jane of many trades, all are my master...

henry horton state park; date #8, a hike through a cedar glade

2011-02-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

so, we are trying to keep up with the dates and are definitely running a little behind. we had a nice warm afternoon together and decided to head to a park we had never visited before. this area has several cedar glades and we chose to visit the one in the henry horton state park located in chapel hill. there are 3 trails to hike but the hickory ridge loop runs around a cedar glade. if it looks this beautiful in january, imagine what it will be like in the spring when the native wildflowers begin to bloom. we plan to go back to see that for ourselves.

we actually left the trail and walked down to the bottom of this crevice. the temperature immediately dropped about 10-15 degrees and it was incredible to look at up close. amazing what water can do!

peek-a-boo...a natural hole/tunnel in the rocks

ferns growing in the moss on the rocks

lichen-they just rest on the ground, no roots to attach them

close up of the moss and lichen

a cedar tree growing in the rocks

cactus? we found a bunch of them

what the trail looked like

we weren't the only ones hiking the trails-deer were following the path too! we also came across a flock of wild turkey.

we followed these yellow paint marks to make our loop on the trail. it took us about an hour since we stopped a lot. afterwards, we went for lunch at martins bbq in nolensville.

pulled pork sammiches! fresh cut fries, mmmm.....

little piggy at the door of martins bbq

date night-thrift stores and korean food

2011-01-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

cell phone photo alert...sorry, i do not like to take a camera into a restaurant and if i take photos during a meal, it is always with cell phone.

darry and i decided to make a date of our afternoon together. when i arrived home from work and the basketball game he was watching ended, we headed over to the west side of town. along charlotte avenue is a group of thrift stores. we visited unique thrift store, southern thrift, goodwill and salvation army. darry had the only purchase of the day-a vintage islanders stanley cup hat. i was in search of vintage table ware or pie dishes as well as any kind of stuff that i could work into the decor of our house. needless to say, i came up empty handed. after a couple hours of mindless browsing and lots of giggling over the stuff that was for sale, we headed east towards home. we stopped of to fuel up at portland brew and then landed in our own backyard. after a much needed trip to the grocery store, we bickered about dinner and decided if this was a real date, it required a dinner out.

our choice, tofu house on antioch pike.

the little plates of condiments delivered before our soup arrived. we had (from 12 o'clock) green beans or sea weed salad, bean sprouts, cucumbers, traditional cabbage kim chi, eggs for the soup, a sauce for the shrimps i ordered, potatoes and a spicy daikon.

i ordered mushroom tofu soup. it had noodles, oyster mushrooms and lots of tofu.

darry ordered kim chi tofu soup

entrees are delivered with the soup and i chose shrimp with scallops

darry ordered the braised short ribs

all in all, the food was good and we ate all that we could. the soup comes to the table at a full boil and stays hot for a long time. tofu soup looks as if it wouldn't be filling but you will be surprised at just how filling it is. if you are not a fan of spicy foods, this isn't the place for you-even though i ordered my soup mild, it still had a bite to it and i used some of the rice served with it to take the edge off.

so, 7 down and plenty more to go in order to hit 25 dates in a year. we had a fun afternoon/evening and i look forward to the next date.

celebrating the year-25 dates for 25 years

2011-01-11T07:27:00.001-08:00

for those of you out there that might be thinking that i have given up on the 25 dates for 25 years, think again. we work in a field that does not let us enjoy a leisurely holiday season. it is very stressful and busy that we generally look back on it and wonder if it even happened. so in honor of that fact, i am calling this holiday season, date #3 & 4, officially, we blinked and missed it...actually, we did have a chance to do a few things together. we spent time cooking together and watching movies and hiking with the dog

here is something else we did, we went on a real date, #5 was a trip to bell buckle for a day of browsing in antique shops and lunch in the bell buckle cafe.

if you go to bell buckle, be sure to go by phillips general store. billy phillips does an amazing job with the windows.
the other window to the store. check out the store too-it is so jam packed that you could spend a week in it and not see a fraction of what is in there. be sure to visit the bluebird antiques and ice cream shop owned by his parents around the corner from the general store-it is just as jam packed and they are a nice bunch of folks to visit with!

date #4 was a holiday movie festival at our house. we watched so many but these are a few of what we enjoyed together.

there are three movies on this disk-we watched them all

date #3 was a collection of hikes we took with the dog-sometimes just around the block and other times over at the ag center, see the photos of one over here. we have some catching up to do if we will make it to 25 by september. we'll make it!

father-daughter day at lp field

2010-12-05T18:25:00.000-08:00

so, it could have been our next big date but...i am not a fan of the pigskin and when alix called about the pair of tickets to the titans game today, i could tell she really wanted to go to a game with her dad. of course, she would have let me go and not said anything-that is the girl she is, but i wanted the two of them to have a fun time together. and then there was reality-it was just too cold out there for me-it was snowing!!! i don't do snow!!! alix took photos of the game and here they are, as for our next date-keep watching, we'll get out there soon enough.

it's national bundt day tomorrow!

2010-11-14T12:36:00.000-08:00

last year, blogger mary, the food librarian began a new tradition. she decided to celebrate national bundt day(11/15) by baking 30 bundt (or similarly shaped cake) cakes, 1 each day for the days preceding and including november 15 for a total of 30 bundts in 30 days. she blogged about each one and then since she had so much fun with it, she did it again this year. oh, how i wished i could bake along with her and make one each day too. unfortunately, my work/writing/parenting/gardening/neighborhood watch schedules-otherwise known as my life, got in the way. this week i needed to make two cakes-one for the pot luck dinner at our monthly master gardeners meeting and one for the work session in the garden. it was an opportunity to make bundts!!!

yes, mary, i love big bundts too!

this one is the combination of a bundt and an upside-down cake. rather than use a fancy cake pan, i just used a plain tube pan. i cooked the syrup and poured it into the pan and then layered apple slices over the pan in a nice ring. then i carefully dolloped a pumpkin spice cake over the apples and baked it. after letting it sit on the counter for about 10 minutes, i inverted the cake onto the platter and here it is. it went over very well at the dinner.

for our work session this morning, i took the remaining pumpkin and made a cake batter with it. into about 1/3 of the batter, i stirred in some melted unsweetened chocolate and used that to make a ribbon in the center of the cake. we nibbled on cake and sipped chai tea while we devised a plan of action in the garden. we've got our priorities straight, a gardener must be properly prepared to work in the garden...check out the garden here.

here's a big round of applause for mary, the food librarian and her big bundt celebration! let's do this again next year!!!

what halloween looks like at our house

2010-10-31T13:43:00.000-07:00

#2 and counting, a hike with the dog on a fall sunday morning

2010-10-24T12:40:00.001-07:00

so, we decided to do this 25 dates in a year thing and so far, we haven't been able to do anything. between soccer games and repairs to the house, we have been a little busy. this morning, we decided to stay home from the garden and do some things around the house and as we read the paper, ate breakfast and chattered, we decided to go out on a hike with the dog and take in a little fall weather.

our destination, ellington agricultural center and the roger's walk trail. we have lived in nashville for 15 years now and the entire time, we have lived right by this place. about a year ago, we discovered the new trail system in the center and we walk it whenever we can. it is a beautiful oasis right in a very congested part of town.

the ag center also has special meaning to us. when we first moved here, we were unfamiliar with what nashville had to offer as far as recreation and this was convenient in many ways. we were also a bit strapped for cash, something many parents with young kids are, and this was a low cost alternative for us-no admission fees and close to home. needless to say, our kids spent lots of time here playing in the creek, flying kites by the mansion and wandering around the grounds to the ag museum and the iris garden. as we watched our girls grow up, we have also watched the ag center slowly change and the changes have been wonderful-beautiful landscaping adds to the scenery and the trails make this a place to come and enjoy the outdoors.

we parked the car over at the trail head near the apiary-bee yard for the nashville area beekeepers, and set out for our walk with the dog.

before this trail was built, this area was not one that you could walk through. it is full of large old trees and wildflowers.

when you come out of the wooded area, you are in a pasture that had a herd of cattle grazing in it when we first came here. the girls loved to look at the cows and we would spend time walking along the fence and watching the herd. they have long since moved on and this area has been opened to hikers as a result.

the seven mile creek looks so tranquil now but during the flood, it was a raging river! we have been here many times over the years. the girls would try to catch fish and crayfish and we have released more than one turtle here too.

the power of water is amazing-the hole in the rock is proof.

this part of the trail runs along side the creek.

the trail leads out to this pasture that is bordered by the crieve hall neighborhood and the briarwood branch of the seven mile creek.

the housed here have yards that come right onto the pasture and this family has gated their yard.

i found what i assume to be the grave of some family's cat.

as you walk along the briarwood branch creek, you go back up towards the mansion

the briarwood branch creek

the iris garden is beautiful in spring when everything is in bloom. over the years, we have been here for many occasions. from school outings, girl scout ceremonies to the traditional prom photo sessions.

the little japanese garden has always been a favorite spot in the iris garden, it has always reminded me of the japanese tea garden in golden gate park in san francisco.

the last two years, we have found ourselves among a crowd of parents taking prom photos. the overton hs students always crowd the garden for the photos. it is fun to look at all the kids and see how much they have changed and to look at the dresses. they all line up on the bridge and pose.

we have seen that bridge used in many ceremonies. alix's girl scout troop had their bridging ceremony here. they bridged from juniors to seniors and it was a walking metaphor-each girl crossed the bridge to receive her pin.

there is a little trail that leads out of the iris garden up to the ag museum and every time i see this tree, i laugh at the way the branches reach out horizontally.

the log cabins have always been a favorite spot to play and explore.

grandma's garden is full of heirloom plants that would have grown here back in the day

cotton plants and farm equipment as well as a grape arbor.

the mansion that was once a home and is now one of many of the offices used by the ag department.

and a walk with sugar bear isn't complete without some drama. i saw her standing and looking at the ground while she slowly tilted her head back and forth and before we knew it, she came up with a mole!

sorry to say the little fella didn't have a chance-she kills them every time

several years ago while walking around the center, we discovered a small confederate cemetery. it is not marked and no signs point you in its direction.

the stones are hard to read and some seem to have been vandalized over the years.

a tree grew around this one

in one section, new stones have been erected so someone must take care of the place

ed jones auditorium. we spend plenty of time here with the master gardeners and the beekeepers.

the horse barn. metro pd keeps their horses here and you can walk through and pet the horses.

sugar bear made a new friend

the ag museum

and back to the beginning. in the distance are the bee boxes in the apiary.

see you next time!

25 dates for 25 years

2010-09-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

asa & yehosafat, 2000 by boaz vaadia

hard to believe but it is true none the less, the husband and i have been married for 25 years. i simply cannot believe that i am old enough to have been married for that many years. at least i don't feel that old, one look in the mirror and i can see the proof. we had planned on taking a long weekend to lounge on the beach but the flood and all of the repairs to the house put an end to that plan. we have moved on to plan b; over the next year (our anniversary was 9/14 to 9/13 of 2011) we plan to do 25 things that we normally wouldn't do as a means of celebrating. a celebratory bucket list of sorts and today we went on our first date.

dale chihuly is an amazing glass artist and there are two exhibits running simultaneously in nashville right now. there is an outdoor exhibit at cheekwood that has the option of visiting it after dark because it is all illuminated and the frist museum also has an exhibit of his work. to start the celebration, we went to the frist museum today. did you know that today was museum day? the smithsonium has a program that provides free tickets to selected museums all around the country and the frist was on the list. we would never have known about it if it wasn't for ms. cheap's column in the tennessean.

we walked through the exhibit and admired all of the glass and paintings too. there was a video of mr. chihuly teaching a master class and it showed how some of the pieces were created and it was amazing to watch. since we were in a museum, i couldn't take pictures so be sure to click on the links to get an idea of what we saw. we rounded out the afternoon with a trip down 12 south for a cup of coffee at portland brew. be sure to visit here and see what we do to celebrate this long incarceration i mean marriage...

just out for a hike with the dog, mill creek greenway

2010-09-08T16:50:00.001-07:00

we are trying to stick with our promise to walk more and explore the greenways and trails around us. however, this is soccer season and diva's last season-she's a senior. as a result, we have a little less free time to walk. we decided to go to the mill creek greenway since it is so close by for us. just a quick trip across harding place, less than ten minutes and just over 3 miles from home.

this greenway is a work in progress. this section is only a mile long and there is another section off blue hole road that is finished but a large section in between the two that is still on the drawing board. maybe if we are lucky, they will finish it sometime soon.

it starts off promising. the view from the trail is pretty even if the bridge for harding place runs right over it.

when you start the trail you walk towards the creek and if you follow the path that leads under the bridge, it dead ends very quickly onto old ezell road but it is worth a few minutes to admire the view of the creek and the wild flowers. it also adds a little distance to what amounts to a short walk.

tucked in between the evil tree of heaven plants are the tallest sunflowers (helianthus) i have ever seen and a lot of pokeweed loaded with blackberries.

passion flower, the state flower of tennessee with a large carpenter bee

unknown flower, tiny and pretty

jasmine, not sure if it is native or an escapee

darry and the bear on the main trail. it was hot and sunny with no shade and the view wasn't what we hoped for. once we got out on the trail, the creek was no longer visible but the jail was. yes, jail. the trail borders on the prisoner re-entry facility and the county jail as well as soccer fields. not a pretty view at all.

our last view of the creek for most of the walk

along the trail at one point, you can cut through the trees and walk along the creek. it was dark and buggy and you really can't get very far.

it was a short walk but it was interesting. the amount of trash strewn about was disappointing

well above our heads was evidence of may's flooding. you may recall that mill creek flooded onto I24. it also closed this area since the water covered many roads

interesting roots on this tree.

canada geese on the creek

the walk back to the car

we will come back but only after they finish the middle section. that way, it will be a nice long walk and hopefully, the view will improve. unless you like looking at the jail...

another week, another hike: bell's bend park

2010-08-02T05:39:00.001-07:00

we truly are trying to keep up the routine of taking one hike per week. this week, we decided to go on sunday rather than monday because the forecast for the week includes heat advisories with tempertures and humidity levels extremely high and dangerous for outdoor activities.

we took a week off from the garden (demo garden work sessions are on sundays) and packed some water bottles into a cooler and headed over to bells bend. this is one of the newest parks in the metro park system. it was donated to the city by the beaman family and it is former farm land that is being allowed to return to its natural state. unfortunately, for us anyway, that meant there would be little if any shade on the walk. another caution to fellow hikers, this is not a walk for little kids, anyone with health issues or those with a complete lack of direction-there are absolutely no markers of any kind on the trails! you must download the map from the metro parks website and bring it with you-the copies available at the trail head are very poor quality and all one shade of grey making it difficult to see the different paths clearly. as for the trail condition, it is very good-mostly level with few if any inclines/declines but it is not paved and could be difficult for pushing strollers so leave the kids home and use this time to meditate. the other point, it is on the northwest outskirts of the city which made it a longer drive for us-22 miles each way.

we parked at the trail head which is located in a separate entrance from the beaman nature center. there is not a lot of parking available and that suggests to us that not many people come here. our car was the only one in the lot when we arrived and when we left. one interesting note, there are a group of students from UT and Uof arizona on an archealogical dig here and they have a campsite near the trailhead. as we wandered up the trail, this was the first view, looking towards the river.

what the trail looks like, it is grassy in some parts and gravel in others.

bikes are not allowed and skates cannot navigate here so it is best left to walkers and runners.

milkweed pods on the trail

yellow wild flowers

ironweed in full bloom, we saw lots of it along the trails

part of the trail runs alongside the cumberland river

lots of butterflies to watch. buckeye butterly having a drink

the view, similar from the start to the end

almost back to the start, the campground is located by the barn in this picture

native passion flowers

and their fruits

the last part of the trail as we head back out to the car. it was way too hot for this trail today! we may come back but definitely not in the summer unless it is cloudy and cool.

frost weed, butterflies love it and we saw many sipping nectar on them. no luck getting a good photo-they are just too quick!

elderberries at the nature center

on our way out, we drove to the nature center to see if it was open and to find a schedule of events. they have very limited hours, tuesday, thursday and saturday and not too many events. they do have a nice rest room though!

another monday, another hike in the city

2010-07-21T11:50:00.001-07:00

we are trying to make the monday night hike a regular event and this past monday, we went out to warner parks to hike on the warner woods trail, a 2.5 mile loop through percy warner park.

the trail system in the two parks is extensive. it goes from paved trails to bridle paths and primitive trails. there are also roads accessible by car allowing those unable to walk to see the sights and reach overlooks and picnic areas. the best part, we didn't have to leave the city limits to do this. we traveled 11.75 miles over to the west side of town from our house for a total of 23.5 miles round trip. a little farther than last weeks trip but as i said earlier, still within the city limits.

we didn't waste any time, we studied the map located in the deep well trailhead and we chose the warner woods trail. with water bottles in hand, we set off to get some much needed exercise and to explore a part of the park we had never been in before. we had been out here to this area of the park once for a guided wild flower walk and knew we would come back to explore some more. the start of the trail, the roots cut the path like a staircase and made descending the steep incline easy.

one of the many roads that go through the park. people also run and ride bikes on the paved roads.

it was a hot afternoon, at least 92 and humid. it was a little cooler in the park but not enough to prevent sweating.

just one of the many interesting trees we saw along the way

we also saw huge trees. darry stood in front of this one for scale but it still doesn't look as big as it could. we saw a few that were larger too.

in the center of this photo-twin fawns, mom was off to the side watching us to make sure we didn't get too close to her babies.

the only flower blooming in the park. there were a few of these around, but not many. summer is a time when the flowers tend to shut down and there aren't many blooms to see.

we encountered several of these benches on the trail. it must have been quite a job to get them out on the trails.

wild grape vines are all over

more wild grapes

and still some more

another randomly placed bench on the trail.

a most intriguing root system.

good thing we don't have bears around here!

the beginning of the incline out of buggy bottoms

darry spotted these mushrooms on an old persimmon tree.

they are shelf mushrooms and most likely inedible.

they have also released their spores-that whitish dust around them are the spores.

can you believe this is within the city limits?

2010-07-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

for quite some time now, we have been talking about getting out and seeing more of tennessee. we have lived here for 15 years and it is surprising just how little we have explored around us. we have been all around warner park on the trails by ourselves and as part of guided walks but there is so much more to see. today we took a trip over to shelby bottoms nature center so that we could walk the trails on the greenway.

first thing you need to know, we didn't go very far-just under 10 miles from the house, right across the river from down town nashville.

the view of the downtown area from the shelby avenue bridge

we parked by the nature center so that we could pick up the trail and start our adventure. if you look closely at the roof, it looks like it is covered with weeds. actually, this building has a green roof and those plants were put there intentionally to prevent runoff.

button bush with a butterfly

natural wetlands

blackberries

virginia creeper

very interesting

the walkway, many parts were shaded by trees

what we crossed over on that walkway

passion flowers

when walking with darry, you are bound to find mushrooms. these are wood ears. don't they look lovely with all of that poison ivy?

a big conch mushroom on the biggest tree i have seen in a while

we were on a little look out taking in the view of the river when darry spotted a nest with eggs below us.

the view across the river

and up the river

the walk back to the nature center

we took a detour on the cotton wood trail, it is a primitive trail-no asphalt, just dirt. we saw some native phlox.

and lots more mushrooms

the threat of rain had us heading back to the car

interesting

and the view of down town as we headed back home after our short adventure.

free time, what a concept

2010-07-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

if you have been paying attention to this page, you haven't heard much from me. i have been busy working on my second book and not much else. however, that all changed last week after the photo shoot finished-i headed back to my regular routine. that means i now have my afternoons free to do what ever i want. in typical party animal fashion, i have spent time in the various gardens in my yard. weeds have been pulled, bushes have been pruned and plants have finally made their way into the beds. another advantage to free afternoons, fresh baked bread. i am happy to report that the rye sour survived my absence and so did on small jar of the white sour; the jury is still out on the big jar. now that i have learned we qualified for the disaster loan, i can finally start the process of repairing the house-at least i can finally contact the construction company and let them know that things will be moving along soon. as for me, i'm not going anywhere, i'm just happy to be home in my garden with the chance to contemplate my next move!

missing out

2010-06-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

only one more week to go...the photo shoot starts on wednesday and then when it is finished-i get my old life back...that will be the time to fight with fema, fix the house, have a yard sale, build a garden and oh yeah-bake some stuff for the various challenges i have been missing. look for me to be back in the game in a couple weeks!

jonesing for bread again

2010-03-24T15:43:00.001-07:00

once again, i have neglected my starters. i was afraid that they were in bad shape from the lack of activity. no problem, out of the fridge they came and i fed them. a short time later, i could see bubbles and i knew all was well with the starters so i decided to mix up some sponge for sour rye bread.

after adding some flour and caraway, i left the bread out on the counter overnight. time to mix up the dough!

i love to use one of these old cafeteria style trays to knead bread on. it helps me contain the mess and the best part, i can shake off the flour and put it in the dishwasher.

it is starting to take shape

ready to rise

wow!!! ready to be shaped into loaves

two little loaves

onto the peel and into the oven to bake

beautiful little loaves. this demo garden sour dough starter is the best! i harvested organic grapes from the garden last summer and it is till going strong. so strong that i have divided it several times and shared it with a bunch of my coworkers.

has it been a year already?

2010-02-27T14:09:00.000-08:00

hard to believe but it has been a whole year since my first post for the daring bakers. last year for my first challenge, i made a flourless chocolate torte for valentines day. we had dinner with the girls and this year, we did it again.

BLOG-CHECKING LINES: The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

over the years, i have made many batches of tiramisu. i have made my own mascarpone and my own ladyfingers too. for my first book, skyhigh, i even designed a wedding cake made of tiramisu and for that cake, i made the layers with sponge cakes. i have perfected the method for whipping zabaglione by using a hand held electric mixer which some would say is cheating. but when you work in a restaurant and have to make batches of tiramisu to feed several dozen guests at a time, you find a way to make it happen...

since i was serving this to my girls, i used coffee rather than espresso and i left out the rum altogether. i didn't have any in the house and i really didn't want to buy a bottle for just this recipe. i made the mascarpone using a 40% cream because it was the only one i could find that wasn't pastuerized and it was a bit firm but it worked out fine. one other thing i did-omit the lemon; i do not like the combination of coffee/espresso with lemon at all. would i made tiramisu again, you betcha! would i use this method again, no. the addition of pastry cream was not necessary and i didn't care for the consistency of the cream-way to soft. we ate, we enjoyed and we had a nice valentine's day dinner.

thanks ladies for a wonderful challenge!

busy, busy

2010-02-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

work work work. even at home i am working...sorry for the absence but if you are really curious, check out my new project by clicking on the loveless cafe logo above. that's where you will find me.

saw this at work and thought i would share it . now i am not a walking atlas but even i know that there is something amiss here. look at the logo, longboard surfing and a claim that the onions come from "every pacific point". so why are they in florida??? the box did indicate that the onions were from peru so i guess they are accurate in the "pacific" claim. but longboard surfing in florida? who are they trying to fool?

sick day

2010-02-01T16:39:00.000-08:00

i hate being sick. i have a nasty cold that is keeping me from things like the gym and chores. even the cat was sick. i had to take little ginger to the vet today. she is having urinary issues. time to take some cold medicine and head towards bed. see you tomorrow, i'll be the one doing the rudolf impersonation...

snow day!

2010-01-30T07:47:00.000-08:00

yeah yeah, i know i know...it's just some snow, get over it already. but this is nashville and we don't do snow here, at least not that often and generally not this much.

photo #1, 11am on friday

photo #2, 1pm on friday

photo #3, 6pm on friday

photo #4, my crazy husband shoveling the snow as it still falls around 8pm on friday.

the view this morning at 8am and it is still falling! so far we have about 6 inches which may not seem like much to many but really, we just don't get much snow here. that 6 inches is probably equal to all of the snow we have had since we moved into this house 6 years ago! if we are lucky, we will be able to get out of the house later today when some other brave nutjobs have driven around on our street and cleared a path for us-we do not have four wheel drive or a snow plow handy!

birthday bread baking party

2010-01-28T11:55:00.000-08:00

with everything i have going on, i found time to make some bread for this month's bread baking day, #26. the theme is to bake a loaf of bread to take to a birthday party. well, what kind of bread does one take to a birthday party? being a mom, i can see that this would not go over well with the kids; what kid wants a loaf of bread rather than cake or cookies? however, i can see making a couple of loaves of good sourdough bread, grilling a steak or some fish, tossing a salad, opening a nice bottle of wine, sharing it with friends and calling that a birthday party. add a few presents and some cake and i'm set and ready to par-tee. but this is a party for jamie of lifes a feast and i can only hope she approves of the menu!

with this challenge in mind, i decided to multi task. a coworker, stevo, has taken an interest in baking bread and he has been asking me questions, lots of questions in an effort to learn as much as he can. a week or so ago, i gave him some of my starter and a list of websites and cookbook titles but this week we had the opportunity to work together for two consecutive days. out of the fridge came the starter, we fed it and started two separate batches of sourdough bread. today we made two loaves of bread so that stevo could see just how easy it is to do.

on the left, a whole grain loaf and on the right, one with some semolina. i was looking in the fridge where i store all of my flour and discovered that i had more than a dozen varieties of flour so we could have made any number of combinations. we also started some rye sour so that we could make rye bread at some point.

here are the two loaves rising in bowls on my work table. since this is such an easy recipe to use, i was able to do this as i worked on stocking the restaurant for the day.

here they are in the oven

the finished loaves, this is the whole grain which is really only about 35% whole wheat and a few tablespoons of multigrain hot cereal mix. it was a good combination and a great learning experience for stevo since he wants to make whole grain breads at home.

the semolina loaf. both were wonderful while they were warm.

pretty loaves!

thanks to jamie for inviting us to this wonderful birthday party, we had fun!

and for those of you wanting the recipe, it is actually up on my blog already because i love this recipe and when something works, why change it!

ammurica's dumbest crimnals

2010-01-09T14:30:00.000-08:00

we are lucky to live in a great neighborhood. there are lots of families here and we have met many of them while out working in the yard or when walking the mutt around. unfortunately, we also have a few apartment complexes and rental homes nearby that generally are fine but can house what you might refer to as undesirables. in the 6 years here, we haven't had much trouble but recently, we had an incident. late at night, someone ransacked darry's car. he was leaving for work about 5am when he noticed that things were laying on the passenger seat that are normally in the glove compartment. he put them back and in the process checked to see that the valuables were still there-his fancy laser pointer in its fancy case, his swiss army knife and his little leatherman tool were all present and accounted for as was all of the important car documents and a collection of coins. the only thing missing, his keys for the kitchen and his security pass for the building...what could anyone possibly do with them? wait, i know, we are idiots and we always leave a full set of house keys in the unlocked car in the carport!!! this is where you say DUH!!! of course i couldn't let it go unnoticed and i quickly put a note up on every door to the house just in case the crimnal returned to the scene of the crime.

and because i am who i am, i went house to house and passed out about 50 of these notes. best to be proactive and maybe we can prevent any more incidents. happy new year everyone!

holiday blur

2009-12-27T06:08:00.001-08:00

every holiday season it is the same; hurried, frantic and a total blur. we gather the gang and drive to kentucky to spend it with the cousins (they come here for thanksgiving, you may have seen the trash can turkey posts on my other blog). after weeks of preparations it seems that we finally get to enjoy the day and relax but it is now the morning of the 26th...at this point i usually promise myself to get started earlier so i can enjoy the season. this year, i almost did it. most of my shopping was done before thanksgiving because i had started doing things in september-honestly. then i caught a horrible cold and there went the head start. i was sick for more than a week and i recovered just enough to get the trash can festivities underway. once again, i was in panic mode in december...

one of the highlights of the month, the opportunity to bake gingerbread cookies and assemble a house for the daring bakers december challenge. The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

my husband the practical joker and more proof that i cannot take him shopping with me. he rearranged the manger in macy's...lauren the snowgirl is now being showered with gifts from the three wise men while mary and joseph look on.

back to the daring bakers. when i saw that we would be doing a gingerbread house, i didn't know what to say. i love to build the houses, i've done it a few times for competitions and even come home with a blue ribbon but i also knew i wouldn't have the time or the energy. when i had my bakery, i stumbled upon a great set of cutters that when used would make a lovely tree that could be decorated. we sold hundreds of them! every year, i make at least a couple of them to take to kentucky. knowing my limitations and the requirements of the challenge, i decided to just make the trees. the challenge allowed for us to use gingerbread dough made from scratch, i used my own recipe which i will not post here because it is part of a book i am working on, and any template as long as we included it. my trees do not have a template since you just use the cutters.

this is the set of cutters, there are 5 stars in graduated sizes. my set came from the boston mountain copper company in arkansas about 9 years ago but apparently wilton now makes a similar item. several years ago, i contacted boston mountain and asked them if they still made the cutters and they did but that was probably 3 years ago and i do not know if they still make them since i couldn't find the set on their website. they may so if you are interested, contact them. the cutters are very well made and definitely worth the money.

you simply cut out 5 of each size and then stack them up to make a tree. here are the stars for two different trees.

using royal icing, pipe an outline on each star and stack them so that they are staggered and not lined up -this gives you the tree shape. start with the largest star and work your way up to the smallest. if you like, you can sprinkle colored sugar, non pariels or other decorettes as you go.

this one is for our neighbors, i sprinkled crystal sugar and snowflakes on it as i went, that didn't show up in the photo very well though.

for ours, i went back over every point and put a drift of snow-i am making this for kids after all.

the finished tree. it is important to use a level surface and a steady hand with the icing or you may end up with trees that look like staggering drunks-rather like mine...

the two trees side by side before they were wrapped up in a cello bag with ribbons.

here's hoping that you all had a merry holiday! happy new year to all.

all mixed up

2009-11-29T13:41:00.001-08:00

another bread baking day is upon us, #24 in fact. this month's challenge was to bake a mixed bread; in other words, use more than one type of flour to make the bread. not a difficult thing to do, every market has a few different flours to choose from. the difficulty comes in which flours to choose-oh the endless possibilities...what's a baker to do? earlier this summer, i made a grape starter for bread and i have been using it on a regular basis and that is where i decided to start. next it was the flour choice and to do this, i went to the fridge. it seems that i have been collecting flours of all kinds and i had plenty to work with!

the first loaf was a combination of bread flour and semolina flour. it made a nice loaf with a slight yellow hue. it was delicious with salads and hummus.

in my flour collection, have a nice variety of corn meal/flour. organic blue corn meal, corn meal masa for tortillas and a roasted yellow cornmeal are just some of them. blue corn meal is one of my favorite things to bake with and i have used it in things ranging from biscotti to corn bread to a spiced caked so bread seemed like a natural choice. however, i decided to take it one step farther by combining the three together in the loaf of bread.

once again, i used my trusty grape starter and the result was a lovely loaf with a slight crunch and a slight red/purple hue.

generally, i do not post recipes on my blog. as a cookbook author, i know all about the consequences of people giving away your recipes and the lack of royalties. most importantly, i know that many people do not give proper credit when posting recipes. i have seen my name mispelled and my co-authors name omitted completely. since i have had such success with this recipe, i will post it and hope that others will enjoy it as i have.

Sourdough Bread

adapted from How to Bake by Nick Malgieri

sponge

1 cup water

1 cup starter-any kind

2 cups bread flour-can substitute as much as 1 cup of another flour

combine in a bowl and cover it. allow it to sit and ferment for at least 8 hours and as long as 36 hours at room temperature.

dough

to the sponge, add:

2 teaspoons salt

1-1/2 cups to 1-3/4 cups bread flour

mix together and turn out onto a floured surface. knead the dough by hand adding flour as needed for at least 5 minutes and up to 10 minutes. place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover it and allow it to rise until doubled, at least one hour.

preheat the oven and baking stone if you have one to 500 F. at this time, place a baking pan in the bottom oven if you want to have steam during the baking process. turn the dough out of the bowl and shape it into a tight ball. place the dough, seam side up, in a floured basket or a cloth lined bowl that is also floured and allow it to rise until doubled-about an hour. turn the loaf onto a pan or a bread peel that is sprinkled with cornmeal. place the bread in the oven, toss some ice cubes on to the pan, reduce the heat to 450F and bake for 20 minutes. reduce the heat again to 350F and bake until a thermometer reads about 210F, this could take 20 minutes and as long as 35 minutes. the bread will be nicely colored. cool completely on a rack before slicing.

good luck and have fun! thanks to idania for a tasty challenge! be sure to check back here for the round up

wrong, just wrong...

2009-11-23T14:40:00.000-08:00

somethings should just be left alone. not all of the ideas we have are meant to be realized, some should be laughed at and others immediately forgotten. take that photo for example. honestly, what were they thinking??? as if fruitcakes don't have it hard enough, now they've been twinkified. real fruitcakes all over are crying out for help, "somebody save us, please stop them. haven't we suffered enough?" help us stop the madness, bake a real fruitcake today!

for your entertainment

2009-11-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

it's been a hectic couple of weeks. we had one home sick with mono of all things. work has been busy-it's that time of year again and my assistant quit too. darry has be completely stressed with his job-the evil forces are at it again and then there is the lousy weather that just makes things dreary. i managed to miss a pie challenge because i simply forgot what day it was but considering the cholesterol angle, maybe that is not so bad for me right now. there hasn't been enough laughter in the house, well there was that one day when the cat got her head caught in an empty tissue box. darry put some catnip in the box to see what she would do and she stuck her head in it and then proceeded to run, bumpercar style, all over the hallway in reverse no less. what a sight it was, big black cat with a pink tissue box stuck on her head backing up into walls and what not and careening off of them. poor kitty...we laughed so hard i think i did pee on myself.

honest, we only did that one time. she wasn't dumb enough to fall for it a second time. anyway, when i walked into the living room last night, the light was hitting the chair at the right angle and i saw an interesting pattern in the ultrasuede. look at it and see if you can identify it-it made me giggle.

yep, you guessed it-a big butt!!! not mine, darry's and the amount of detail was amazing. right down to the stitching on the pockets of his levi's. unfortunately, that didn't come out in the photo.

devon's response-man, dad has a big butt! the detail is hilarious. you can see the belt loops, seams, stitching on the pockets and the outline of the leather tag on the back that lists the size.

it's the little things that make life amusing.

my cholesterol free life...

2009-10-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

honest, i've been trying real hard to get this new diet under control. actually, it has been easier than i thought-once i've read the cholesterol content of most things, i am afraid to eat them! i have drastically reduced my intake of things like butter, cheese, milk and meat, let's not forget egg yolks. i have even begun to measure out servings especially in the morning when i drink coffee. as much as i hate to say it, i am a true coffee junkie and i just cannot give up the half and half either. so now when i pour my one cup, i measure the half and half before i add it. the worst part for me so far, sweets. i miss having some sort of sweet treat after a meal. my first thought was how will i participate in all of the baking challenges? bread baking has been easy so far; for world bread day, i made a loaf of sourdough bread-no fat in there! then i saw the challenge for the daring bakers and i was sad, how could i participate and not eat any of the results? unless...

the 2009 october daring bakers' challenge was brought to us by ami s. she chose macarons from claudia fleming's the last course: the desserts of gramercy tavern as the challenge recipe.

so there i was grinding my hazelnuts and contemplating a filling when it hit me, if i leave out the filling i can actually eat them!!! sorry folks but the dietary necessity of my life won over the challenge and i did not make the mandatory filling.

my cookies weren't perfect little mounds like the almond flour macarons but i will attribute that to the dull blade in my robot coupe. the cookies were sweet and light but a poor choice for a rainy day which is all we seem to have here anymore! i would definitely try this again but with something different like toasted coconut or cocoa powder.

my apologies to our hostess, ami for not filling them but i had a legitimate reason and i can at least eat them now!

world bread day, 2009

2009-10-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

today is world bread day and to celebrate the day, i baked a loaf of my demo garden sour dough bread. this is the first year that i am participating in the event and to be honest, i can't think of a better reason to bake bread. lets get this party started...

this week, i received the results of my annual exam, specifically my blood test. have you noticed that no matter what, numbers rule? at least for me they do and the numbers in question are not good. never in my life have i been truly over weight for very long and i'm not the least bit overweight at this moment. i do go to the gym regularly and i try to behave, food wise that is. but it seems that i have a cholesterol count that is unacceptable and needs to come down. last year i was told that my triglycerides were way out there, over 300 and my cholesterol was 217. a list of suggestions was given to me and away i went. this year, the triglycerides were down to a normal reading of 145-an impressive feat. unfortunately, the cholesterol was up to 224...that's when the family history questions started and i could see a prescription in my future. nothing like a little controversy to get you going in the right direction. you see, i am not willing to let a pill do the job for me. i told the nice nurse that i was sure this was the result of some poor choices and i would make some changes.

one of the changes i have made, less meat/fat and more whole grains. in my demo garden sour dough bread i used some white whole wheat flour so i could hide it from the finicky family members. the only thing in this bread is the starter, water and flour-bread flour and white whole wheat. in my haste to make the bread before dinner, i forgot the salt! honestly though, aside from rising faster, it really didn't matter. sure, the taste was a little bland, but if you slather the bread with something or dip into something, it really doesn't matter.

don't worry, the slathering was with hummus. a nice cholesterol free and fiber rich choice that left me sated and guilt free! after a few days of this new diet, i am really beginning to adjust. it presents a new challenge-adapting recipes to eliminate the bad fats and add fiber and good fats. but what kind of baker would i be if i was afraid of a challenge?

celebrate world bread day and bake some bread. while your at it, celebrate life and be good to yourself with some healthy choices. see you at the gym! thanks to zorra for hosting this year's world bread day and check out her website in a few days to see the roundup of participants.

she's how old???

2009-10-05T05:21:00.001-07:00

it surprises people to learn that i have a daughter in college. why, i am not sure, i am not exactly fresh out of school myself and on close examination, it is getting tougher and tougher to pass for less than 40...today is alix's 20th birthday, it is also my father's birthday. that was one year that i didn't have to worry about sending him a gift, it doesn't get much better than a first grandchild as a birthday gift. we celebrated this years day a day early since alix is busy with school and she asked darry to make her stuffed peppers and for me to make a cake. since i wanted to take part in the bread baking buddies challenge of steamed buns, i made those too.

the recipe for the xiang cong hya juan bao or chinese flower steamed buns called for chinese flour. how vague...first up, we headed to our favorite and closest asian market, K&S World Market.

when ever a recipe calls for asian ingredients, we start here. as for asian flour, we had many to choose from and if only we could read in japanese, chinese, korean or any number of asian languages.

after looking at many bags of flours, we settled on this one. it is indeed chinese and as you can see, it is even recommended for buns. what makes it so special is a mystery since most of the information is in chinese. i can say this though, it is very white which suggests bleaching and that will help with tenderness and it is very fine and silky another indication that this is a low gluten flour.

i did my best to follow the recipe, no extra water was used and i gave my rolling pin a good beating with this dough. the chives came from the garden and so did the peppers. we had a bunch of mild banana peppers that had turned a deep red color.

since i was skeptical that the buns would be any good, i also made a batch of steamed buns using a recipe from the old classic cookbook, the key to chinese cooking by irene kuo. i have always wanted to make steamed buns and thought this might be a good time to try them. i made a filling with chicken, andouille sausage, greens from the garden, peppers and traditional asian seasonings found in most steamed buns. the dough is a little different than the flower buns, it has more leaveners and is kneaded rather than rolled to develop the gluten.

we had picked up a bamboo steamer just to make the buns. this was the first attempt at steaming the buns. sorry to say they didn't turn out very good. they needed to proof longer and steam longer too. the second batch was better but honestly, a little bland. my husband, mr. condiment, suggested a dipping sauce and that helped with the lack of flavor.

here are my chicken & sausage buns in the steamer

honestly, these were better than the flower buns. with everything in the filling and the sauce, we ate more of these. it was a fun challenge and i look forward to making this type of dish again. since i have about 4 pounds of flour left, i will definitely do something with them. the key to success, longer proofing and longer steaming at a lower boil.

my thanks to karen for a truly challenging recipe and for helping me to provide birthday party entertainment!

not so daring now is it?

2009-09-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

when i joined the daring bakers i had visions of exotic baked goods that would help me hone specific skills or just be so different from the usual baked goods that they would be fun to make. i hoped for challenges that would teach me as well as entertain me. so far, that hasn't been the case. the only one that was even close was the lasagna challenge with home made pasta and i still say that isn't baking but let's not go there now. when i saw this month's challenge, i wasn't thrilled. another item that i really didn't think was something that i would enjoy making because it was too much like jobs i've held in the past.

the september 2009 daring bakers' challenge was hosted by steph of a whisk and a spoon. she chose the french treat vols-auvent based on the puff pastry recipe by michel richard from the cookbook baking with julia by dorie greenspan.

so there i was in the kitchen rolling and folding and rolling and folding and all the while thinking of anything but vols au vent. i recalled making puff paste for the first time in new york city when i worked in building #3 of the world trade center. yes #3, it was a hotel that sat between the towers and that is where i had my first real job after graduation from the CIA. we made such a large batch of dough that we would fold in 10# of butter at a time, all by hand with rolling pins and while standing on milk crates because both myself and the woman who was teaching me were too short to have the proper leverage with the pin if we stood at the table.

but if i am honest, all i really wanted to make with the dough was turnovers, full of apples or other fruits. or maybe some pinwheels, elephant ears or cheese pastries. anything but little cups that i would have to fill so that my family could only eat some of them and then i would be left looking at the rest...needless to say, i made the dough and ended up putting it in the freezer for another day and that is why there aren't any nifty pictures to admire.

thanks to steph at a whisk and a spoon, she also gets all of my apologies. it's been a little hectic and after two solid weeks of rain there just wasn't an opportunity to finish the job!

multitasker extraordinaire....

2009-09-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

tart shells, tart filling, garnish, sourdough, soaker, bread dough...the list goes on and on. i must have fallen asleep and woke up at work. aaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! the very thought sends me running from the room screaming. not really, but it's funnier if you imagine it anyway. hey at least i didn't dream about showing up for work naked. so by now you must be wondering what is going on, what is she rambling on about? well you see, this month both you want pies with that and the bread baking buddies have their posting dates on the same day and that meant more time in the kitchen for me than i usually spend there on my day off.

saturday night, we were invited to dinner at darry's coworkers house. there is a group of people that he works with that meet once a month at some ones house or a restaurant. everyone brings a dish or beverage and we were bringing a salad and dessert. perfect timing for me since i knew i needed to make a pie, a "vacation" pie (based on a vacation you took or would like to take) and i immediately knew what vacation i wanted to base it on. next year we will celebrate anniversary #25 and i was hoping to take the trip of a lifetime to mark the occasion. for me that trip is to go on a culinary tour of china. i know, it sounds like overkill, two chefs on a culinary tour to china. even so, if i had my pick of anywhere in the world, that is where i would go.

when you eat out in chinese restaurants, desserts are not as huge as they are in other ethnic restaurants. to really see chinese desserts, you need to visit chinese bakeries and that is one thing that nashville sorely lacks-a real chinatown area with an authentic chinese bakery. for these moments, i really long for san francisco and new york city-two places i have lived and visited chinatown frequently enough to know what i am missing here! so for this, i turned to books and the internet and i came up with egg custard tarts. as interesting as they seemed, they also seemed a little boring. in my last post, i made plum-strawberry jam and decided that it was just what the little tarts needed! by replacing the water in the recipe with jam, i ended up with lovely little spiced plum custard tarts. they were devoured at the party so i didn't have to wonder if they were any good!

the bread baking babes baked black bread-okay, say that 3 times fast!!! and this was a first for me. it was also a test of my organic grape starter made from grapes in the demo garden where i volunteer on sundays. the starter definitely is alive and it added a hint of sour flavor to the bread. it was tough to wait for it to cool down, warm bread is impossible to not cut into!!!

all i can say, wow!!! thanks to jenn of piccante dolce for the vacation pie challenge and to gorel of grain doe for the black bread challenge. now, if it's all right with everyone, i am going to go to work now so i can get some rest...

amusing myself again

2009-09-06T10:47:00.001-07:00

the last few weeks have been very stressful for me at work. the place is in serious need of an attitude adjustment-come on people, grow up already!!! i am truly living for the moment that i walk out of the door to that place each day and nothing is sweeter than knowing that i do not have to get out of bed to go there on my days off! so how does someone like me work off the stress? a trip to the gym can usually make a big difference for me physically but mentally, that's another story. i found myself just wanting to spend the day at home, alone and surprisingly enough, in the kitchen. sometimes, small successes can do so much to restore your well being than you could ever think was possible.

with my bruised psyche leading the way, i ventured into the kitchen with some frozen strawberries that had thawed days ago and a bag of over ripened plums and i set out to make some jam. nothing like the smell of strawberries cooking to brighten your mood.

the fruit cooking with some ginger root, vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks.

my mom and i love to scour second hand shops, antique shops, flea markets and garage/estate sales. she found this food mill and sent it to me. darry always questions these things-why do you need that junk?? this is one of my favorite kitchen tools and so is the collectible boonton ware bowl under it!

by rotating the wooden pestle in the conical strainer, you can extract the pulp and leave behind skins and seeds/pits.

i didn't get a huge amount of jam but what i got was wonderful. this morning, i took it to the demo garden for our sunday volunteer work session and we slathered it on multi grain scones.

mmmm.....check out the garden some time, it beautiful this year! (a collection of small successes) and for some that are closer to home, my home that is, check out my home garden for even more sweet successes to help keep me going.

baking the day away...

2009-08-31T16:04:00.000-07:00

before i can even blink, it's time to post another challenge of some sort and today, it is time for bread baking day and challenge #23 which is hosted by nick of imafoodblog. this one was easy, just bake something (must be a bread) you've never done before. my first instinct was to lift my copy of baking with julia and look through it. it is a beautiful book that has recipes guaranteed to work if you follow the exact instructions. reading the instructions is like listening to julia-they sound exactly like she would have said them. this is especially true if you have ever watched her on tv.

whole wheat pita bread, baking with julia by dorrie greenspan

first step, make a sponge and let it rest up to 8 hours. next add the rest of the ingredients, knead it well and let it rise until it has doubled. when it is ready, divide it into 16 pieces, roll them out in a circle and then it is time to bake them. you have a choice of baking them in the oven on stones or pans or of doing it stove top in a skillet or on a griddle. since i do not have stones and i didn't want to use the oven, i opted for the stovetop with a cast iron skillet.

with a light coat of oil, the dough is briefly placed in the pan and then quickly turned over.

the pita cooks on this side until bubbles form and then it is turned again.

it is amazing to watch because all of a sudden, it puffs up like a balloon!

to fully inflate the bread, press down on the bubble and the flat areas will puff up too. it only takes about 3 minutes per round.

the best part, a sandwich for lunch with warm pita bread!

thanks to nick for a wonderful challenge. even my husband enjoyed the bread. i turned my head and he scarfed down 3 rounds! see you next month!

cake therapy for those who dare

2009-08-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

when i tell people what i do, often they get excited and say "oh that sounds like so much fun!" honestly, working in a busy restaurant is not that exciting. we call it work for a reason, and there isn't much about it that is truly fun. while many of us enjoy what we do, for many, it is all they are qualified to do and that is a whole story on it's own. yesterday was a bad day; egos clashed, tempers flared and the stress meter was on high. so what's an angry, frustrated and trying hard not to scream and cry pastry chef to do? especially if the trip to the gym didn't fix it? if she is me, and she was, it is time to settle down in the kitchen at home and bake something. go figure, the one thing that pissed me off earlier in the day was now going to be my salvation. somebody help me, i'm baking again and i can't get up...

luckily for me, the posting deadline for this months dare was looming large and less than 24 hours away. i hadn't decided if i would even make this month's challenge but...stress levels demanded that i do something productive and i didn't want to relieve the stress by doing something negative or by eating it away. so of course baking a cake seemed like a smart thing to do...

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

and so it starts...eggs yolks, sugar and vanilla in the mixer bowl

egg whites and sugar whipped to a soft peak

after folding in the flour, the batter is spread in circles on paper and baked

i wanted lots of layers so i made 7" circles and ended up with 9 layers

the finished cake with the caramel topping and my pretty red cake stand. another great thrift shop find!

the top view

i think this week calls for cake, anyone care to join me? i should be back from the gym in a bit...

thanks ladies for a satisfying challenge and lower blood pressure!

it could have been a cake wreck...

2009-08-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

several months ago, a young co-worker approached me about making her wedding cake. she was hoping to find an inexpensive alternative to some of the quotes she had received. we spoke in detail and that was it, she didn't say anything about it again. finally, with less than 3 weeks to go, i asked her where she was getting her cake. she told me then that she hadn't ordered it yet and was planning to go to the supermarket bake shop and order it that week. the mother hen in me was forced into action.

after consulting with management, i was given the green light to make the cake. she emailed me the photo of the cake she wanted; we discussed flavors and frostings and flowers. this will be a small affair, held at the home of the groom's parents and the budget was conservative. the flowers would be silk. even with all the lobbying i did for the supermarket florist because they can have some really nice flowers, she stuck with silk. one less thing to worry about. or was it...

the week before the wedding, she ended up in the hospital with pneumonia and a set of tonsils in need of removal. these last few days, while trying to recover, she has been working on all of the little details of the wedding. too sick to shop for the silk flowers, she let her future mother in law pick them out and purchase them for her. she told the woman that she wanted purple flowers, roses if possible (i know what your thinking). what she got was just that, bright purple silk roses, obviously fake roses covered with little plastic dew drops...when i saw those awful things, i told another co-worker, "those are hideous, there's no way i can make them look good on a cake!!!" beth and i channeled our inner mother hens and we came up with a plan. a quick trip to michael's arts and crafts, several photos sent via cell phone, a long conversation and some text messages later and we had some pretty silk hydrangeas and ivy for the cake.

today was cake day. since it is an outdoor affair in august, i needed to get the cake done today to make it travel safe. it turned out nice considering that it is covered in silk flowers. what was that woman thinking-does she not like her future daughter in law or is she just lacking any taste at all??? here's to hope and phillip, good luck, congratulations and hope-get well soon!!!

want to have some fun, check out the website cake wrecks. this site has cake disasters of unbelievable proportions and every sunday a post of sunday sweets-well done cakes to marvel.

Thats just nuts!!!

2009-08-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

nuts i tell ya, just plain nuts!!! what a week it's been. a nasty storm blew out my phone/internet connection when the line was struck by lightning. it took a week to get back up and running because i only have residential service, business services get first priority. thanks at&t for making me feel appreciated, the competition is beginning to look real good at this point. i actually had to venture off to the public library to read my email and research information for the book i am working on which is now on the shelf due to contract issues-thanks guys for making me feel like part of the team. the bright spot in an otherwise crappy week, it was pie time again and i nearly missed it but thanks to holly, i made it into the round up even though my post wasn't up.

this month's theme was nuts. so fitting this week, everything else in my world was going nuts so why not the pie too? the hostess this month was jacque of daisy lane cakes and we were challenged to bake a pie using nuts-any kind of nut, however we pleased as long as it was obvious that it was in there. i was tossed up on what to do. peanut butter came to mind but i am a little saturated with peanut butter right now. chocolate and nut combos came to mind but it's a little cliche. fruit and almonds, booringgg. then i spied a jar of sorghum in the closet; the wheels began to turn...why not all of the nuts i have handy in a translucent custard (think pecan pie) with some sorghum?

the finished tart, all gooey and nutty. the combination of toasted walnuts, almonds, pecans and hazelnuts with a hint of cinnamon and sorghum is incredible. the sorghum, while sweet, cuts the cloying aspect of the corn syrup and sugar that most recipes call for. it adds a different dimension of flavor and sweetens the pie without it being too sweet. just beware, if you decide to try this, use part sorghum to corn syrup, consider adding a tablespoon or two of flour-it adds moisture not found in corn syrup, and don't substitute molasses for sorghum-it is too strong and will add a bitterness that will mask the flavor of the nuts and spices.

gooey and sweet all on it's own, perhaps with a little unsweetened whipped cream...mmmmm...

thanks jacque for a sweet ending to a sour week!

dreaming of cinnamon swirls...it must be bread baking day

2009-08-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

i have been craving cinnamon raisin bread. there, i said it and i am not sorry that i did. so what you say. well what this means is that i can now satisfy my craving all in the name of bread baking day since this month's theme is sweet breads. maybe it's just a childhood comfort food thing, i don't know and i don't care. toasted cinnamon raisin bread with a thin brushing of butter...what more could anyone possibly need?

this has been cinnamon week at my house. knowing that this challenge was due, i made my loaf of cinnamon raisin bread and saved the extra cinnamon filling from the swirl. when it was time to make the sukkar bi tahin for the bread baking buddies challenge, i pulled out the extra filling and substituted it for the tahini filling. the scent of warm bread and cinnamon has been wafting through the house for days and i will be lucky if i can fit through the doors. i guess the cinnamon rolls i brought home from work (where i made them from scratch) really won't help here. honestly, how can anyone resist soft and tender bread with cinnamon and butter and raisins and let's not forget that it is warm and fresh...

my cinnamon raisin swirl bread. sliced and ready for the toaster. has anyone seen the butter dish...

please be sure to check out the round up and all of the entries on the website hefe und mere and my sincere thanks to stefanie for indulging my cravings.

just hangin with the bread baking babes

2009-07-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

my quest for better bread baking skills led me to follow the babes this month (as a buddy of course) in their bread challenge and bake sukkar bi tahin, beirut tahini swirls. i try to play along with the bread baking babes and with the bread baking day (two separate groups) each month and sometimes, i am successful. kind of, mostly successful depending on how you look at things.

sukkar bi tahin

i realize that the soccermom label i put on myself makes me sound like every other stay at home mom with at least one kid on a team. but the truth is, i work for a living and currently i am writing another cookbook as well as working full time outside of the house. so how could i have time to do all this? i don't always have it and often i am playing catch up and other times, i sit out a round. this month, i made the cut and managed to get the babes bread challenge done on time.

my last attempt at joining the babes was a disaster; it will be a while before i attempt injera again. so, when i saw this months challenge and the book it came from, i panicked. the same two people, who had written the recipe for my injera mishap, had written this one too. after panicking for a few minutes, i got to work and made a batch of dough. when it was time to shape it, i broke into a sweat. a strange sense of deja vu took over. things did not go well; the dough was too elastic and sticky and shaping it was impossible. i made a second batch of dough using cheap store brand all purpose flour, not the good stuff and cut back on the kneading. this batch worked like a charm.

as i mentioned, i also made a loaf of bread for the bread baking day, cinnamon swirl raisin bread and i had left over cinnamon filling. it's notreally a filling but the topping for mexican conchas which i like to use as a filling in sweet breads. with this in hand, i did without the trip to the store for tahini and just used the cinnamon filling. it worked out nicely and i didn't have to leave the house again.

my thanks to natashya of living in the kitchen with puppies, this was worth the effort and it has boosted my bread baking ego!

great grandfather, honeymooners and milanos...what a combination

2009-07-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

as a small child, i spent many days with my great grandparents-my father's grandparents. i was their only great grandchild at the time and let's just say that they indulged me-a lot! my great grandfather, whom i simply called grandpa, was a fan of jackie gleason and the honeymooners. on saturday nights, he would sit down to watch the show (i realize that i am dating myself here) on a little tv that was located in a corner of the dining room. it seems that italian (american-italian) families do not like to place tvs in their parlor (what many call the living room). even my grandmother didn't watch tv in a living room, she always sat at the kitchen table to watch tv. anyway, we would watch tv together and inevitably, a bag of pepperidge farm milanos would appear. they were his favorite cookie. back then, they were only dark chocolate flavored, not mint or orange or any other flavor. he always gave me one and as a child, they were my favorite too. so, when i saw this month's challenge for the daring bakers, i jumped at the chance to try my hand a replicating that favorite childhood treat.

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She choseChocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

my husband and i had been invited to dinner with friends and i made a batch and a half, the size of quarters-very time consuming since the recipe yielded a lot more than i expected. with only some corona colombian chocolate on hand (think ibarra mexican chocolate but from colombia), i gave them a slightly spiced chocolate filling. the only problem, here in the south it is hard to keep a cookie like that crispy-too much humidity and with the wet summer we have had so far, forget trying! the cookies were well received, devoured actually. but for me, they just didn't have the texture i had hoped for. that crispy snap followed by the bittersweet chocolate flavor that i remember from my childhood. then again, the ones in the store aren't the same anymore either; cost cutting has changed them and so has my sense of nostalgia.

with the humidity in mind and the time constraints of having a full time job, a book to write and several other baking forums to participate in, i did not even attempt the marshmallow cookies. my thanks to nicole for the trip down memory lane.

summer fun with peaches and thai basil

2009-07-06T18:13:00.001-07:00

yep, you guessed it. it's pie time again!!! this month's theme is the taste of summer and it was chosen by mary and rebecca. when i think of summer, i think of fresh picked fruit and vegetables, big bunches of herbs and ice cream. sitting on the porch spitting watermelon seeds and sipping iced tea. picnics by the lake or the beach with cold fried chicken. then there are the barbecues; food of all kinds on the grill and salads galore and a frosty adult beverage...

so many things to choose from and only one pie to bake, what's a girl to do??? if she's me, she heads out to the garden, the demo garden that is, and she picks peaches and basil. we are volunteers with the master gardeners and we maintain a garden that has peach trees and an herb garden (among many things both edible and non-edible). while doing some trimming of the basil plants, including the varieties of marseille, siam queen, sweet basil and a few others whose name escapes me, i had a thought. what if i combined the fresh picked peaches with some basil and made a tart???

the peaches and some thai basil sprigs (siam queen)

the big basket of basil that i ended up with. we also made two types of pesto and have lots still to use. tomorrow, i am making a peach-basil sorbet with some of the puree that i cooked today. we may save some of it for a batch of peach-basil martinis...

the tart featuring an almond-black sugar crust and the peaches flavored with thai basil and lemon zest. oh, the flavors of summer are so good! with all of the basil in the fridge, i can come up with all kinds of combos. now if the tomatoes in the garden would just hurry up...

thanks to mary and rebecca for helping me to expand my waistline! wish you could help me use up some of the basil. oh well, what's another two hours at the gym?

easy as pie, pizza pie that is

2009-06-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

even though i am new to the bread baking day group, i was excited to hear that the 2 year anniversary challenge would be hosted by the founder of the group, zorra and that her choice was pizza. so simple, even i could handle that task. then came time to choose what i would actually make and it got tough, real tough. my husband and i grew up in the new york city area and to us, that is where real pizza-the best pizza is found. nothing else stacks up to it, even the homemade stuff because it is nearly impossible to duplicate that style of crust.

knowing that i could not even come close to the original, i decided not to try and just go with something that sounded good to me; deep dish sour dough pizza topped with veggies and a little pepperoni to satisfy my husband the meat freak. to make the sour dough crust, i pulled the rye starter that i made for last months whole grain bread challenge (#20) out of the fridge and fed it to get it going. after letting it sit over night, i made a lovely batch of dough using a recipe that i found on a blog called discovering sourdough. on pizza day, i sauteed off some onions with garlic, red peppers and zucchini. when the dough was stretched out in the pan, sorry i don't have a baking stone right now, i spread some sundried tomato pesto on top of it, spread out the veggies and pepperoni and then topped it off with an italian cheese blend. this was then baked off until it was nicely browned on top and the crust was golden underneath. since it was deep dish, we cut it into squares like they do in nyc and served it with a salad.

deep dish pizza with veggies and pepperoni

congrats to zorra on 2 years of bread baking day, see you in the round up!

can you bakewell? the daring bakers can

2009-06-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

my tarts in the nifty green oval dishes i scored at the thrift store, berry jam on the top and lemon curd on the bottom

so, another challenge was upon us and it was the classic english bakewell tart or pudding depending on who you listen to. when i saw the recipe, i knew that i had made this tart many times. as a young pastry cook in a major hotel, i was making petite fours sec for high tea and we always made a version of this but we called them frangipan tartlettes. they were made with jams usually raspberry but also with a german rosehip jam and those were my favorite combination of all that we made. later on when working in san francisco, i made a different version that used a sponge cake instead of the almond filling but there was the addition of a thin circle of marzipan covering the jam which was then topped with the sponge batter and sprinkled with fresh berries before baking-usually blueberries, both the jam and the topping.

for my tarts, it was a chance to use my nifty new (from the thrift store) oval tart dishes and an excuse to make some jam. i combined blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries with some sugar, vanilla bean, star anise and cinnamon sticks and when it was almost thick enough, a little rose water for an extra burst of floral flavor. my tart dough was enough to line both pans so i only made the single batch. i lined one with the berry jam and the other with some leftover homemade lemon curd. as for the frangipan, i made it with toasted almonds and left out the extract. it was a nice trip down memory lane and now i have a big jar of jam to slather on all kinds of things!

my thanks to our hosts this month, jasmine and annemarie, you made a wonderful choice!

reliving my early childhood

2009-06-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

as a very young child, i had a serious thing for jello. my great grandmother would make it for me when ever i visited and i would climb out of my crib during the night for jello raids. every now and then, she would make the famous crown jewel cake. i can't remember having it since my early child hood but i vaguely remembered the flavor. even funnier is that i would crave something like that. maybe crave is the wrong word but every now and then i would wonder if i should just make one...

well, this month's challenge for you want pies with that hosted by ellen at kittymama settled it all, we were to make a pie based on the theme of a child hood memory.

first step was to make three kinds of jello, raspberry, lime and orange

next step was the cream mixture. now i wasn't about to go the dream whip way-too fake for me. instead, i chose a lemon chiffon pie from the book, pie, pie, pie by john phillip carroll however, since i wanted a creamier pie i substituted whipped cream for the whipped egg whites. it was nice and lemony and creamy and not too sweet, just right i'd say.

thanks to kittymama for the trip down memory lane and good luck with your little cupcake, she's adorable!

visiting with bernard and james

2009-06-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

another bread baking day is upon us and this months foray is hosted by tangerines kitchen. for the challenge, we were asked to bake a loaf of whole grain bread. sounds simple enough but if you have ever tried to get a loaf of whole grain bread that has all of the texture of a loaf of white then you know that it can be tricky to work with. since i am trying to improve my bread baking skills, most pastry chefs don't do a lot of bread work-thats a bakers work, i turned to two old pro's; james beard and bernard clayton.

my husbands idea of bread baking is to use the bread machine-i can hear you cringing at the thought. however, it has provided me with the selection of sourdough rye since he had a bag of stoneground rye flour in the fridge. to start, i used the onion sour for rye from bernard's book.

after a few days, i took out the onions and proceeded with the recipe using the recipe for sourdough rye in james book. the onion flavor somehow was lost but the sourdough tang made up for it

not the prettiest loaf of bread-just not enough gluten to work with. next time, and there will be a next time, i will use bread flour or add gluten rather than just using all purpose flour with the rye flour. it was fun to visit with my two old friends, james and bernard. my thanks to rachel at tangerines kitchen, see you next month!

oodles of strudel and some last minute fun with the daring bakers

2009-05-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

the may daring bakers challenge was hosted by linda of make life sweeter! and courtney of coco cooks. they chose apple strudel from the recipe book kaffeehaus: exquisite desserts from the classic cafes of vienna, budapest and prague by rick rodgers.

so, i knew we were doing strudel when it was posted at the beginning of may, but don't think for a minute that i was organized enough to make this ahead. no, in true soccermom fashion, i was scrambling to the finish line! and if i must say so myself, it turned out pretty good.

i made two batches of dough just like the directions suggested. i covered the table in a cloth and i pulled and pulled but did not quite reach the 2'x3' that the recipe stated. however, i was close enough and decided to proceed. doing this reminded me of my days at the cia in our baking class. we were split into two teams and each team was handed a ball of phyllo dough. whichever team pulled it and stretched it the most with out tearing it, won. and that is about all i remembered until i began using the backs of my hands to stretch out this dough...

it was pretty thin but also inconsistent. the pattern on the cloth made that obvious so i was able to go back to the thick parts and stretch a little more.

for my apple filling i cleaned out the fridge-from left to right we have braeburn, pink lady and granny smith. a nice sweet/tart combination.

the finished apple strudel

with the extra dough i made a blueberry frangipan strudel.

my thanks go to linda of make life sweeter! and courtney of coco cooks, it was fun!

keeping score

2009-05-24T06:50:00.000-07:00

i am a curious person. i like to know how many people visit my silly little blog so when i started it, i added a free counter that gives me information. i am also a bit cheap and would not pay for the super duper spy version so i only get vague information, but information none the less. it is fun to see how people find me, what website directs them my way. even more fun is seeing what country they come from. mostly, they are in north america, the u.s. and canada. but some of them come from europe, the middle east and austrailia, south america too.

the referring websites most often listed are you want pies with that and the daring bakers, but lately, phemomenon, bread baking day and sour dough have sent a bunch my way. the reason, i joined several groups and i bake with all of these folks on a monthly basis and then we all blog about what we have baked. this sends us to each other's blogs to see what came from our attempts. it is fun to look and see how so many different people can interpret the same theme or how even with the same recipe, we all get something a little different. check them out some time and maybe even join in on the fun.

thanks for stopping by, i enjoy the company so if you like, leave me a note and who knows, maybe will bake something together some time! and if you also would like a free counter, check out bravenet and my little counter at the very bottom of the page, under the big cartoon.

adding insult to injera...and my lame attempt of becoming a bread baking buddy

2009-05-11T13:52:00.001-07:00

as i am blogging on through life, i have encountered many different groups that cook/bake and blog about a specific recipe or theme. as a graduate of the culinary institute of america and a professional pastry chef, i want to join them all! i am enjoying the challenges because quite often they are not something that i would normally do at home. but just because i went to cooking school, and a good one at that, don't think i can't screw up a recipe, repeatedly! this weekend i went above and beyond the call of duty-as far as screwing up a recipe is concerned. honestly, i have been a little stressed-it is so busy at the cafe right now between sheer volume and catering that i have not been excited about making anything at home. then there is the rain, it just seems to be stalled here with no end in sight. and lastly, what working soccermom do you know has nothing but time on her hands? not this one. so here goes my sad tale of injera...

first of all, my thanks to breadchick mary of the sour dough for choosing the bread baking babe's theme of injera this month and to sara of i like to cook for inviting me to join in on the fun as a bread baking buddy when i enquired about participating.

last week for derby day, the husband and i decided we would do the ethiopian theme and maybe invite a few friends over. well, we didn't have the time to plan for friends and decided to do it just for the two of us after we watched the race. we went out and picked up the necessary spices and ingredients. did you know that not all african grocery stores are equal? i didn't, and the first shop we went to only specialized in products and foods mainly from ghana with a bunch of mexican stuff for good measure-the store is located in an area that has many latino residents and businesses. so off to the indian marked we went and we found every spice we needed and did not already have including the fenugreek. we chose to make the wot with chicken and the lentils with sweet potato. the injera was living on the counter for a few days and it was ready to go, or so i thought. you see, i didn't start it soon enough and decided to use a different recipe from a book called flatbreads and flavors, a bakers atlas because it seemed so much simpler and quicker. what a disaster, sometimes recipes work and sometimes they don't and you can generally tell if it was because you made a mistake or the author made a mistake. i am going to claim the latter and never use that method again. the husband whipped up a quick batch of basmati rice and we ate the wot over rice-and we enjoyed it!

onto the next attempt. i got the recipe on breadchick mary's blog and started the injera again. it seemed to be going well, imagine the scary music here, until we were ready to serve the meal again. i didn't read the recipe and i mean really read the recipe and i did not realize that you have to make the batter 4-6 hours before you will cook the bread-dinner was in an hour!!! so there i was, hurrying to get it together so i could salvage my mother's day meal since my husband had already made the wot and the lentils again. in my haste, i misread the recipe and added too much flour to the starter and then had to add a lot of water to thin it out. then i had issues with the pan and the first two rounds did not work out well. but between my husband-another cia grad and a chef and myself, we were able to get some decent rounds of injera to serve with the wot. despite the snafu, we enjoyed the meal and will probably do it again sometime or we may even venture into one of several ethiopian restaurants in nashville. yes we actually have a couple here as hard as it is to believe.

alix was skeptical but she was brave enough to try it out. eating with her hands was not something she enjoyed and she had her wot with rice instead.

the chicken wot on the injera, my husband and i actually cleaned this plate and we made a second because it was pretty tasty even if i screwed up the batter.

devon enjoying a pizza, she was not willing to try it out but she did have fun watching us and laughing at us as we ate it with our hands.

thanks again and see you next month where i promise i will follow the recipe right down to the last dot of an i and cross of the t...

time for a quickie...

2009-05-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

i bet that got your attention...honestly, you need to clean up your act and get your mind out of the gutter. what i am trying to say is, it is time for quiche and if it is time for quiche then it must be time for this month's post for you want pies with that. this month's challenge is hosted by natalie of oven love. the theme natalie has chosen is family favorites. sounds easy enough except that in my house, we very rarely have pies. generally, we go for cookies or ice cream with the occasional cake or muffin thrown in for variety. the only time i bake pies (outside of work where i bake at least 60 per week) is thanksgiving and somehow, pumpkin pie just didn't seem like something i wanted to bake for this challenge. i was having trouble deciding on what type of pie to bake so i asked my husband what he thought would be a good choice (why not, he'll end up eating most of it anyway...)i explained the requirements to him-it has to be a pie, any kind of pie it can even be savory, as in quiche. the lightbulbs went off simultaneously and he quickly said make a quiche! and since i had to choose a favorite pie for this family, i went with quiche, spinach and mushroom quiche to be precise.

first on the list after a stop at the grocery store for mushrooms, cream and swiss cheese was to get a crust together. luckily, i had some dough in the freezer and i set it out to thaw while i made the filling.

when it came time to roll out the crust, i grabbed my monster rolling pin and my latest acquisition, a funky scalloped baking dish that is vintage california pottery. when i wrote my first book, sky high, i had the opportunity to participate in the photo shoot. it was 5 days in new york city with a top photographer-tina rupp and a wonderful food stylist-allison attenborough but one of the things i enjoyed the most was the prop styling. there were so many plates, cups, silverware, linens and cake stands that it was mind boggling. now that i am working on what i hope will be my second book, i have begun collecting pieces that could maybe end up in a book or just be fun to use at home. this little collection of plates, bowls, lazy susans, glasses, coffee cups and baking dishes just keeps growing, much to my husbands dismay.

after the crust was rolled out and placed in the dish, i added the spinach which had been sauteed with onions, garlic and mushrooms. on top of the spinach, i placed a layer of swiss cheese and finally topped it all off with the custard of heavy cream, eggs, salt and nutmeg. into the oven it went...

pie for dinner, that's what i'm talkin about!!! add a loaf of crusty bread and a salad, what more could you possibly need?

bread baking day #19, spring country bread

2009-04-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

if you recall, last month i decided to join in on the bread baking day fun with mansi at the fun and food blog for a quick bread bake-off. this month, the festivities are being hosted by cindystar and she has chosen spring country breads in honor of the arrival of spring. that seemed like such an easy challenge until i began to think about it. i can think of breads baked for specific holidays but not something baked specifically for spring. the search was on! if there was a special spring bread out there, i was going to bake it.

knowing that i had a few weeks to do this, i took my time. i leafed through my bread books and searched the internet, repeatedly and nothing came to me. there just wasn't one single bread that screamed "spring" out to me. let's be honest, beside some hot cross buns, nothing even whispered the word to me. time was running out and i still didn't know what to do. and then, the weather changed; it got unseasonably hot in nashville and the answer jumped out at me. flatbread and salad for dinner. one of our favorite meals would save the day! after working in the garden, what could be better than a nice and refreshing green salad with some warm flatbread?
the book flatbreads & flavors, a baker's atlas has lived on my bookshelf for quite some time. many times i have sat down with it and read about the various places and the intriguing breads. there must be one i could make, right? after flipping through half of the book, i came upon pizza bianca. how funny, here i am with a book of exotic breads from places i will most likely never see and i pick a pizza recipe from italy. with that in mind, i decide to change it up a bit to make it my own and help with the goal of using up stuff in the closet that my husband and i started on last week.

first i made a sponge using some semolina, whole wheat flour, yeast and water.

after letting it develop for an hour or so, i added some sun dried tomato pesto, some salt and enough bread flour to make a soft dough. using a tray to contain the flour, i kneaded the dough until it was smooth and elastic and then i let it rise until doubled.

i divided the dough into 6 pieces and flattened them out with my fingertips. the dough rounds then went on a floured tray and were brushed with olive oil. they went immediately into the preheated oven and baked for about 10 minutes.

our dinner, salad with avocados, tomatoes, kalamata olives, garbanzo beans and cucumbers on a bed of mixed greens and served with caesar salad dressing and feta cheese and warm sun dried tomato flatbreads. perfect on a warm evening.

sundried tomato flatbreads

preheat the oven to 450F, makes 6 rounds

1/2cup sundried tomato pesto

1-1/2cup water

1teaspoon yeast

1 cup semolina flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4teaspoon coarse salt, plus additional for sprinkling on top of the breads

1-2 cups bread flour

olive oil for brushing the dough

make the sponge by mixing the pesto, water, yeast, semolina and whole wheat flours in a bowl. cover it with plastic and allow to rest for several hours. to make the bread, add the salt and 1 cup of the bread flour and stir it together. place the additional cup of flour on a clean surface and dump the dough on top of it. begin kneading the dough while incorporating the additional flour into the dough. add more flour if the dough is sticky and if it is getting stiff, brush away the excess. knead for about 8 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. divide it into 6 even pieces. sprinkle flour onto baking sheets and press each round of dough into a flat disk. brush with olive oil, dimple the surface with your finger tips and sprinkle with the salt. place the pans in the oven and bake it for about 10 minutes, the dough will be lightly golden around the edges and on the bottom.

see you next time! be sure to check out the bread baking day round up when cindystar posts it on may 5

cheese louise, it's time for another daring bakers challenge

2009-04-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

that thud was the sound of my head hitting the keyboard. for a person who used to bake and sell cheesecakes for a wholesale business, this was not going to be a challenge. or was it... over the last 15 years or so, i have baked many, many cheesecakes in many, many styles and flavors. i have even done a wedding cake that was cheesecakes. so for me to participate in this months challenge, i needed to find something that i haven't done before. i thought of many things, ricotta or goat cheese instead of cream cheese. so many chocolates to choose from. fruits of all colors, a quick trip to the liquor store or a search for hazelnut paste...what was i going to do? how could i make this a little different from every other one i have done before?

when all else fails and your imagination is at a standstill, just clean out the fridge. or at least stand there while your husband does and you can grab things as he decides to pitch them or you can let that be your inspiration. we had so many little tubs and bowls of stuff piled behind so many half full containers that we could not find anything in there. it was time for all of those lazy squatters to go! first stop was the pantry, i needed a crumb crust. i was in luck, there was a bag of biscotti crumbs left over from something and a partial bag of hazelnut pieces, a little black sugar, some melted butter and voila! a crust is born. in to the cheesecake went some sour cream since we had two open tubs and we were out of heavy cream. in the freezer i found some bananas that were over ripe and saved for just such an occasion. back into the pantry and my search yielded a little colombian chocolate from the valentino challenge. i flavored the batter with the banana and poured 2/3 of it into pans. the remaining third was mixed with the chocolate which i had melted and this batter was swirled into the batter in the pans to make a marbled cheesecake. when it was all said and done, the cakes were cold and ready to come out of their pans, i headed back to the freezer and used some frozen strawberries to make a nice sauce. there you have it, banana split cheesecake! it was simple to do and my pantry as well as the fridge and freezer are a little less cluttered! thanks for the challenge Jenny, it was fun!

the crust; biscotti crumbs, black sugar and hazelnut pieces, they beat graham crackers every day of the week!

my favorite way to make a cheesecake-in the food processor. the cheese, sugar, sour cream, vanilla and banana will be mixed first with the eggs added slowly last.

i decided to share, one 6" cake for us, one 6" cake for a friend and one 4" cake for my neighbors.

this is what they looked like before going into the oven.

on the counter to cool while i made the sauce...

a slice for me and a slice for my husband, a wonderful way to end the evening.

flying time

2009-04-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

wow, how the time has flown. days go by so fast that i seem to struggle just to stay in place. it is that time of the year when everything is in need of attention. gardens to be planted, pots to be filled, weeds to pull and so much more. and that is just in my yard, there is also the demo garden to tend to. school is almost out; just where did the year go and have i blinked and missed it? hopefully, there will be a book to work on and if not, the business is booming and i am longing for the slower days of january already...funny how that works, in january i can almost taste spring and i can't wait for it. while i do not wish for a lack of things to do, i do wish for less to accomplish all in one day. i suppose what i really want is time. time to think, time to sleep, time to enjoy the little things; mostly just time for my own family in our little corner of the world. many say it is better to be busy, no time to worry. personally, i like time to think, it prevents the worry that something is being neglected or overlooked. now, it's time to go, time to sleep, time to dream...

pie time again

2009-04-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

once again, it is time to post for you want pies with that. this month's challenge found all of us creating pies that reflect the lifestyles of the rich and famous. i was stumped, completely. honestly, i may read the gossip columns on occasion but i really don't pay all that much attention to celebrities or their antics. what's a girl to do in a situation like that? ask a teenager? search on line? better yet, why not call on your good friend bernie madoff and ask him what you should bake. and that's just what i did, through his lawyer of course, and this is what he told me to do; bake an apple pie, bernie madoff's best ever apple pie...

one thing bernie couldn't do was give me a good pie crust recipe. so, i decided to make one from scratch using a combination of corn masa and flour. it made a nice flaky crust and i will definitely use masa in pie crust again.

what a beautiful apple pie, so easy to make and it went together perfectly. bernie has the best apple pie recipe, ever!!!

when i pulled it out of the oven, it smelled so good. we could hardly wait to cut into it.

here is a slice of the pie, so perfect and amazingly delicious. and about as authentic as a $3 bill or one of bernies investments! beware of perfect apple pies, especially if they are really made from crackers.

if you have ever seen the recipe for ritz's mock apple pie, then you know what i did here. that recipe has always intrigued me but never enough to actually make one, until now. what better way to pay homage to a con man. i actually made this pie twice, just because i was so unsure if i got it right the first time. the first one, i actually grated half of a granny smith apple and added it along with some additional spices. we were shocked, it actually tasted a lot like apples, not because of the apple i added but because of the combination of spices, cream of tartar and lemon juice and zest. for the second one, i used a mashed up over-ripened pear instead of the apple and it too was somewhat convincing. for both pies, i followed the recipe completely but substituted brown sugar instead of white sugar, added the fruit and the additional spices.

be sure to visit the you want pies with that? site and check out what all the other members baked. look for us to be at it again this time next month with a new and exciting theme!!!

first in line

2009-04-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

if you've read this blog before, then you know that i am a member of the daring bakers and you want pies with that. when the members of these blog forums post about the latest baking endeavor, everyone makes an effort to read the blogs of other members. since i have also done this, i have found a few other forums i would like to join and with this post, i am participating in the bread baking day #18 which is hosted by mansi at the fun and food blog this month. the theme this time around was quick breads and i immediately knew what i wanted to bake, irish soda bread. every year at this time, i look forward to a fresh loaf of irish soda bread. thick slabs of bread, chock full of currants and warm from the oven. butter isn't necessary if you remember to plump the currants first. but this bread also comes with memories and a story and every time i pull out the recipe, it all comes back to me, somewhat bittersweet but welcomed every year.

our mothers were sisters and they both had their first child within a few months of each other. since their mother had died when they were young, the two sisters spent a lot of time together which also meant that my cousin dennis and i spent a lot of time together too. when my parents finally split up, my brother and i spent even more time with all of our cousins. so many of my childhood memories are of time spent with them at their house or on group outings.

mom and joan were a lot a like but so different at the same time. neither tolerated a whole lot of nonsense and we all learned the hard way. and while mom could cook, pretty well if i must say, she did not do much baking. if there was a cake to be baked, most likely joan was the one to do it. this side of the family didn't have a whole lot of ethnic family recipes handed down from the elders. all things considered, for an irish family, there wasn't much in the way of irish culinary specialties that we were familiar with except, irish soda bread.

my first memories of irish soda bread are those of an elderly irish neighbor, mrs. mulvahil. every year as saint patrick's day approached, she would bake a loaf for my mother. i am not sure that i truly enjoyed it then but as i became an adult, i learned to appreciate a loaf of good irish soda bread.

when my husband and i opened our bakery and saint patrick's day approached, i mentioned wanting a recipe for the bread to my mother and she told me that joan had a good recipe and that she made it every year. being the sentimental person that i am, i asked mom to find out if joan would part with the recipe; i would make it and sell it at the bakery giving full credit to joan for the recipe.

not long after that conversation, i received an email from my cousin mary and in it was the recipe along with some helpful hints. while it wasn't the same as getting a hand written copy, it still meant a lot to me. i printed out a copy of the recipe and took it to work. i made notes on the copy for a much larger batch and some minor changes.

somehow, i have managed to save that copy of the recipe and 9 years later, i still have it and i still use it. we closed our bakery almost 5 years ago and this year i pulled out that recipe and prepared it for the country market which is part of the restaurant i work in. it sold well, very well and i didn't get to eat any of it. while i was home on my grand staycation last week, i pulled out the recipe again and made a loaf for me and in the process, i spent a little time with joan.

the loaf, warm from the oven

a thick slab for me

dennis in the pool and me on joan's lap in the back yard at joan's house.

we lost dennis to a drunk driver in 1997. thankfully, mary, who was also in the car at the time, was not seriously hurt. it was a tough blow to all and while time may have lessened the pain, none of us have forgotten. joan passed away a few years ago and having the recipe is like having a special gift that i can make and share each year. i can hear her dictating the recipe to mary as i make the bread...

joan's irish soda bread

4 cups all purpose flour

1/4cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons caraway seeds

1/4cup (4 tablespoons) butter

2 cups light or dark raisins or currants, soak them in hot water after measuring or they will dry out the bread-drain out the excess water before adding them to the dough

1 egg

1-1/3cup buttermilk

preheat the oven to 375F. combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda and the caraway seeds in a large bowl. whisk them to combine them. with a pastry blender or your hands, cut in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse corn meal. stir in the raisins. whisk the egg and buttermilk and stir it into the flour mix and until just moistened. turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until smooth. shape into a ball and make a 4 inch cross, 1/4" deep in the center with a knife. place the loaf on a baking sheet that is lined with paper or in a greased 9" cake pan. brush the top of the loaf with additional egg or some cream and bake for 1 hour and about 10 minutes. to test for doneness, tap it on top and it should sound hollow or insert a cake tester and it should come out clean. allow to cool completely before cutting.

special thanks to mansi at fun and food blog for letting me join in on the fun even if it is a little late!

my grand staycation

2009-04-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

with the blink of an eye, my big staycation adventure came to an end. i've been back to work for 2 days now and it is as if i never took any time off. i could easily adjust to a life of leisure. going to the gym, taking walks, shopping; indulging every whim. all i need is the money, i already have everything else.

so, you ask, what did you do with all of those days? i went to class, beekeeping class to be precise. i now know way more than i ever thought i could about bees and what it takes to keep a successful hive. it is a huge commitment, kind of like adopting babies, only you get 60,000 of them at once. darry is sold on the idea and i am too, kind of. it truly is intimidating. after all, they can get nasty if they are not properly respected. we spoke to one beekeeper that told a tale of being stung 60 times in his arm. we were reminded again of the reality of playing with bees. then he told us of the time he was stung 300 times. that was enough to make me think twice. stinging aside, bees can be plagued by any number of things. tracheal mites, varroa mites, nosema, small hive beetles, foulbrood or wax moths. it is a daunting task.

one wild and crazy gal out for a good time. if this is my plan for time off, just wait till you see what i do for fun next time. as they say in the south, ain't no tellin...

lasagne of emilia-romagna, daring bakers march challenge

2009-03-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

so this was going to be a real challenge for me-you don't tell a pastry chef that she will be making pasta with bechamel and ragout and expect her to consider it baking. that is cooking, no matter what happens to it in the oven! in the professional world, this is the kitchens job, not the pastry departments responsibility, therefore, it is not baking. but i really like lasagne, especially spinach lasagne. and then there is that pasta machine lurking in the storage area of the basement...what about those mushrooms growing in the closet?

my husband and i both like to cook with spinach and we always have a bag of it in the freezer. i thawed some and proceeded with the recipe. the dough seemed a bit like cement after kneading it so i made it a second time.

after allowing both balls of dough to relax for about 4 hours, i pulled out the old atlas pasta machine, hooked it up to the counter and began to roll out the sheets. this was so easy to work with. the first batch actually worked out better than the second. both were a little dry and required water but i will attribute that to egg size. since all i had were large eggs, i used water to make up the extra moisture.

currently, we have a small zoo living with us-3 cats and a dog, so i opted to lay out the sheets on parchment and keep them in the fridge until i could cook them rather than hanging them to dry. the next day, i made the bechamel but opted not to make the ragout. instead, i sauteed off additional spinach with onions and garlic and also sauteed off some sliced mushrooms. to assemble the lasagne, i followed the directions except for cooking a couple sheets of pasta at a time and then assembled the lasagne by alternating a layer of bechamel with a layer of spinach, mushrooms and a pizza cheese blend.

my husband is an amatuer mycologist-he's into mushrooms. recently, he gave a lecture at a lawn and garden show and this box of dirt was part of his display. it is a ready to grow kit that if handled correctly, it will produce portobellos and white buttons. you can see some of them in the box.

since the kit has only just begun to produce fruit-mushrooms are actually the fruit of the mycelium which grows under ground and when the conditions are right, they produce fruiting bodies or what we call mushrooms, i had to buy some to make the lasagne.

the finished product, it was very green and similar to a white pizza in flavor. we enjoyed it but if i ever do it again, i will most likely add a little tomato, perhaps some diced tomatoes to the spinach layer to balance out the flavor-it needed something to cut the richness, a little acid to brighten it.

my thanks to the hostesses, it was a stretch for me but i had fun and the pasta machine made it into the kitchen for the first time in years! check out some of the other blog entries by visiting thedaringkitchen.com and if you like italian food, check out the splendid table by lynne rosetto kasper.

rock on you party animal

2009-03-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

today is day two of my fantastic staycation-yes even i have fallen into the trend. this morning was all about me, after partying until 9pm with 200 perspective beekeepers, i was ready to get it on. after taking devon to school, i arrived home to find that i was not going to get a newspaper today.

last week the folks at the tennessean claimed it is profitable, i guess it is if you don't bother to deliver it.

after quickly scarfing down a bagel, i needed a good carb load after the fun of last night, i set off to chores. dusting, polishing, vacuuming and mopping...woohoo, i can party like a rock star. now as i sit here at the mac, typing this out, i am day dreaming about all of the laundry i shall fold soon as well as making up the bed. watch out, i'm on a roll.

shine on you crazy diamond...bee keepers at 6, i'm ready to par-teee...

the joys of scrubbing toilets and other housewifely duties

2009-03-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

it has finally arrived, my big 6 day vacation from work. i had a few days to use or lose and i decided to take them this week so i could do all of the things i have been wanting to do. my first morning found me sipping coffee in front of the tv, at 5:30am. what a party animal, next time i should try staying up until 5:30 rather than crawling out of bed to start the day.

next on the agenda, making sure my daughter got to school on time, 6:50am. do i know how to have fun or what? i arrived back at home with my wet newspaper, it's raining, (great weather for a vacation) then i proceeded to scrounge up some breakfast. after perusing all 12 pages of the paper-it may be profitable but it is shrinking daily, i fed the cat some bananas-she'll eat anything, really i am not kidding. on to the next task, laundry...followed this up with scrubbing the tub and toilets. wow, what a wild day off. after a trip to the big box store for some coffee, bagels and printer cartridges i will stop off and visit scot for a haircut. top this off with a quick trip to the gym to get in some cardio refreshment and i will be ready for my big night out on the town!

about that, the husband has quite a bee in his bonnet, literally. after inoculating logs and building a small shiitake farm in the back yard he has moved on to bee keeping. we start the classes tonite. does life get any better than this? somebody, please save me. i'm drowning in my own dorkdom and i can't get up...

you want pie with that?

2009-03-13T16:43:00.001-07:00

crazy as it sounds, i was looking for a way to fill some spare time. hard to believe that i actually have any with all that goes on at home; large garden and many beds to tend to, the master gardeners association, the possibility of another book, the girls...the list goes on. but really, i was looking for a way to amuse myself and do something that i like to do-bake. not just random baking for consumption, but baking with a purpose. when i wrote my book, i learned a lot about baking even though that is what i do for a living. baking is a lot of chemistry and physics and it is never so obvious as when you are configuring recipes and testing them for the resulting baked product. in order to keep myself entertained, i joined two baking forums, the daring bakers and you want pies with that. recently, i posted my first challenge with the daring bakers and now it is time to do the same with you want pies with that. the daring bakers pick a specific recipe for a baked good-any baked good and everyone prepares that recipe. each member adds a little tweek of personality but bakes the same thing and the result is hundreds of examples of how the same thing could be executed. for you want pies with that, a theme is chosen and everyone bakes a pie or a tart to fit the theme and this results in many different things but all are technically pies. for my first pie challenge, the theme was herbs and spices. how seemingly vague but never the less, very challenging. after all, what do you choose to do with a theme like that? sweet or savory, yin and yang, classic or crazy-foodie? what's a soccer mom to do? i gave it some thought and settled on a pear pie. how dull, says you!!! but not just any pear pie, my pear pie had the yin and yang as well as the herbs and spices and the results were fabulous.

lets start with the herbs and the spices. on this plate is a collection of herbs and spices that when blended makes up a moroccan blend called raz al hanout. the spices pictured are; cinnamon sticks, green and black cardamom, mace, star anise, nutmeg, peppercorns, turmeric, cloves, hot chilis, coriander and cumin. the herbs in the picture are lavender and rose petals and not in the picture are ginger and anise seeds.

all of the spices were placed in a blender and whirled until it was powdered and then sifted to remove any large pieces. this was very noisy! the results were incredible. i enjoyed my visit to the local indian and international markets to pick up the ingredients rather than using someone elses blend of spices. raz al hanout is morocco's version of curry, everyone has their own blend and it can contain as many as 50 spices. i chose to keep it a little simpler and ended up with 17.

while in K&S world market, i found a bag of black sugar. it is from south korea and it is raw sugar with caramel. it has a larger grain than brown sugar and it tasted a little like caramel and not like molasses.

i peeled a bunch of ripe d'anjou pears, zested a lemon and tossed it all with the black sugar, raz al hanout and some corn starch to fill the shell. now for the yin to the yang of the filling, a pie crust that was made with a combination of butter and apple wood smoked bacon fat which added a hint of smoke flavor to the crust as well as some flakiness.

here is the pie after it came out of the oven

i love warm fruit pie, so does my husband. we cut into it just as soon as possible and we savored every bite! for more info on the raz al hanout, check out my other blog-will travel for food. it is a blog devoted to restaurants, food and markets of all kinds. here's to pie in the sky and next month's challenge!!!

bunglish spoken here...

2009-03-07T16:55:00.000-08:00

i spend my day at work among many people who speak either very little english or very bad english. not a problem because the people in question speak spaninsh and my spanish is just as bad as their english. it makes the day interesting. we spend time playing a version of charades that only people who don't speak the same language can understand. my favorite part of all of this is the "glaze over". it's that point when the eyes of the person you are attempting to speak to suddenly glaze over and they just agree with you. even funnier is the point afterwards when you realize what you just told them and why it didn't make any sense to them. this is when the dictionary comes out and both of you start searching for and pointing to the right words.

the best part is listening and helping my non-english speaking coworkers learn new words. english is a difficult language to learn because there are so many grammar and pronunciation rules that even most of us natives do not understand. some of them have learned a lot of english and in return they have helped me to learn a lot of spanish. together, we bungle our way through both languages laughing as we go. in the end, we actually have many conversations that we all understand. to think that the city of nashville almost declared itself english only is awful. my coworkers were happy to hear that voters refused to let it happen. we made the news all over the country, even in the big cities.

every day is a new opportunity to learn new words and proper usage. but did you ever notice just how quickly immigrants learn to use the worst parts of the language perfectly? oh well, there isn't much i can do about it except bungle on...

the little things in life

2009-02-27T12:11:00.000-08:00

haven't you noticed that it isn't the major things that happen that will affect you the most? it seems to me that it is always the little things that will make you react the strongest. it's amazing how your temper can flare or your patience can evaporate over the most trifling of details. on the other hand, sometimes, the most inane occurrences can get you out of your seat for a victory dance.

sad but true, this is my life. honestly, there is nothing fun about working in a busy restaurant. it is noisy, stressful (at times), physical (lots of lugging and lifting), and at times, dangerous. in performing restaurant work, you may cut yourself and may need medical attention. floors can be greasy or wet and falls become inevitable. most commonly, you will get burned. funny thing about stoves and ovens, they get hot and so do the metal pans you use with them. especially if you are also lifting and lugging them around a crowded and busy kitchen. but even so, i really can't imagine what else i would do if i didn't bake for a living. nicks and burns aside, this is what works for me.

did i mention the part about getting up at 3am 4 out of 5 days a week. sad but true, i get up willingly at 3am most days and even earlier if necessary. with that in mind, you would think that the one morning of my workweek that allows me to sleep in until 5 would be my favorite. it's not, there is nothing worse than walking in to a busy and hectic restaurant that is in full swing for the day when you normally arrive hours before this to silence and calm. but the chance to sleep...hey, sleep is over rated! isn't it???today, my usual late day, i had the chance to go to work early. an opportunity to beat the rush and get to work before the rest of the crew and the deliveries arrived. this thought excited me. i could get to work at 4, leave at 12 and go to the gym and ... you get the picture. it's the little things, and this is my life. gotta love it, me the non-morning person excited about rolling out of bed at 3am and baking pies.

My Fudgy Valentine-2/28/09

2009-02-26T11:13:00.000-08:00

even though i am a creature of comfort, i enjoy challenges too. it seems that i get bored easily. this combination generally has me multitasking to get through things as quickly as possible so i can move onto new things. one of the things i find myself doing is following food/baking blogs to see what people are up to in the culinary world. this habit ultimately led me to the daring bakers, a baking forum that holds a monthly baking challenge. i just had to join. what better way to entertain myself, stave off the boredom and do something i enjoy. of course, my family gets the benefit of a freshly baked dessert. when the challenge for february was announced, it would be my first to participate in; i was off and running to get started.

The February 2009 Challenge is hosted by Wendy

of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad~Baker&Chef.

We havechosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by

Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm

and a Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe from Wendy as

the challenge.

this month's recipe comes from the book, Chef Wan's

Sweet Treats and it is available on amazon, follow the link above to see it.

since the theme was valentine's day, darry and i decided to make a nice valentine's day dinner for the girls and their dates; a fancy dinner for 6 at chez huntsman. on the menu was a lovely roasted beef tenderloin, mushroom sauce, scalloped potatoes and green beans almondine. very classic, very simple and very tasty! the night before, i baked off the cakes, made the sauce and froze the ice cream.

before i could do anything, i had to decide on a chocolate to use in the flourless chocolate valentino cake. if you've shopped for chocolate recently then you know that it can be a challenge to choose from the many types available. i looked at so many. some were flavored with caramel, nuts, coffee or chili. others had cacao contents of 65-80% making them dark and bitter. then there was white and milk chocolates. oh, the choices...keep in mind, i haven't gone anywhere but the local grocery store, never mind the internet where i could have found so much more. in the end, i made a trip to an international grocery store in search of ibarra, a mexican chocolate. they did not have it so i chose corona, a columbian chocolate that is flavored with cinnamon and cloves. if you've ever seen ibarra, then you are familiar with the grainy-sugary consistency of the chocolate. corona is much the same but it does not have the almonds that ibarra has. in the end, the chocolate gave the cake a mild flavor, not too dark and nicely fudgy with a slightly spicy finish. if i ever use this recipe again, i will add sugar to the egg whites to stabilize them and allow them to fold in to the batter more smoothly. for visual impact, i baked the batter in individual hearts and using the instant read thermometer did not help. next time, i will go by feel instead-25 years of experience must be good for something.

all of the ingredients measured out on the counter, ready to be made into little heart shaped cakes.

for the ice cream, i chose to make a coconut milk ice cream. it was simple to put together and it was a delicious match for the chocolate. to complete the dish, i made a syrup from both sweet and sour cherries with a little sugar and cinnamon to punch up the flavors. cherries and cinnamon compliment each other very nicely and if you combine that with chocolate and coconut-WOW!!! for visual purposes, i added a little purchased caramel sauce so i could do some sauce painting.

we ate well; from start to finish, all was savored and enjoyed. at the end of the meal, there was a large stack of dirty plates but not many left overs. it was fun to use my training to entertain the family. even better was having it so well received. so bring on the next challenge, i'm ready for just about anything. look for my next culinary adventure on march 14, when i post my first challenge with the other forum i joined-you want pies with that.

free at last

2009-02-20T14:58:00.000-08:00

in 1997, we opened a small wholesale bakery. it was a lot of work but it was a great little business. we were the only wholesale biscotti bakery in the area. we quickly picked up about 40 clients around town and a few out of the area that we shipped product to. in 1999, we expanded to include a second location, a retail bakery cafe. in 2002, we dumped the first location and just concentrated on retail, no more deliveries or wholesale accounts we were doing great for the time being, then the economy began to tank. it was dying a slow death and it was taking businesses like ours with it. in 2004, we sold the contents of the business to the owner of the location and walked away. we both had jobs with other companies and with reluctance, we set about paying back the loan on the business we no longer had. it wasn't easy and the bank made it worse. when we told them that the $1600 monthly payment was unmanageable, they advised us to "just make the payments..." we were finally able to negotiate a second loan with them and that brought the payments to $460 a month. not an easy sum to part with, but better than the previous payment. today, i paid off the loan!!!

free at last, what a wonderful feeling. and no, i will never do business with that bank again. their customer service sucks and they were not the least bit supportive when we honestly told them we were going under and needed to renegotiate the loan. so now, it's on to new challenges and paying new bills. one kid in college and another waiting in the wings. one new car and one that will eventually need to be repaired or replaced. one old house needing lots of work. the list goes on and we go to work...

wish list

2009-02-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

it's thursday, again. the days are flying by and soon it will be spring. actually it is only 29 days until spring. here's to hoping the change in seasons also means changes for me. my wish list,

1. another book deal

2. a bountiful garden

3. minor downsizing in the waist department

it's not a large wish list, just an honest one. possibly, a realistic wish list. stay tuned for the results! another reason to stay in touch, my first challenge for the daring bakers will be posted here on the 28th. i'm so excited about it, it was a lot of fun to do.

turning back the clock

2009-02-14T10:40:00.000-08:00

all of my life, i have always felt like i needed to be responsible. seems my mother did a good job of drilling the sense of responsibility into me. combine that with stray cats and it is a good chance i will befriend them if i can. when a neighbor moved out last summer, she left behind at least two cats. we did not realize that the desperate little cat that was howling outside in our carport was one of them until another neighbor informed us. shortly after that first starved cat showed up, another arrived. one was friendly, one was not. both were hungry and abandoned and we couldn't help but feed them. we quickly grew attached to them, and they were more than happy to stay out in our carport sleeping on the cars or in the little bed that darry made for them. it was also obvious just how attached to each other they were. they would follow darry and sugarbear every time they went for a walk. it was a common sight to see the little parade of man, dog and cats strolling down the street. the neighbors would watch shaking heads and laughing as the procession passed. those two cats were a sight to see; they would bump heads with tails entwined as they walked together.

as time passed, we noticed that patches was spending much of the time elsewhere, only appearing for meals in the evening while lubie remained with us in the yard most of the time. after a while, patches stopped coming altogether and we hoped that she had been taken in by whom ever was keeping her the rest of the time. we were sad to see her go, so was lubie; she missed her buddy a great deal. we encouraged lubie to stay with us. we made sure she was well fed and even provided her with a heated bed that was enclosed so she could stay warm as the weather grew cold. still, we worried about her following the dog for walks and we even took to sneaking out so she wouldn't follow us. our little timid friend had grown to trust us and would greet us when we arrived home and loved to follow us for walks because she had adopted us and figured we would take care of her.

when we began seeing the coyote in the neighborhood, we never thought about the safety of the cat. he didn't hang around long and didn't seem like much more than a fluke visitor. at the time, we didn't really notice the decline in cats or rabbits either. but that coyote was watching lubie and after a while, he knew where to find her. we had been having bitter cold weather and it was necessary to bring lubie indoors. she couldn't mingle with our other cats and she had to stay in the basement but that was okay. she found a warm spot and made it hers, content to stay inside with a litterbox and avoid the frigid cold. then the weather suddenly warmed and lubie wanted to return to the outdoors. the coyote was watching and he saw her. late last saturday, alix and tanner went outside and the cat seemed very spooked; they weren't aware the coyote was watching. that was the last time any of us saw her. we can only hope it was quick and that she didn't suffer too much.

lubie on the left and patches on the right. they would love on each other continuously.

such sweet kitties

two best friends, both victims of an irresponsible pet owner and the over population of coyotes.

my favorite picture of lubie, sitting beside the herb garden. most likely, she was watching the songbirds since she was quite the hunter. even though i know that i did what i could for her, i still feel like i should have done more. perhaps if i had let her in that night or if i had taken her to the shelter when we realized that she had been abandoned. but as they say, hindsight is always 20-20 vision and there isn't anything i can do now. but if i ever see that coyote... he better not be standing in the road when i am driving and who knows, maybe we will get a gun. after all, it is open season on coyotes in tennessee and it is perfectly legal for us to kill one any time and any place. but any one that knows us also knows that we could never do that, but there are people who would and we may just call them...

dressed to the nines

2009-02-09T14:01:00.000-08:00

it's prom season. or perhaps i should say prom dress shopping season. that sound you heard was the collective groan of moms everywhere reliving the experience of shopping for "the" perfect dress with a teenager. actually, for me, this time around it has been easier. the first time, when alix needed a dress for her first trip to the prom, she tried on everything in every store and could not find "the" dress. as a matter of fact, the prom was less than 3 weeks away and she was still looking. we went on a trip to the mall as a last ditch effort. every store had relegated the dresses to the clearance racks and what was left was a: ugly b: huge, only the large sizes were left and c: damaged from so many girls pawing through them and trying them on. we almost gave up hope but gathered up a collection and trudged on to the dressing room. the first pick, a handkerchief hemmed-tea length dress in bright fuchsia. go ahead, say yuck real loud, but believe it or not, it looked great on her and it ended up being "the" dress. the fact that it ended up costing $17 did not hurt either. the next year, alix found a dress in february and we bought it at full price, i did not go shopping with her but i did go with her to buy it.

when devon told me, or i should say alix told me that devon was asked to the prom, i was a little nervous. she is so much pickier than alix and i knew this would be tough. i was very pleasantly surprised by the outcome. we have only been in two stores and it looks as if we are settled on the dress. it has been somewhat painless and i am hoping that the rest of the outfit comes as easily.

some day, all of this practice will come in handy. with two daughters, we will probably have to plan two weddings which will require at least two dresses per event-one for each of them. sounds like double the fun doesn't it. let's not even get into the mother of the bride dresses. now that sound you just heard, that was me hitting the floor. i just can't even give that a thought right now!

half baked

2009-01-29T16:16:00.000-08:00

if i had a dollar for every time i have stated that "if i never baked another thing as long as i live, i could still die happy", i'd have some money to spend!!! even so, i cannot imagine my life without baking. life without the smell of bread baking or savoring the taste of warm cookies just seems unimaginable. if you know me then you also know that i bake for a living and to come home and break out the recipes or to spend a day off in my kitchen seems like overkill and a sure way to get bored with it. even so, i joined two baking forums that also are blogs. each month there is a challenge-secret and known only to the members and on a specific date, the members post the results on their blogs as well as participate in private-members only forums. keep tuned to this space for the results each month as i post for the daring bakers and you want pies with that.

weather or not

2009-01-28T12:46:00.000-08:00

living in the south makes minor weather occurrences seem like major events. even the mention of snow can cause many to experience small panic attacks and massive pilgrimages to the grocery store. today's big snow was no exception. we have had a lot of rain in the last 36 hours; rain accompanied by low temperatures. the threat of ice has been hanging over our heads as we watched cities to the north of us glaze over. today, the day started with more rain and the additional advisory of impending doom, the dreaded wintry mix. that noise was the collective gasp of a cities inhabitants bracing for the big one; preparing themselves for the paralysis that was to take hold any moment. after all, schools called out earlier and the weather radar maps were purple...then, like so many meteorologists predicted with certainty, the rain began to freeze and snow began to fall. and fall it did, fast and furious and suddenly the ground was almost white. but this is nashville and an hour later, the snow stopped falling and the purple band that had become white had moved on and we were left to watch the snow melt-quickly. maybe next time we will get to drag out the sleds, not this time though.

waiting...

2009-01-27T11:14:00.000-08:00

hurry up and wait, the way my life seems to be right now. so many things i would like to do, books to read and places to go. days off are filled with chores and the restless anticipation that one might experience before starting a new project. shelves dusted, floors vacuumed and bathrooms scrubbed; laundry washed and folded and placed in drawers. appointments kept and classes attended and finally time for me. only it is too cold to work in the garden and right now, no book is waiting to be written. weather must change and negotiations must settle. time now to wait, what's the hurry anyway?

here we go again

2009-01-22T14:03:00.000-08:00

about a year ago, i started writing this blog. the whole blogging thing is somewhat addictive and before i knew it, i had started 3 other blogs. and of course, this one got left behind, neglected and ignored due to the demand of the other 3. well it's time to fix that and today, i deleted all of the old posts and i am starting over again today. this one will not be so private and anonymous. in this "new" space, i will put all of the thoughts and experiences that just do not fit on the others. this page will not be about my garden, the demo garden or restaurant experiences. however, that does not mean that this page will be anything more than the vague and random happenings in the life soccer mom jane...