Real Quick

This is how I celebrated October this weekend:

Baking Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies


The cookies came out amazing!! They are wicked good- try making them!

and

Carving Pumpkins




Mine is the first one, it's supposed to be Jack Skellington. My sister did the second one, it's just supposed to be a dead pumpkin. We had fun!

Edit: I'm gonna make a pumpkin pie now too! Yum.

Choosing Apple Recipes

When I go home this weekend (finally!) I am going to make tons of food using the apples my family went to pick last weekend. I've been collecting recipes this week and I had a hard time choosing! I can't make all of them, I found too many that I liked.

I think I am going to make- The Maple Baked Apple Bites Suzie talked about over on her blog. Apple crisp (and possibly freeze it.) Make and freeze either apple pies or apple turnovers. Make and can applesauce.

And I am really curious about how it will taste so I want to make some fried apple pies with a recipe I found. I mean, fried apple pie sounds awesome! Paula Dean, my heart would be healthier without you- but my taste buds would be missing out!

I am going to forgo the apple raisin muffins, apple zeppole, and apple spice glazed donuts. They sound good, but I don't have the time! I will share recipes for the other things sometime soon. I probably won't read blogs while at home, I am going to have so much to do. I will read my emails and update on Twitter, but only because they take only a few moments. I'm so happy to be able to spend time with my family. This weekend is going to rock.

I've Been Busy

Since my last post I've just been wicked busy. I made peanut butter cheesecake brownie babies, I made no bake cookies, and I made strawberry jam. All three are great!

The brownie babies you definitely need to use paper liners for like the recipe says. I didn't have any so I just sprayed the pan, but the bottoms stuck because the peanut butter and cream cheese 'filling' is so heavy. Instead of cool whip I used some heavy cream to make my own whipped cream.

Yesterday I wanted cookies, but we're actually experiencing warm weather so there was no way I was turning the oven on. Solution- no bakes! I added coconut and cut up almonds to them. And I think next time I'll cut back on the sugar because they are just way too sweet.

The jam turned out great. I used the recipe off the pectin box. My sister has already had a peanut butter and jam sandwich with it. She said it tastes just like it smells -awesome! I tried some on a sandwich but I've never been a huge fan of jam and jelly. When I want a sandwich I don't want a sweet one. My dad thinks I'm nuts because I spent hours making it and I bought all the stuff to make it, but I probably won't eat it. I wanted to make it because I wanted to make it. I'm giving half of it away. The batch made nine jars! I couldn't have been happier than when I found out that it had sealed correctly. I was so worried that I had done something wrong at first.

Last night my sister and I house sat for our Aunt Taunya. Basically we were just there to make sure the house didn't spontaneously combust or anything. They've lost two houses to fires. They have password protected wifi, so even though I brought my laptop with the intent of blogging, I couldn't. Have you ever been in a house where everything is so open that every noise sounds louder than it really is? Their house is like that so I didn't sleep well last night. I think I'm taking a nap this afternoon.

I'm going to go and enjoy this warm weather while we've got it!

Bread Recipes

The bread I made the other day tastes great! I chose a recipe I found somewhere while looking up breadmakers. It uses honey instead of sugar, so it didn't give off the good smell while baking that I usually relate to homemade bread. I don't care, though, because it turned out good!

1 1/8 cups of water
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp of honey
2 tsp salt
3 cups of flour (I did 2 cups wheat, 1 cup white)
2 tsp yeast

makes about 1 1/2 lb loaf

Tonight I made zucchini bread. I was so excited to find them in the stores, I've been looking and waiting for them for months. Let me just say- YUM! Here's the recipe I used:

3 eggs, beaten
1 1/3 cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
½ tsp vanilla
2 cups of grated or finely shredded zucchini
2 ½ cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt

Beat eggs, sugar, & oil
Add vanilla, spices, & zucchini- mix
Put in dry ingredients & mix

Bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean

You can add nuts if you like them, I don't. I've also had zucchini muffins with chocolate chips in them. Those are good. I made the mini loaves this time because they make it easier to give bread away.

Cookie Tips

I hoped I'd just be able to share an amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe with you, but instead I've got some good tips to share. I'll share the recipe, too, but just keep in mind that I haven't made it correctly yet.

Lats night I got the craving for home made chocolate chip cookies. (And it cooled down enough for me to make them) There's no better kind of cookie than a home made one. I remembered that I had a recipe from my Great Grandmother's cook book. I just had to try it out! This is the kind of recipe where the only thing included is a list of the ingredients. I've made cookies before so I know that it only takes 7 steps, as Suzie illustrates here.

The easiest way for me to explain the things I learned last night is to give you the ingredients listed and go from there.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 well beaten egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon hot water
1 six ounce package chocolate chips
1/2 cup nuts

Obviously margarine is cheaper, and was used much more often back then than it is now. I used butter, though, because I prefer it.

The fact that there is only 1/4 cup of brown sugar in the recipe means the cookies aren't as dark as some chocolate chip cookies I've made. My mom had to ask me if I put any in at all.

We didn't have any vanilla. I could have just left it out, but instead I decided to experiment. I added a few drops of almond extract, and a dash of cinnamon. They gave the cookies a different flavor that we all really like.

The flour needs to be sifted if a recipe calls for it. This is one of the first things I learned when I began cooking. We don't own a sifter, so I put 1/2 cup unsifted flour in a bowl and whisked it for a minute or two. It came out exactly as if I'd bought and used a sifter. Always start out with about half the amount it says you'll need. When flour is sifted you end up with a lot more of it than you start with. The 1/2 unsifted flour gave me the 1 cup + 2 tablespoons needed.

Even though the recipe calls for 6 ounces of chocolate chips I only put in what we had left in one bag, which was about 4 ounces. It seems like that was a good amount.

I do not like nuts in my cookies, so I never put them in. This turned out to me my biggest mistake last night. When a recipe calls for nuts, and you don't add them in, sometimes you need to add a little extra flour to make up for it. I didn't do this last night and I ended up with very flat cookies.


That is not how a chocolate chip cookie is supposed to look. They taste fine, but I still feel dumb for messing up. Especially because I made the same mistake with a different batch of cookies last month. I guess I needed to make it again in order to learn from it.

It doesn't say a cooking time or temperature, but I used the universal baking temp., 350 degrees. I just watched to make sure they didn't burn. The time it takes depends on how big you make the cookies.

The recipe took a little bit longer because I had to beat the egg and sift the flour, and I only got a dozen cookies from it. The dough tasted amazing, though! I do plan to make them again, even if it's just to prove that I can. I'll show you how they look when I decide to make them. I hope they turn out a little less flat.

By the way, I'm back from the dentist. The whole right side of my mouth is numb. They did work on the top and bottom. I ended up with 3 shots of novocain, because I needed two shots on the top. I don't know why the top of my mouth doesn't numb well, they had to do the same thing last time. I hope it wears off before I get hungry for lunch, I don't want to eat with a half numb mouth.

Homemade Burgers

Suzie's Burger Challenge gave me a good excuse to make some delicious homemade burgers. We grill a lot at my house, but usually my dad is happy with frozen burger patties. I won't eat them. Deciding I was in the mood for burgers, I pulled out a half a pound of frozen hamburger to thaw on Saturday so that I could make these on Sunday.



I chopped up two cloves of garlic and half an onion and put those in. Then I put in some honey teriyaki marinade, salt, and pepper. I was a little worried that they would fall apart, but they were fine. I just cooked them on the grill over a medium heat with some BBQ sauce. YUM!

Here is the final product sitting on my plate with, in my opinion, the perfect side. I'm still a kid when it comes to food. xD

Fried Rice

1 1/3 cups uncooked white rice
1 2/3 cups water
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
1/4 pound bacon, cut into strips
1/8 cup soy sauce
1 (10 ounce) package frozen green peas, thawed
2 green onions, chopped

DIRECTIONS
In a saucepan bring water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, season eggs with salt and pepper.
Heat 1 teaspoon oil in small frying pan, pour in eggs. Coat the bottom of the pan with the eggs, in order to cook them evenly; cook for about 3 minutes. Flip the eggs, cook one minute more and remove them to a cool surface. Let them cool, then cut them into thin slices. Set aside.
Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside.
Spoon remaining 2 teaspoons oil into the skillet with the bacon fat. Stir in rice; break up any clumps and toss to coat with oil. Stir in bacon, soy sauce, peas, eggs and green onions. Stir and cook until heated through, approximately 3 minutes.

From: allrecipes.com

Okay- YUM! I don't know how often I'm just craving fried rice, but we can't get to the Chinese food place. Plus if we drive all the way there I always get more than just fried rice. I like knowing what goes into my food, so I'd rather make it at home anyway. I didn't think it was so easy! I watched the group next to me in chefs class make this with ease. I ate some then, and I'm craving more now.

Garlic Parmesan Pasta

1/2 cup butter
2 tsp. dried basil, crushed
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. seasoned salt
8 oz. fettuccine or angel hair pasta (cooked and drained)
1 1/2 cups broccoli floweretts (cooked tender-crisp)
3 Tbsp. walnuts (chopped)
fresh, grated Parmesan cheese

Procedure
Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the basil, lemon juice, garlic powder and seasoned salt, blending well. Add the fettuccine, broccoli, walnuts, and chicken or shrimp (if desired; see note, below). Blend well and toss to coat the fettuccine. After tossing, add fresh grated Parmesan cheese to top off the dish.

Notes, tips, and variations
Cooked chicken breast or cooked shrimp may be added if desired

From- "http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Garlic_Parmesan_Pasta"

We made this in my chefs class, and it's good! The name of the recipe is very misleading, though. There is so much basil in it that you can't taste much garlic, and the parmesan just goes on top. I plan to add less basil next time I make it, because I really do want the garlic flavor to be there.

Salad Dressing Chocolate Cake with Homemade Frosting

Last night we hung out at my Aunt Jen's house and I made the cake I've been wanting to make since I got the recipe. Sort of. It is a recipe out of my Great Gram's book and it was a loving memory that my aunts and mom had of their grandmother. The recipe is for Salad Dressing Chocolate Cake. My aunt didn't have cocoa powder! So I altered the recipe and made it vanilla, no big deal. I was stupid and put all the batter in one round cake pan instead of two. It tasted fine, but the texture was just gross. It was like clay. xD So I am going to try again today, making it at my house where I know we have everything I need.

Salad Dressing Chocolate Cake
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda

Mix together and then add:
1 cup cold water
1 cup salad dressing (aka, miracle whip)
Mix well and bake in 350F oven for 35 minutes.

Makes 2 round cakes, or 1 large rectangle.

It is extremely moist, and tastes exactly like a regular cake. Just don't eat the raw batter, it's gross. I frosted it with the home made frosting I love so much.

Frosting
8 cups confectioner's sugar
2 cups white shortening
1/2 cup milk
Dash salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix well

This recipe is designed for a two layer cake. It makes a lot of frosting!

Amish Friendship Bread

My dad brought home a bag of the smelly starter last week. After putting up with the smell of stale beer, letting out the air every day, and making sure my cat didn't eat the plastic bag, we've got Amish Friendship Bread! It tastes great. I'm actually really surprised by this! The only thing: it's probably worse for us than the fudge I made yesterday. Ah, the joys of making food and then giving it away. It's what keeps me sane! Too bad I don't have school tomorrow or I'd give it to people there. Luckily my mom has to work. Hope they enjoy it!

After I put the starter into 4 plastic bags I came upstairs to copy the directions. I decided to look online, because one thing bothers me. Actually multiple things. All the myth revolving around this bread is just annoying. No metal bowls or spoons? And since when did the Amish have instant pudding? They are the only ones with the starter recipe? I think not! I found it online easily. There is a great post at My Sister's Kitchen about these myths.

So instead of copying the set of directions I received with the starter, I made a new one. One that points out and debunks the myths. The recipe is incredibly versatile, too. People have tons of variations. I definitely plan to try some of them!

Got a starter? Here's what to do. Don't, but want one? It's easy to make!

Notes:
Air will get in the bag; just let it out every day
It is normal for the batter to rise, bubble, and ferment
Ignore the bad smell of the starter, the bread tastes good!

Day 1: Do nothing
Days 2-5: Mush the bag
Day 6: Add to the bag: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, & 1 cup milk, mush the bag
Days 7-9: Mush the bag
Day 10: Follow the instructions below

• Pour the contents of the bag into a bowl.
• Add 1½ cups flour, 1½ cups sugar, and 1 1/3 cups milk. Stir.
• Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into 4 1-gallon bags. Keep a yeast starter for yourself (if you choose) and give the other 3 along with copies of this recipe to friends. Write today's date on each bag so your friends will know what to designate as Day 1.

• Preheat the oven to 325°.
• To the remaining yeast mixture in the bowl add the following:
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup oil
• ½ cup milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. vanilla
• 1½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2 cups flour
• 1 large box of vanilla instant pudding
• Grease or oil 2 large loaf pans.
• Mix an additional ½ cup sugar and 1½ tsp. cinnamon. Dust the greased pan with half of this mixture.
• Pour the batter evenly into 2 pans and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture over the top.
• Bake approximately 1 hour.
• Allow the loaves to cool (about 10 minutes) until they loosen easily from the pans.

I’ve decided to debunk some of the myths for you:
• You can use metal bowls and spoons
• You can miss days and just pick up where you left off
• The starter can be saved in the fridge for weeks, just pick up on the day you left off
• The starter can be frozen and saved for months
• You can change the recipe!! Make it chocolate, coconut, banana, lemon, whatever! BE CREATIVE! It’s very versatile. Just add, omit, or change certain parts
• You can cook it in whatever size pan you want. Just change the cook time
• The Amish are not the only ones with the starter. Simply put 1 c. flour, 1 c. sugar, 1 c. milk, and 1 pack yeast in a bag and let it sit on the counter. Call that Day 1, and you’re good to go.
• It’s probably not even Amish. xD

Updates

Things continue for me in their uneventful, yet somehow never boring, way. I expected to be able to relax this weekend a little bit, but that's not happening! Yesterday a friend came over and we hung out all day. She and my dad took me to practice driving, because unlike me she has her license. I really should be trying harder to get it, since school ends in four months and I leave for college shortly after that. She and I are also supposed to go to Walmart today. So I need to work on scholarship applications before she gets here, or I'll never work on them. xP

Nothing puts a damper on creativity like worrying about things like my license, schoolwork, and scholarships. I am finding time to work on my quilt, though! I'm still cutting the squares out of my old jeans. I haven't started sewing it yet. I am not very good at sewing, with a machine or by hand. I'm impatient and I rush things. I want this quilt to be good, though, so I need to slow down when I'm working on it.

I have a question for you all. Has anyone made Amish Friendship Bread before? Someone my dad knows gave him a slice at work and now he is raving about it, saying it's delicious. He wants me to make it. People in my family have been given the starter before, but no one ever uses it. The fact that there are some clearly perishable ingredients sitting on a counter for 10 days just makes us wary. I have the starter recipe and the directions for what to do after I make that, but I just don't know if I want to. xD Am I being silly about it?

Lastly I know of a new blog that some people may be interested in checking out! Nydia posted about it earlier, but some of you may not read her blog. I have recently started reading Dani's new blog Magickal Mommy. Dani is going to be a mommy soon, and her blog is a treasure trove of interesting information. I believe she plans on sharing some spells and recipes as well as showing us things like the truly amazing grimoire she created and her garden-to-be. I love it and I hope some other people will, too!

Cookies

These are the cookies I am making for the dance on Saturday. I'll make the dough tonight and let it chill. I can't wait to eat them, though! Below is the frosting recipe. This frosting is wicked sweet, so a little goes a long way.




Frosting
8 Cups confectioner’s sugar
2 Cups white shortening
½ Cup milk
Dash salt
1 Teaspoon vanilla

Mix well until creamy

Imbolc Past and Present

As you can see I changed my blog template. I was bored with the other one, and I like this one better!

So, Monday is Imbolc. I have no clue what I'm going to do for it, but that datebook I got had this recipe in it. It was easier to scan it than to type it up. I <3 my scanner/ printer/ copier! It makes life so much easier. I want to make this cake, but it's supposed to be a light grocery week so I may have to wait. Either way it sounds really good.



I remember this time last year I was writing tons in my journals, and I had bought a gold fish which I named Brigid after the triple goddess. There's no way I'm going to buy another gold fish. I can't keep any sort of fish alive for more than a month. xD I've been thinking about getting some kind of plant I can keep in my room, though. I have a bad record with plants, too, but I want to try again. Does anyone have a suggestion as to what kind of plant I should get? Something that's hard to kill preferably, and not poisonous to our cats who may sniff at it.

I may be writing less for pleasure, but I have been writing a lot for school. I'm always writing papers for my English classes, and now I have one to write about my future career. I'll be doing that today, hopefully I have time to make more of that chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough. Everyone in my family loves the cookies!

Coconut Macaroons and a Comic

Usually if you buy a bag of baking coconut it will have a recipe on it for coconut macaroons. That’s where I got mine at least. Here it is, I hope if you make them they come out great. They’re good.

1 Package (2 2/3 cups in this case) sweetened coconut
1/3 Cup sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
1/8 Teaspoon salt
2 Egg Whites
½ Teaspoon almond extract

Mix coconut, sugar, flour, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in egg whites and almond extract until well blended. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased and floured cookie sheets. Bake at 325F for 20 minutes or until edges of cookies are golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets onto wire racks. Makes about 1 ½ dozen.

For chocolate dipped macaroons-

Prepare and bake cookies as directed and melt chocolate as directed on package. Dip cookies halfway into chocolate, place on cookie sheets covered with wax paper, and cool in refrigerator until chocolate is firm.

Enjoy!

And if anyone's feeling guilty about all that food they ate yesterday, or about the leftovers they're eating today, check out this Oh My Gods! comic.

Exciting Mail and a Recipe From My Childhood

I came home today hungry. Today was about taking care of your body in Soul Coaching, so I had a healthy breakfast and a healthy lunch. Unfortunately for me healthy means smaller portions, and that means not filling. My hunger was forgotten when I opened the mail box and found what I have been waiting for for days!

My keyring from Nydia came in the mail today! I danced all the way to my front door. It made my day so much better. Thank you Nydia!!

After I realized how hungry I was again I went and cut myself a nice big slice of home made bread. This is my great grandmother's recipe. I remember sitting down eating nice big rolls with melted butter as a child. This bread is so good, and I really want to share the recipe with you. I'm not sure if I can explain it, though. All my mom has is basically a list of ingredients. I've made it a few times with success, but I've also messed up a few times. It's still worth the work.

6 Tablespoons of butter
6 Tablespoons of sugar
1 ½ Cups water
6 Tablespoons canned (also called evaporated or sweetened condensed) milk
1 Package (2 ¼ teaspoons if you don’t use packages) of yeast
6-7 Cups (approximately) flour
¾ Teaspoon salt

Melt butter in a bowl in the microwave. Warm the water to a simmer, add sugar and melted butter. Put this into a big bowl and add the canned milk. The milk should help cool it. Stir until it reaches baby milk temperature (do the write test). Add yeast and mix well. Add flour. Knead, let it rise, shape and place in pans, let it rise again.

Bake at 375F for 30-35 minutes or until it sounds hollow when you tap it.

Sorry about how confusing that sounds. I tried to explain it the best way I could. All I can say is that if you mess up I hope you learn from the experience and try again!