup to avoid the recrystallization of the sugar. And not stirring it after it starts to boil. The result is consistently smooth and creamy. I guess I was a little too confident going into the caramel stage of this recipe. One tiny step overlooked nearly ruined the whole thing. Once the sugar started to boil, she said to stop stirring and to brush the sides down with a damp pastry brush. I'll admit that my kitchen is too tiny to have every single recommended gadget, so I don't own one - yet. After the disaster that ensured, maybe it's time to invest.

Sure enough, crystals started to form on the side of the pan. And they just kept getting bigger and bigger, like I was trying to make rock candy or something. I tried scraping them off with a clean spoon but that didn't really help. Now, I realize that I could have stopped what I was doing and started over. That's what a responsible baker would have done. I had plenty of sugar and enough time. But I didn't want to pour molten sugar down my drain and start from scratch. So I made it work* and added the cream and pecans once the color was right. I'm still not sure if it was truly light amber - it's so hard to tell. I cut the brownies once the topping was cool and could tell that the texture was not quite right, but it tasted OK.

In the end, the brownies were still a hit, even with the disclaimer that the topping would be a little grainy rather than smooth. I'll give this recipe another go and see if I get better results.

Next time, on OSC: baking with Grandma! For real this time.

* Thanks for the inspiration, Tim Gunn! When does Project Runway come back?!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2009-05-08T19:34:00.005-05:00

We had another birthday in the office today so I baked another batch of cookies. Although these were a special request, I have worked through this recipe one time before. It calls for the usual fare, but it also includes wheat germ, which adds a little something to the cookies. I had the hardest time finding it at the grocery store - I had no idea where to look for it! First, I assumed it would be in the bulk food section. Some of our local stores have fantastic bulk foods and I can only purchase the amount that I need if it is something that I don't use that often. But they also have choices for different types of salt and flour but I haven't branched out into that yet. The stores closest to me did not have it the bulk area and the clerks were useless. I called another store and asked and they were able to direct me to which side of the aisle to find it. I felt rather silly once I found it because I realized that the closer stores also carried; I just didn't know where to look. In case you're wondering, it's in the cereal aisle, usually near the end and on an upper shelf.

This batch of cookies reinforced the idea of thoroughly checking the ingredient list and making a list before going to the store. While I did have the elusive wheat germ, I forgot to check my supply of raisins! After combining the dry ingredients and getting the butter into the mixing bowl, I realized I didn't have enough raisins. I had to turn off my oven and run to the store. I hate running to the store for just one item - it makes me look like such a scatterbrain and fate will always put me in the slowest line possible if I'm in any sort of a rush. I made sure to buy the large canister of raisins, in case I have any emergencies!

Once everything was in order, the whole batch came together nicely, although my count was a little short of Martha's projection of 5 dozen. I ended up with 4 dozen, which still is a lot of cookies. Mine were also a little thinner and crisper than the picture in the book - I'm blaming the wonky temperatures on my ancient oven. I'm serious, my next major purchase will be a new oven.

As always, the cookies were a big hit. Check 'em out...

I always get a nice little assembly line going. :)

The whole batch.

On the plus side, I learned how to turn off my flash (nevermind that I've had the camera for like 4 years!) since all of my attempts at close ups washed everything out. The texture on these was amazing.

Coming up on One Smart Cookie... Actual baking with Grandma! Yes in a few short weeks I'll be heading north, experiencing real spring (as opposed to our 1 day of it) and working on making those yeast rolls whose recipe she keeps in her head. The last time we made them, just as the dough was ready for the first rise, I noticed that she didn't use any eggs. Her response, a very cute, "Well, not this time!". I'll be taking copious notes. I just had an idea, I might even record it for posterity! And of course, I'll be sharing the whole adventure with you.

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

2009-04-26T17:40:00.009-05:00

Martha's, not Grandma's, just to clarify.

Tomorrow is another birthday at work and the honoree is allergic to chocolate. That forced me to rethink my standard chocolate chip cookie choice. She had not selected anything from the Martha book, so I thought about what I had handy in the house. Vanilla sugar, waiting to be used and some leftover lemons from the lemon sorbet fiasco. And lo, the perfect fit - the old-fashioned sugar cookie.

While I waited for the butter to soften, I zested and juiced a lemon and prepared the rest of the dry ingredients. I sifted the vanilla sugar to make certain that none of the hull made into the mix.

Martha suggests using a 2 inch ice cream scoop, which I don't have. Mine is 2 1/2 inches and I've had some gigantic cookies when I use it. I did my best, leaving the scooper partially not filled. I thought I spaced the cookies well but the first round baked into each other. And since my oven runs hot, I adjusted the temperature and the baking time down a little. Sometimes it takes a little trial and error to get it right.

So I cookies on the next few sheets. I really like how the sanding sugar sparkles.

That second batch came out beautifully. I think even Martha would be impressed. The first batch were a little browner than I would like, so I dialed back the baking time by 2 minutes. For once, I even got the exact number of cookies as the recipes says it will make (18, but they are really big)! Only one or two of them are not presentable - those are for taste testing, and some of them look like they could be the photo in the book. I'm really proud of this batch and I'm sure it's a recipe that I'll add to my regular list.

Final picture here

Martha Stewarts's Cookies, AKA "The Cookie Book"

2009-04-19T20:39:00.007-05:00

So I received Martha Stewart's Cookies for my birthday last year and decided I wanted to make an effort at branching out and trying new recipes. My coworkers have been kind enough to make selections and act as guinea pigs for my attempts. They really are a brave lot. :) If you enjoy making cookies and want a variety of recipes in one place, you can't go wrong with this book.

So far, I've attempted the following recipes with different levels of success: Chocolate Crackles, Milk-Chocolate Cookies, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies, Pumkin Cookies with Brown-butter Icing, Brown-butter Toffee Blondies, Thin and Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies, Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies and Mini Black-and-White Cookies. Unfortunately, I haven't taken pictures of all of these batches and it's a shame, too - some of them turned out rather awesomely. This is a mistake that I will remedy in the future since there are plenty of recipes in this book and I've just scratched the surface!

p.s. I've had some trouble adding photos tonight so you can follow this link to view the cookies mentioned above

More Cookies, Less Cream

2009-04-15T21:23:00.008-05:00

Recently, I purchased the ice cream maker attachment for my kitchen aid mixer (side note, I think it needs a name since it's my partner crime). First, I tried the mix that came with and that was very tasty. Second, I made some lemon sorbet that was way too tart. I followed the recipe exactly but next time, I'm adding more syrup. Last night, I tried my hand at ice cream from scratch.

I attempted the basic vanilla (no egg yolk) recipe from the Joy of Cooking and even used real vanilla bean. After assembling the ingredients last night and letting them chill, I set up my mixer to churn the ice cream this morning before work. While it churned, I crunched up a handful of Newman-O cookies since I wanted to do more of a cookies and cream deal. Well, the ice cream maker started "clicking" less than halfway through the churn time and I realized that it was actually already done. But I still needed to add the cookies! Somehow, I managed to get the dasher to re-center, dumped the cookies and gave it a couple of spins. It still seemed very soft to me but I transferred it to a container and then to the freezer to set during the day.

It set beautifully and was easy to scoop this evening. I have two complaints - not enough cookies and using heavy cream made it have a strange mouth feel. I felt like I had some weird coating on the roof of my mouth after I finished. The taste was pretty good, maybe not vanilla-y enough but I've had worse!

And as a bonus, I was able to make vanilla sugar using the remainder of the vanilla bean husk. That will make for some seriously awesome sugar cookies!

Progress

2009-04-13T12:50:00.004-05:00

I had some bananas that were quickly aging so I decided at the last minute to make some banana bread. The loaves turned out pretty good - it's hard to go wrong with Grandma's recipe - but they seem a little dry. I'll have to ask her what her secret is when I visit her next month. By the way, it's her 95th birthday today! :)

I've also made a little progress with the house work. I managed to clean my coat closet yesterday. I sorted all of my very-useful-living-in-Texas cold weather gear and hung up the purses I'd forgotten that owned. I think I might be culling that lot and making some donations to Goodwill.

Procrastination

2009-04-11T15:51:00.000-05:00

I realize I’ve just started this project and I’m already neglecting it! I don’t mean to but I have had too much work around the house to have any time for baking.

And I don’t mean the usual housework that gets done regularly (or should be done regularly – let’s be realistic here), I’m talking major overhaul (Major Overhaul – salute!) of the clutter I’ve let pile up. There’s a certain level of clutter that I can tolerate and I usually don’t let it get to this point. I’ve been rather stressed with some personal issues and just letting things accumulate around the house rather than dealing with it right away. And I tend to procrastinate, and that just makes things worse.

Rather than trying to tackle the situation as a whole, I’ve broken it down into much smaller tasks. If I didn’t, I would be so overwhelmed it would never get done. The list is long and to anyone else, it would seem silly to have a separate item for “clean out kitchen junk drawer” but that’s how I’m approaching it. But at the same time, I won’t post the list here because some of it so minor it’s embarrassing.

I suppose I also made the list like that because I get a great deal of satisfaction from crossing things off lists. It really feels like I’ve gotten something done. And I’ve actually made some progress this week – I’ve taken all of my old magazines and junk mail for recycling – even though the house looks worse than when I started. I know what I’ve done so that’s all that matters, right?

As time allows, I will post photos and rundowns from previous baking projects and pick back up with the next project (although, it should be noted that I usually bake for work birthdays and other than my own, the next birthday isn’t until the end of May).

p.s. Just found an online coupon for the Container Store – woo hoo!

My Love of Baking

2009-04-04T20:17:00.000-05:00

I've always loved cookies. Once I moved out on my own, I talked my grandmother into sharing some of her recipes with me so I could get a taste of her love whenever I wanted (and had the ingredients). I didn't use them for a while - some of the doughs are too messy or hard to handle with just a hand mixer. I bought my Kitchen Aid stand mixer a few years back and bake with more regularity now. I've even made some cakes but I always come back to cookies.

For my birthday last year, my mother gave me a copy of Martha Stewart's Cookies book. I decided to take it to the office and have my coworkers pick recipes for me to try for birthdays and other special occasions. I've made my way through most of their choices and began documenting the process and results. Why not share?

I will use this mainly as a forum to air my triumphs and share my failures in the kitchen, rather than including the rest of my life. Real life might pop in from time to time since I don't bake that often and have other interests. And to lay it on the table now, I'm a bit of geek, so don't be surprised if I talk about some gadget, software, movie, comic or TV show every now and then. I come in peace. :) I also have other crafty interests, so I'll mention those here as well.