This Week's Obsessions

What I'm Lovin' This Week:

The first meeting of my book club- we read Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons- though I swear I'm not angry;) It was so fun to read a book I probably wouldn't have picked out otherwise, and to have a girls' night in to discuss. Oh my gosh, you should have seen the spread of food & snacks. It was practically a potluck book club meeting! Are you in a book club? Read anything good lately, we could use some suggestions!

On the topic of reading, I found a plan to read the Bible in one year. I think that would just be so cool to have read it cover to cover.

Hot pink nail polish-- okay, so this color is a little bright for me, ESPECIALLY for my fingernails, but I figure my fashion rules can be bend a little for summer. Perfect color with a tan. Love it:)

My daughter's stroller. Not the stroller we put her in, but the baby doll stroller she got for her birthday. She's not yet walking on her own, but she actually squeals with delight when pushing that stroller around the living room. Just wish we had a bigger space for her to roam, I'm constantly moving things out of her way as she plows through!

Side note- do toy strollers count as walkers? And if so, I've heard some conflicting things about babies' walking being delayed after they use walkers. What do you think? Any truth to this? (Hope not...)

And finally...

Blueberry Frosted Mini-Wheats- okay, so the frosting has a tinge of blue to it, which is a bit off-putting, but I'm telling you, if you are a fan of blueberries and/or blueberry muffins, this cereal is soo tasty. And for those of you who keep track, it's got so much fiber that it's only 2 Weight Watchers points for a serving that fills me up. Yum. Definitely try it out. And if your family looks at you funny for eating blue cereal, have them try some. They'll get it.

Full "Secret" Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

As I mentioned in a previous post, the main "secret" ingredients in this recipe are lemon juice (to activate the baking soda) & ground quick oats (oats put into a food processor) added to the dry ingredients.
Here's the whole recipe if you want to do a taste test & compare to your own... sounds like a good day to me!!

From Easy to Bake, Easy to Make:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats, regular or quick
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (10- 20 secs in microwave- pressing lightly on stick leaves fingerprint, but shape of butter still intact)
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 eggs
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (I skip the nuts)

Makes two dozen cookies.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. I use aluminum foil. Place rolled oats in blender or food processor and process until finely ground. Combine ground oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a mixing bowl.

2. In another bowl, cream butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice together using an electric mixer. Add eggs and beat until fluffy.

3. Stir the flour mixture into egg mixture, blending well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix well. Using 1/4 cup of dough for each cookie, scoop round balls with an ice-cream scoop and place 2 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

4. Bake until cookies are lightly browned, 16-18 minutes (the first time, I timed it to 13 min, and I've used that ever since).

Let me know what you think! Happy baking!

Sippy Cup Stress

It's official!!

We've moved from bottles to sippy cups!:)

Only problem?...She doesn't know how to hold them properly.

Ugh. I should have seen this coming, she never held onto her own bottles either. She hasn't quite figured out that she needs to tilt her head back in order to get liquid to come out. We tried to grab the bottle/cup and show her, and immediately she lets go of the drink as if to say "Well, if you're willing to do it..."

Plus, the particular sippy cup I bought leaks about 70% of the time. I bought a pair, and they're equally leaky. I also bought a cup with a straw, figuring it would tide us over until she got the knack of this sippy cup thing. BUT, the straw is impossible to clean. Especially with milk in it, bleh.

So, I'm excited, yet frustrated. Any suggestions? Does anyone have a secret for getting kids to tilt their heads back? When can I stop being my daughter's drink servant?

Oh, and I'm linked up at Amy's "Finer Things Friday"... go take a look:)

Professional Looking Cake Design

In case I haven't mentioned it before, in my spare time (ha!) I've been working on improving my bakery skills, i.e., baking cakes & decorating them. Ideally, I would like to have a part-time job of making cakes for friends and family, but at the moment, I am just refining my skills. A "practice" wedding cake:


This cake is from a class I took last fall at the local community college. It's covered in fondant, which is all the rage in cake decorating. While my instructor suggested that we use Wilton fondant on our cakes, a classmate of mine told me about a recipe for marshmallow fondant that has saved me time AND money. Good combo, right?

Check out the recipe & let me know what you think. It tastes waaaay better than traditional fondant, and certainly costs a whole lot less. And if you were going to make your own fondant with that whole gelatin method, let me save you a lot of hassle, and say that this is the way to go...

I hasten to add that this type of fondant is best for sculptural type decorating, i.e., making a bow to put on top of the cake. The marshmallow fondant is generally too stiff to use to cover a cake- that's when you invest in the Wilton.

"Secrets" of a Tasty Chocolate Chip Cookie

So being that my hubby loves himself a good cookie or brownie-particularly ones with chocolate chips or M&M's-I'm always looking for new recipes in these categories.

The other day I found an old recipe card I had saved from God-knows-where, and took a look at instructions for "Secret Recipe Chocolate Cookies". So what's the secret? Two of them, actually.

1. Grind 1/2 cup of quick oats into a powder & add to dry ingredients.
2. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice to the batter to "activate" the baking soda. (The recipe promised this would lead to a chewier cookie)

Well, I can tell you that the cookies were amazing. My cookie aficionado husband confirmed. So my question is...what do oats and lemon juice really do for cookies? Why does baking soda need a nudge from an extra ingredient to be activated?

Better yet, you have any cookie secrets?? Spill.

...It's only fair:)

An Invitation for Criticism...

I know I'm probably throwing myself under the bus here, but I'm going to go ahead and admit that my 13 month old daughter watches videos. I try to avoid tv whenever possible, don't even have it on in the background too often, but I do let her watch her favorite videos: Classical Baby.

Wowie Kazowie, have these DVDs changed our life. My daughter was a fussy newborn-mostly the result of that pesky rule about back sleeping- and this was one of the only things that would soothe her.

People have bought us Baby Einstein, Sesame Street, and more, and nothing holds a candle to this series, at least in our daughter's eyes. It's basically cartoons with classical music playing in the background. To me, this is the best part because you don't have the distraction of annoying cartoon characters voices. All you hear is classical tunes.

And that's *ahem*- music to my ears ;)

No More Experimenting! Perfect Pie Crust Recipe:)

I've only been playing around with pie recipes for a couple of years now, but I think I've found one I'm sticking with. It comes from an apple pie recipe, but you could substitute any filling. It comes courtesy of John Michael Lerma, a cook I've seen compete in many pie competitions on the Food Network. If you go to his site, you'll see that he's a very easy-going guy, which sets me at ease in a part of cooking that I'm not always comfortable- baking from scratch. He's also very talented, as you'll see if you try this recipe:

Grandma's Secret Apple Pie
Prep Time: 15 min Inactive Prep Time: -- Cook Time: 40 min Level:
Intermediate
Serves:
1 pie
Ingredients
Crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher or Hawaiian salt, crushed (I just use reg. salt)
1/2 cup butter flavored all-vegetable shortening, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup cold water
Cooking spray
1 egg yolk plus 1 teaspoon water, beaten, for egg wash (I skip this step entirely-seems trivial)
Filling:
4 large or 6 medium Granny Smith apples, about 2 pounds (to make 6 cups sliced apples)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 large egg
1 1/2 tablespoons good quality bourbon (I skip again, because we never have bourbon around)2 tablespoons butter

Vanilla sugar, for sprinkling, optional (skip- you have to like, order it online or make it ahead of time, way too much forethought for me- lol)
Crust Preparation:
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.


Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add shortening and butter. Using a pastry blender, cut in the shortening and butter until the mixture resembles course meal. Drop by drop, add the cold water. Mix in with the fingertips, not hands, as the palms will warm the dough. Continue mixing water in until the dough begins to hold together without being sticky but not crumbly. Divide dough into 2 pieces and place 1 piece of dough in plastic warp. Press down to form a disk. This will make rolling out easier after chilling. Lightly spray a deep 9-inch pie pan with cooking spray. Roll out second piece of dough and place in pie plate, allowing the excess pastry to hang over the edge. Lightly brush sides and bottom of crust with egg wash. Chill in refrigerator for 10 minutes before filling. Makes pastry for 9-inch double-crust pie.

Couple notes- I never use a pastry blender, just my fingertips, works way better for me. I add the water a little faster than drop by drop, otherwise I'd be there all day! Also, I roll the dough out onto a Silpat, and then the flip the Silpat over onto the dish (and then later, the top onto the pie). Makes it waaaay easier to move the fragile dough.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. (Earlier it said to start with 400 degrees F, I don't know why pastry chefs ease up to the correct temp, I just start with 425 degrees. Also, at this point, I put both the top & bottom of the pie crust in the fridge to chill while I make the filling. Put saran wrap on pie-covered dish, top of dough will already be wrapped in plastic wrap from before.)

Filling Preparation:
Peel, quarter, and core apples; cut into 1/4-inch slices (should have 6 cups). (this has made my life sooo much easier: Back to Basics Apple Corer & Peeler)Toss with the lemon juice in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine sugars, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, pour over the apples and toss to coat. Whisk together egg and bourbon. Fold into apple mixture. Spoon apple filling into the chilled pastry shell; cut butter into very small pieces and sprinkle over the apples. Roll out remaining pastry. Cut slits in pastry to allow steam to escape. Lightly brush egg wash around edge of pie. Cover pie and trim overhang. Turn edges under flush with the rim; crimp all around to make a stand-up edge. Bake pie at 425 degrees F for 40 minutes, or until top is golden brown and juices are bubbling up. Remove from oven and sprinkle with vanilla sugar, if desired. Cool on wire rack.

(One final tip- the edges of my pie crusts start to get dark about halway through baking time. Lay a piece of aluminum foil over the top for the remainder of the baking time & the crust won't get any darker!)

Enjoy! And feel free to change up the filling:)