Refrigerated Cookie Dough:



totally lazy of me, full of bad processed chemical thingys that cannot be pronounced, but still .. yummy :)

Labels: Culinary Therapy, Holidays

I think I mentioned before, that we started getting weekly deliveries from Organic Express. It's wonderful, and I love them. What I think I did not previously mention is the fact that every week they also give you a recipe to do something yummy with one or more item(s) in the box. This week's recipe was so completely delicious that I felt compelled to share.


For the record, I added a bit of butter to the oil (just a tiny bit for the taste), omitted the lemon (since I was out of it) and the red pepper flakes (since I don't like the hot stuff), and used low-sodium chicken broth instead of veggie broth because it was what I had on hand.

Labels: Culinary Therapy, Recipes

Sorry for the slight disappearing act - when it comes to excuses, you may pick whichever poison you find most palatable: illness, lack of free time for babbling on an on about nothing, sheer laziness, leading such a boring life that there is nothing worth blogging about - all are applicable (and true).

Yesterday, for my self induced weekly baking exercise, I took the tiny, yet ripe, pineapple from the garden (we bought two pineapple plants awhile back at Mal-Wort, and one ripened faster than the other) and turned it into my first ever pineapple upside down cake. It's delicious (if I do say so myself, lol) but there was a slight accident in trying to make it right side up. Needless to say, pineapples, cherries, and bits of cake stuck to the pan may taste just the same as the part that flopped out on cue, but they result in something that is not particularly photogenic. I'll try again with the next pineapple :)

I also read up on pineapples - they're fascinating! Apparently you just cut off the top, cut it down a bit, let it dry, then plant it and it will grow a whole new pineapple! I'm trying it with the top from the pineapple I made into the cake yesterday, I'll let you know if it actually grows anything or not.

Also, the good folks from Firefox who are responsible for my beloved FoxyTunes program, have apparently created an update that will now post info about what song I'm listening to while blogging.

So, here's the test drive:

----------------
While I wrote this, I was listening to:
Greatful Dead - Whiskey In the Jar
Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good
ATB - Ecstasy
via FoxyTunes

Labels: Culinary Therapy, SaturdayScorching(?), Technicalities

RECIPE:

1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cups shortening
1 egg
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 1/4 cups flour

Cream the sugar and shortening. Add the egg and honey. Mix the dry ingredients and add to the wet ingredients until well blended. Shape small amounts of the dough (depending on how big you want the cookies) into something that resembles a ball (they do not need to be perfectly round) sprinkle the top with some granulated sugar. Bake @ 350F for about 15 minutes. The recipe claims to make 2 dozen cookies (but i usually double it and get 3 dozen of the size shown in the photo below.

Labels: Culinary Therapy, Recipes, SaturdayScorching(?)

In case you didn't already know - I am not Martha Stewart. I confess that I do not actually know what the difference is between a pound cake and a bundt cake - except for the pan. And because I cook for my own pleasure, and not for one of those Nazi judges on Top Chef, I do not feel compelled to stick to any potentially applicable pound vs. bundt separation regulations (if there are any).

When last I went to the local thrift store to hunt for containers to pot orchids in, and used books - I found a lovely copper gelatin mold/bundt pan I have been dying to use ever since. So today I used it. I made a lemon pound cake recipe in my new bundt pan - if that tore a hole in the fabric of space/time - I would deeply apologize to anyone who got caught up in it, except, of course, for the fact that they no longer exist.




This was my first time using this pan - and it came out much too dark and crusty for my liking (the excess batter that I put in a regular cake pan did not come out that way), so I doubt I'll ever use this pan for such a light colored cake again - but hey, you look, you see, you try - such is life .. and it's not like it was inedible ;)





RECIPE:

2 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups butter
1 tsp. lemon extract
5 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk

Cream the sugar and the butter, add the eggs and lemon extract. Beat on low until well mixed (about 1 minute) then beat on high about 5 minutes. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt - add to wet ingredients, alternately with the milk, on low. Bake @ 350F for 70-80 minutes. Cool completely in the pan.

Labels: Culinary Therapy, Recipes, SaturdayScorching(?)

On Saturday I took the apples from our tree and made a pie. With the caveat that I was halfway into making the dough for the crust when I realized that what I thought was a stockpile of those disposable foil pie pans in the cupboard, was actually a supply of disposable foil CAKE pans (which I bought last Christmas long before I had found my real cake pans). There wasn't a single pie pan in the bunch - so I made the pie in one of my non-disposable cake pans, which is why the crust isn't particularly fancy on the edges (the sides were too high to get cute with it).



Also my father changed out the garbage disposal and and kitchen faucet, here are the before and after pics for the faucet (strangely enough, IMHO, the disposal wasn't worthy of a pic - not even the after *wink*).

Labels: Culinary Therapy, in the garden, SaturdayScorching(?), WhatWouldMarthaDo?