slacker in some ways!

it's been a little more than a week since i started my "no-name" project and while i'm making some adjustments, i have been right on track with doing something either crafty or bake-y everyday. so yay, me! for that and boo, me for not keeping better track with my blog...that seems to be the one place where i am slacking off. oh, well, i'll try harder over the next weeks to blog every day or at least every other day. maybe slacking off can be what i give up for lent...since i haven't decided what i was going to give up yet. can you give up slacking off?

anyway, back to the blog at hand. sunday i baked chocolate chip cookies for the family using the nestle toll house recipe. yes, i know there are tons of chocolate chip cookie recipes out there and there may even be some that are better than the nestle one, but that's the one i've been making since i was a kid and that's the one that i'm sticking with! we like the bar cookies and this was taken the day after making them, so obviously there's a good chunk missing!

side note: i'm still so non-computer literate and am having "issues" with the whole posting pictures thing, so my apologies if my pics don't match up to what i'm writing about. i'm highly frustrated by the whole thing, but really it doesn't take much to frustrate me these days!

monday i made strawberry mini-muffins for the first time. i had planned on making blueberry ones but jordan said she wanted strawberry and so that won out...luckily i had plenty of strawberries already so no extra grocery trips were needed. i found the recipe online, but cut it in half though since it yielded 24 regular size muffins and i knew we wouldn't eat that many before they went bad. i got everything together and realized that you can't let melted butter sit for too long because it starts to solidify itself again...that was the only "surprise" of the whole thing. it was a very easy recipe to follow and was just enough to fill the 24 mini-muffin tin. i had to adjust the time since mini and regular muffins bake at different lengths...i guessed at about 16 minutes, only to turn the oven off and take them out at about 14 minutes. and just to show that i am not the cleanest of bakers, i am sharing a pic of the messy utensils & bowls that i used to make the mini muffins.

 

so, no complications or problems with the 2 items i baked over the last 2 days. and today, rather than bake something i am trying my hand at chicken jambalaya...i really hope it turns out since it's our only dinner option! i'll have to remember to blog all about it tomorrow!  

i have finished jordan's scarf and have started working on the afghan for luke. i'll have to post pics of the finished scarves, i keep forgetting to take them though. the skirts i was orginally going to work on last week got put on hold because one now needs more fabric than i anticipated since i don't really want my near 5 year old walking around in a mini skirt! plus, i just felt like crocheting more than i felt the urge to sew!

 

tomato soup, monkey bread, and snow in south carolina!

well, it's certainly been an interesting few days; full of cooking, baking, and the most surprising amount of snow i ever thought we'd see in coastal south carolina! it all started friday with my decision to just bake or cook whatever i wanted, whether my family liked it or not. i went to publix in the morning to get all the ingredients for making fresh tomato soup, a recipe i found in "the joy of cooking" book that i picked up at the library, very simple with few ingredients. once back home i put everything away and took care of household things before getting started. 

by 11am, i got everything together and started chopping the onion as the recipe called for...here's where the first lesson was learned: onions are smelly and will stink up the entire house. once the onions were chopped & set aside in a bowl for browning, i went to work on preparing the tomatoes only to learn my next lesson: recipes really should be read all the way through before starting. i had not realized that i needed to peel the tomatoes before chopping & seeding them; luckily i hadn't gotten very far in my tomato chopping so it wasn't so hard a lesson to learn. once the 3 pounds of tomato were peeled, chopped, and seeded i learned lesson #3: if the recipe calls for 3lbs of peeled, chopped, and seeded tomatoes, you really have to start with about 6lbs of tomato since peeling, chopping, and seeding them reduces their bulk. so, back to the store i went to pick up 3 more pounds of tomato...really glad that i had started making everything during the day so i wasn't heading out at night or worrying that the store would be closed (although, these days there's always a 24 store open within easy driving distance so i need not be worried about that)!

back from store trip number 2, i went back to peeling, seeding, and chopping the remaining tomatoes. side note, i am now very good at peeling tomatoes, by the way! once that was all done i started putting it all together in the pot like the recipe called for and further stinking up the house, as my husband said. after it all simmered in the pot for about half an hour, i added the spices, and put it into the blender to puree it. it all turned out as well as i would have expected since, really, tomatoes and onions are all that are in the recipe. i can add in some heavy cream to make it creamier, if i so choose.

since the tomato soup took longer than i expected i didn't get the chance to bake anything else, instead i chose to look for a recipe for monkey bread. and while i found tons, they all called for either canned biscuits or bisquick, two items that i did not have and i was pretty much refusing to go back to the store for a 4th time (i went back to publix to pick up some king cakes for luke, but hadn't decided on the monkey bread at that time). i finally found a recipe that was all from scratch using yeast dough and decided that that would be the one to try. it was too late to start so i figured i would start the next morning while the kids played in the snow that had started falling.

the weathermen were calling for snow all day, but i was very skeptical about the amount they were calling for since we rarely see more than a few flurries. but, lo and behold when it started coming down around 6pm it didn't stop until the wee hours of the morning and was sticking nicely to the ground, leaving behind about 5 inches of accumulation our yard when it was over. the kids played in it for a bit in the evening, making a little snowman in the driveway before we called them in. once they woke up on saturday, they were itching to get back out in the snow as soon as they could! so at almost 9am, i bundled them all up and let them have fun in the snow while i got everything together and started for the monkey bread.

and so that this does not turn into a much longer blog, here's a few lessons i learned while making the monkey bread:  

lesson 1: even if the recipe suggests using a paddle attachment on your stand mixture to mix the dough, the dough hook works much better once all the ingredients have been combined for the dough.


lesson 2: yeast dough takes a long time to rise in the winter, in a house that is not heated above 70degrees...i stuck the bowl in the powder room since i was probably the warmest place.


lesson 3: a two quart casserole dish will substitute nicely for a 10inch cake pan.


lesson 6: the oven, not turned on of course, makes a good place for dough to rise as well.


lesson 7: my oven runs extremely hot and therefore baking times really don't matter...they are more of a suggestion.


lesson 8: homemade monkey bread, made completely from scratch, no matter how time consuming it is...is so very yummy and well worth the wait!

ok, so it wasn't exactly a short blog entry today. i learned tons of lessons through the whole thing though, way more than i originally thought! the final lesson being that i should keep to daily blog entries just to keep them short!





 

to hell with the picky-ness of my family...i'm gonna make what i want!

i have come to the conclusion that since i want to try new recipes and i have a picky eating family, i will simply have to make the things i want to make for myself! i'm sure that in the end i can convince at least one of my children to try something new, probably jordan since she's already willing to try other things. 

so for today i will be making tomato soup, sweet potato muffins, and something dessert like to get us through the weekend. there are rumors of snow, but i'm not telling the kids since i really don't want to hear their disappointment when it doesn't actually happen. with snow & coastal south carolina, i'm more of a "i'll believe it when i see it" kinda girl! 

i have finished crocheting a scarf for myself and started working on one for jordan since she requested one as well. the yarn for jordan's scarf is not one that i like working with, but she wants it and since i'm not buying new yarn for this whole project i'm gonna bite the bullet and finish it. hopefully, it'll all be worth it in the end and she'll love it...if not, then i'll have a pink/white scarf to donate to goodwill!

so far, so good with my whole project. at least i haven't really given up on anything...yet.

baking may be a bust...?

just a few days into my no-name project and i may already be ditching the baking side of the whole plan. it's not that i don't love the baking, it's more that my family isn't loving the things that i'm making. in all honesty, they're not even really liking the baked goods! they are more of the chocolate chip cookie/brownie lovers where as i'm wanting to try different recipes for muffins, cupcakes, pies, etc. so i think i'll just stick with baking muffins that everyone likes and cookies that i know will get eaten...there's less of a chance of wasting food that way!

yesterday's brownies, from a box, were not liked because i tried a turtle kind rather than the usual plain. and the cheese muffins were deemed not likeable though i'm not sure why. i also made a banana-berry smoothie, which the kids have asked me to make before, and yet neither one of them wanted more than a few sips and jordan even tried to tell me that i made it wrong! that's always nice to hear from your 4 year old...that you've done something wrong.

so, no more baking new things...kinda sad that i couldn't follow through with that, but it really does make sense that i just make the same tried and true baked goods that i know everyone will eat. i swear i live with some of the pickiest eaters! i'm all for trying new things, but the rest of the family not so much. maybe i'll throw in a new cookie or brownie recipe in the next few weeks just for my own sanity!

oh, well, gives me more time for crocheting, sewing, quilting...maybe i'll even pull out some of my unfinished cross-stitch projects. i am feeling like the queen of unfinished projects these days, maybe more crafting time is all i really need! 

Nun's Puffs and the migraine that wouldn't die!

i wanted to have some history or trivia about the name of the puffs that i made, but instead i spent last night enjoying a glass of wine while watching some tv and then this morning, i spent several hours in bed trying to sleep off my migraine. the sleeping 4 additional hours after taking stephen to school really did seem to do the trick and i'm feeling much better. i've had a migraine for the last 2-3 days and while it was manageable for the first couple days, this morning the throbbing in my head nearly knocked me over. so i brokedown and took the powerful prescription pill i have (i save them for real emergencies, like today) and climbed back into bed. thankfully jordan was behaving and luke was fine with her playing while he worked. so, now after my rest i'm back to blogging and normal life...more laundry and baking to get to today!

last night i baked something called nun's pufffs from the better homes & gardens cookbook. the recipe was very simple with only about 5 ingredients, it was the first time i ever had to cook the dough before baking it. i followed the recipe as it was written, melting the butter, adding the milk & flour until the dough formed a ball, then adding each egg one at a time stirring vigoursly with each addition.  side note: stirring dough with a wooden spoon for 4-5 minutes is really a good workout for the stirring arm! so once the eggs were all mixed in i used my handy-dandy scooping tool (it's actually called a disher, but i like handy-dandy scoop) to measure out the dough into the heavily greased muffin tin, sprinkled on some sugar, popped them in the oven for the desired time and started working on dinner. 

the puffs came out of the oven after about 25 minutes, just in time to enjoy with our dinner of fish sticks, rice, & corn (i know, we're so "fancy" with our fish sticks). this time we all tried the puffs, the kids even had their's with honey which is what the book suggests having them with. they were a bit doughy and really, not very good...neither of the kids finished there's and luke & i just had one each. i did save the remaining ones to try today with the hope that they'll be better a day later...i haven't tried them yet, but will at some point.

 

they did puff up quite nicely and i was very surprised about that, the taste just seemed lacking. i was glad that i tried something new though so in the end it worked out just fine. tonight i think i'll try some cheese muffins to go with dinner and maybe some brownies from a box (i can't always make everything from scratch!)

 

the no-name project: cupcakes

still no name for this project that i've decided to take on, so i'm just gonna call it "the no-name project". yesterday was day 1 with baking up first...i made applesauce & cinnamon cupcakes from the book 500 cupcakes. it was the second recipe that i tried from the book and so far, i'm not terribly pleased with the recipes so i'm very glad that it's a library book. i'll give it another chance over the next 2 weeks, but so far i'm not impressed. 

 

 i got everything together and had to make just one little change...i omitted the chopped nuts and simply doubled the raisins. side note about raisins, they are very sticky when being cut into smaller pieces. while getting everything measured out i realized, after opening the box of extra fine sugar, that there's a little spout on the side that you can use for pouring...oh well, i always miss things like that. it was a very easy recipe to follow and came together quickly, so no drama there...really no drama with any of it which was good! i scooped the mixture into the muffin pan using my handy-dandy batter scoop (i love that thing!) and topped each one with apple slices and a little bit of sugar. it was the first time i ever baked apples on top of something so i was a little skeptical as to how that was going to turn out.

 i popped them in the oven for 12 minutes, then turned the pan and continued baking for another 12 minutes. (little trick i learned from good eats: rotate the pan half way through so everything is baked more evenly). turns out that 24 minutes was probably a little too long since the edges got a little darker than i would have liked...not burnt, just dark! i let them cool as directed for 5 minutes in the pan before taking them out and placing them on the cooling rack.

 

the finished cupcakes

 

 stephen and i are the only ones who have eaten any of the cupcakes, which i would really classify as muffins since cupcakes have frosting and these don't! of course i'm not terribly surprised that luke didn't want to have any since he's not a cake/cupcake type person and jordan just didn't seem interested at all. they tasted alright, nothing terribly exciting and while it suggested they are best served warm they seem just fine non-warmed up. 

so day one went well, no drama or accidents, and my lesson learned was to always check boxes for pour spouts before opening the top! not sure what to bake today, but something in the bread family to go with dinner tonight. stay tuned for those results either tonight or tomorrow...just depends on how my day goes as to whether it'll be tonight.

 

   
and here's the latest painting i made to hang in our powder room. it's not great but i like it and that's really what counts! 

the project! follow me, follow me, follow me!

i finished reading "julie & julia" a couple days ago and have been inspired to take on my own kind of year long project. mine will be more about trying new things and improving my skills in each area so i'll be baking, cooking, sewing, quilting, and crocheting...possibly throwing in some beading and painting as well just to up the insanity level a bit!

the plan is to bake something new every sunday, monday, & tuesday; leaving wednesday thru saturday for sewing, quilting, and crocheting. i will, of course, be on my regular workout, cleaning, shopping, family-time schedule during this time as well. my plan is to only use the supplies i have on hand since i already have an abundance of fabric, yarn, & thread for the crafting; the baking items will have to be replenished but that should be my only expense.


i'm hoping that by committing myself to this project i will actually follow something through to the end...i'm really, really bad with follow through. i also figure as long as i keep this blog then maybe someone will follow me and my journey down the road to insanity, thus making me feel way more guilty if i fail to stay on track! so, here's my begging...please, please, please follow me!  i obviously have no problem begging! i'll post pics, honest reviews/opinions of patterns and recipes, and funny stories since i'm sure something worth laughing about will happen to me almost daily!


it all starts tomorrow with the baking of some cupcakes. i'm spending today just relaxing since i figure it may be my last chance for a year!