Whole Foods

I'm looking for a whole foods coop to buy some bulk items from. If you know of one or are in one please contact me.

Thanks (insert smiley face here)

Cheese Straws

Last Saturday I went to a party and I took cheese straws as a snack. They were wonderful. Sadly I did not take a picture of them standing up in the chocolate container that I used to serve them.

Saturday Morning Cookies

I'm watching a child of mine make cookies. This cookie baking experience has been very amusing for me. The child making the cookies is very carefully measuring out the ingredients. They needed 3/4 of a cup of firmly packed brown sugar. It could not have been more packed if it wanted to be. Than, when the cup was not quite filled to the top I assured the child it was enough sugar anyway. The salt measuring was cute too. They needed 3/4 of a teaspoon of salt. A 1/4 measure was used but the salt was heaped up on the spoon. Now all the kids are tasting the batter to make sure it is good. I have the oven set to 350 degrees for my bread. Since the recipe says 375 for the cookies I told the child that just like the cookies would be fine with a not quite accurate sugar measurement or salt measurement it would also be fine with a not quite accurate oven temp.

Manicotti

Last night I made manicotti for dinner. It came out FANTASTIC. In my rush I did not even think to take a picture. You can find the recipe I used here. This recipe is defiantly a keeper. Over all it was easy and since I have basil and parsley growing in my yard I was able to use the fresh herbs the recipe called for. I underestimated the amount of time and labor required to do this job so dinner was over an hour later than I had planned but in the end everyone was happy. I decided to use home made noodles for this while I could have been happily wrapping filled rolls I was rolling out pasta dough like a mad woman.

M&M Candy Wedding Cake

M&M Candy Wedding Cake,
originally uploaded by dahliascakes.

This is one of the most creative wedding cakes I have ever seen. I love the idea. I am thinking I will try this idea on some other cakes.

Golden Loaves of Bread

Several of you have asked for my bread recipe. Here it is...
I dump all ingredients in the mixer bowl as I am measuring.
More pictures can be seen here.


10 cups flour ( I use 1.5 cups whole wheat) I guesstimate this
1 cup potato flakes
1 stick soft butter if the butter is cold I microwave it for 15 seconds
2 eggs
5 tsp yeast
4tsp salt
3 1/2 cups warm water

I use a 5qt kitchen aid mixer. Mix than kneed with the dough hook. The dough should be slightly sticky. Let it rise and knock it down. Shape it into loaves, rise again. Bake 350 for 30 minutes.

Food

I was thinking about something I read recently that was saying Japanese people are generally healthier than Americans. Remembering the lecture I once got from a friend who is Columbian I will specify citizens of the USA. Anyway was thinking about dietary guidelines so I googled Japanese Dietary guidelines. It was really interesting. Check this out. The first thing in the list Is enjoy you food, enjoy communication while you eat.

Here is the link. Yes I think us USA Americans have a lot to learn here. I will admit sometimes I really enjoy commutating with a good book while I eat.

Today

Click here.

More about Thursday

I made Cornish Hens for dinner. I found this recipe at Epicurious.com and changed it a bit. I used half the honey called for and I left out the ginger. I used canola oil instead of sesame oil. It was a HUGE hit.

The boy had to do a report on an animal. His first choice was monkeys, but we could not find a good library book on monkeys. He choose gorillas instead. The report was really cute. "Gorillas are covered in fur. Babies weigh 5 pounds. Adult females weigh 200 pounds and males weigh 400 pounds. They eat bark, leaves, and fruit. They live in Africa. Gorillas love to play tag." He also had to make a diorama in a shoe box.

Cookies

My all time favorite job that I have ever had was at Cookies by Design. I had been a SAHM for 15 years. I had been VERY sick for a whole year. After a third surgery that year at the end of June I started making a slightly faster recovery (no more chronic infections). The kids were all going to school in August and I needed to get a job. I was really scared, I still did not feel great and was really at a loss as to what to do. I found an ad in the newspaper for a 'cookie artist', WOW! WAY COOL! I went and applied and got the job. It was the perfect job for me. I LOVED the people I worked with. I LOVED the cookies. I LOVED playing with the icing. I LOVED the special bouquet orders where creative interpretation was needed. I LOVED helping to set up the baskets. Yes, there was some aggravation, but I LOVED the job.

So while I was working at this job The Boy had career week at preschool. One mom who is a 911 operator came in and did a whole thing on when to call and what is an emergency. The Boy asked if I could come and tell about cookies. I asked at work and was told that a while back another employee went all her kids schools teaching about this. They considered the preschool a donation and gave me everything I needed to put on a FANTASTIC display for the kids. First I sat them down and told them what kind of training I had and answered questions. Than I demonstrated my craft, lastly I gave them each several cookies to decorate.
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Ok, more and bigger pictures can be seen here.

Bread, Gardening and Teens

Yesterday I made some bread. The one on the left is a cinnamon roll bread. I made 6 loaves in 2 batches.

This is the second batch rising.

5 loaves here. The cinnamon one did not make it to this picture.

A macro shot.

A super macro shot.

The chives are really looking good.

A super macro chive shot. This one was really hard to get because the flower was not big enough to focus on.

I was corrected. This is actually a self portrait of the teen.

She had left this picture opened and I though it was neat.

Wednesday

Last night the teen was playing with my camera and took some pictures of her art work. This one looks like a self portrait.

My chives are about to bloom.

The lemon balm is back even though I tried to move it and the mums are up.

The mums are the last thing to bloom in the garden in the fall.

Last night I made fried rice for dinner.

Tuesday Morning

Last night I made pizza for dinner. This one is peperoni with cheese stuffed crust. The next one is plain cheese the third one I forgot to put the sauce on. I got the recipe from this book. This is best crust I have ever made. The ratio of salt to yeast is very different.


















This morning I made crepe cakes for breakfast. Crepe cakes are made with crepe batter + some salt and sugar. Than poured out on a griddle. The kids LOVE them.

More about the crepe cakes. A while ago I saw on another blog that someone was traveling and had an amazing breakfast. I don't remember who's blog it was but, when I looked up Roti Canai I found this blog and since it was already morning I decided I was not going to work that hard or wait that long for breakfast. I thought crepes looked like a close second so I made them thick instead of thin like I normally would. They were a huge hit. Today I rolled mine around strawberries

Monday

Every morning this week Sa and So are taking the standardized test at The Boy's school. While I was waiting for The Teen to get ready this morning I visited Ree's site and found a new recipe for Pico de Gallo. So I stopped on the way home and bought the ingredients. My mouth is really on fire. I only used 1/2 a jalapeno, but I am a wimp when it comes to spicy.

I also bought mushrooms, strawberries that looked really good and bananas.

Those of you who have known me for a long time may find it odd that I am admitting that I have never before in my life purchased cilantro. I have known for a long time that people either LOVE or HATE cilantro. I never really gave it much thought. After today I can be confirmed in the category of NOT LIKING cilantro. I never figured out before that, that was the part of the Mexican food I did not like. It tastes very metallic to me.

Still Sunday

Today at Church the coolest thing happened.
A friend who reads my blog brought me a wire whisk.
I was so happy! I felt LOVED!

My Boy was playing with my new camera and took
a picture of himself while he was sitting on my lap.

On Friday The Boy got a tree from school.
Sa helped him plant it.
I've not been outside to see where they put it.

This is what we had for dinner tonight. Last night I made a chuck roast and CI's roasted root vegetables recipe for carrots. Tonight I used the left overs with potatoes and corn.

Yum!

Today I made Ree's cinnamon rolls.

Ya gota read the sign The Teen is holding.
"It says there is no way I'm cleaning that one up!"

Learn Something New...

I had no idea JTM was a local brand. Its one of those things that is so everywhere here and is so good. I've never had a JTM product that I did not like. This is a picture of a steak hoagie with pizza sauce.




The hoagie kit and the hoagie patties both come frozen. They make large sandwiches that is why I break/cut them in half. I usually use pizza sauce, but the stores also sell them with mushroom sauce.

Stained Glass Cake

This is the second stained glass cake. I made this one for a Monday pick up. This one was SO, SO, SO much easier than the last one. I figured out some tricks, like I made a pattern for the inside oval. You can't tell from this picture that the ovals are really almost perfect. Also this time I kept the gel warm so the whole thing is smooth. Oh you wanted the recipe for the gel. It is not exact because there is no exact recipe.

Piping Gel

1 C sugar
1 C water
some corn syrup
bring to a hard boil and boil for several minutes than add
3T corn starch dissolved in 4T water
stir and stir and stir and stir with a flat bottomed spatula
let almost cool and use

I dipped some into snack sized zip bags, put in some color and mushed it around. Than I cut off the tip and use it.

Apple Pie

This is a picture of an apple pie. My family likes apple pie. Sometimes I serve apple pie and scrambled eggs for dinner. I usually put cream of wheat into apple pie to make sure it gets thick and is not runny. My favorite pie apples are a combination of Granny Smith and Macintosh. I always sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar.