I’ve been wanting to get involved in the Royal Foodie Joust* (see the Foodie Blogroll thing on the right) for awhile but before this month either the ingredients were too precious for me to play around with or I just didn’t have the time. 
And I almost didn’t have the time this month – I forgot about it until 2 weeks ago, but we were busy preparing for a family trip, and then when we returned we were so busy catching back up on work that the week just flew past – but it kept floating around in the back of my mind, so I decided to try anyway, even if I couldn’t actually enter the contest. Luckily for me, the deadline was extended a few days, so today I gathered up my ingredients and all of the random possibilities that had been parading through my mind. The result totally surprised me! Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for tips and tricks
Cherry Pie
Once again, it has been awhile since I have baked anything. Since I will be starting grad school at the end of August, you might as well get used to it. *sigh*
But I was commissioned to bake dessert for tomorrow’s Father’s Day celebration, so I finally had a chance to try something I have been wanting to do for a couple of weeks: a cherry pie. Read the rest of this entry »
Long-Overdue Update
May has been a month non-conducive to baking. Thus, as you can see, the utter lack of updates until the corner of June is in sight. Read the rest of this entry »
Experiments in Wasp Repellant, Day 12: Success?
Though the weather is still vacillating between winter-y and actual spring, there have been a few days of excellent sunshine. Brad and I have been able to take a few walks and even meander around the ponds of our apartment complex spinning tales to each other about exactly what the ducks and geese are up to. We even saw the first ducklings of the year today, a brood of 11 hatched by one of our favorite ducks, Tuffy.
Old-School Goodness
When you’ve been forced to take an extended break from baking yummy sweets like I have, you just have to dive back in with something classic. So when I took a little time out today from practicing driving, making music, working on sales and tape construction, watching my niece’s games, and writing both blogposts that I’ve promised to others and blogposts that I’ve promised to myself, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies.
There is not a lot of experimentation to be done with chocolate chip cookies that hasn’t already been done.
(Plus, the kind I make come from a copyrighted recipe, no alterations. I don’t want anyone stealing my work so I won’t do that to anyone else either.)
Tomorrow, the plan is to stir it up a little again and make banana pancakes.
Experiments in Wasp Repellant, Day 3
Brad and I went for a walk this afternoon. It was a lovely warm day, with a few random bugs around.
But not a single dive-bombing wasp in sight.
Perhaps they are still in hiding or were killed off by the recent sudden dips in temperature but I am hopeful…
Experiments in Wasp Repellant
There hasn’t been a whole lot of baking going on here at Experiments in Baking. I’ve just been too busy and/or too exhausted to even curl up with a cookbook and find something to wrestle (though I have managed to wrestle some stingrays in my dreams). Excessive work always comes in waves for me, and I’ve been riding the crest since the last post.
But yesterday, I was presented with a possibility for another experiment similar to Auntie Rayna’s Magic Acne Cure in that it is an experiment that is NOT meant to be eaten.
A Faulty Experiment
Brad and I decided to make pizza this week.
I forgot to start the dough on Wednesday like I was supposed to. So I started it in the bread machine on Thursday night instead.
And promptly forgot that it was there.
Plain White Yeast Bread: The Best First Bread
This is definitely the first bread that a person new to bread should try. It’s very simple, very forgiving, and very tasty. It’s not as intimidating as other breads, either. The long recipe, amount of time, and all the steps might seem a little scary, but they are actually pretty easy.
I don’t know what made me decide to try making bread from scratch the first time a few years ago. Honestly, I’m pretty sure it was boredom and a desire for something new. I don’t remember what kind I made, either – I never thought that one loaf would lead me into the fascinating wilds of all kinds of baked goods. It certainly should have been a plain white but knowing myself as I do, it was probably one of the most complicated ones in the book.
But I loved making bread that first time, even though my attempts weren’t all that pretty, so I kept doing it when I had the chance. The silky flour in my hands, the rewarding ache of my muscles, and especially the warm smell and unmatchable taste of fresh-baked bread drove me to it.
Apple Pie Math Muffins
Last night, Brad and I went over to his sister’s house so that his brother-in-law could help me with some of the math I’ve been studying for the GRE. We were a little worried about inviting ourselves but his sister told his mom (his mom is the only one who openly shows emotion on a regular basis so she’s always the middleperson) that she hoped we wouldn’t stop coming over after I was done with the GRE.
One of the things I’m really terrible at is fractions, which may sound kind of ridiculous coming from someone who loves to bake. And there is a certain comfort in fractions – they make more sense to my visual brain than decimals. It’s just the crazy things they do to each other in mathematic equations that confuse me, because I want them to stand on their own.
So I’ve been concentrating on one of my shortcuts in an effort to get myself used to playing with fractions, a shortcut that I wanted to share with you.
