3 posts tagged “baking”
Oh, it has been so long little Vox blog. I had been toying with starting to write again a while ago and have now forced myself to get back on the writing bandwagon. I have nothing exciting to say but it is interesting, nonetheless, to have a record that I can refer back to to see what I was up to last month or last week or whenever. Instead of trying to post some sort of "catch up" post, I guess I should just start from where I'm at now.
It's freezing in here. Did I mention that before? I cannot understand why an institution that is "trying to save energy" jacks up the A/C to a level where all but the most menopausal women are uncomfortable. It's only about 72 outside and it is considerable colder in here. Aren't you supposed to keep your thermostat at no less than 72 for energy savings? I am seriously putting on my space heater right now (which is contraband but I don't give a sh^t).
Mother's Day was a rousing success at my place. I was exhausted from the cooking and the cleaning but, in the end, it was worth it. Everything I made turned out great. There wasn't a clunker in the group. I started with a Mache, Parmesan, Pear, and Walnut Salad. I didn't use Mache but instead found some wonderful Bibb lettuce at CostCo on Saturday. The only other change in the salad was that I added a squirt of honey to the dressing to cut just a bit of the tang. Dinner consisted of Scallops and Haricots Verts with Creamy Bacon Viniagrette and a side of Wild Rice and Toasted Almond Pilaf. They were both keepers as well. I had actually never made straight wild rice before, only a mixture. It was so good I'm thinking of making it again for dinner sometime this week. After dinner, we waited a bit and then I served Chocolate Shortcakes with Strawberries and Whipped Cream and a Strawberry Granita. I can't link to the recipes because they were are in June's Bon Appetit and recipes from the current issue aren't online in Epicurious yet. The chocolate shortcakes were so easy to make and everyone loved them. In fact, I think I am going to make them again this week because I still have a lot of strawberries to get through. The only bad part about the meal was that I had no leftovers. Nothing. I couldn't believe it! Either they really loved the food or I planned it perfectly to serve 7.
I didn't do much else over the weekend except prepare for the Mom's Day extravaganza. It felt like forever since the house had really been cleaned. I did spend part of Friday evening sitting in my new Stressless recliner. Brad and I both got one. They were expensive but SO worth it. I love mine. They even come in varying sizes so I can have a smaller one than Brad. I like that feature a lot. You know, you go to a regular old furniture store and I have to buy a recliner that is supposed to fit little old 5'2" me as well as a 6" burly man. We ordered them through Hansen Interiors (same place we got our sofa) back in February but we wanted a color that wasn't readily available in the U.S. so we had to wait to have them made in Norway and shipped over here. It was well worth the wait.
Wow, that sounds gross. I always have to think of something remotely clever, though. It just forces you to read it! Anyway, my bread pudding turned out a little bit awesome. Yeah, ok, a lot a bit. Yum yum yum. I was supposed to flavor it slightly with Frangelico (hazelnut liquer) but I didn't have any so I used some of my Godiva Milk Chocolate liquer instead. My that was tasty. And, even better, the dish was made with the bread I baked with my own hands! Just that much better.
After I got off the phone with dandelioness, I made dinner, made the pudding, and then settled in to watch the office. I still love that show. It just cracks me up every time no matter what.
As the evening wore on I could feel myself getting more and more tired. By the time I went to bed I was completely exhausted. Unfortunately, the reality of my sister having brain surgery on Monday decided to take hold at that time and I wound up pitifully crying myself to sleep. I am just worried. This is a big deal! She'll have 2 surgeries. The first one to place a "grid" directly onto the brain on Monday and then a follow up to remove the "damaged" area of the brain. After that she'll be in intensive care for about a week and then comes home and can't be alone at all for 2 whole weeks. I am just hoping everything goes ok. I am just worried. She isn't in the best of health anyway so I just picture everything going wrong. I won't be at work Monday as I'll be up at the hospital with my mom and Alyssa. I guess this first surgery will take between 3 and 5 hours.
And on that note.....have a good weekend! Sorry, didn't mean to be a downer.
So I spent some serious time baking while I was off work the last (almost) 2 weeks. I got Dorie Greenspan's new baking book for Christmas and decided to jump right in. The first thing I attempted was the brioche recipe. While the brioche was quite tasty, it was these sticky buns that won the top prize (ok, there was no prize, just my opinion). I decided to make them because you could either make 2 loaves of brioche or halve the dough and make 1 brioche and these rolls. Even better, I had enough dough that I was able to freeze half of rolls to make at a later time. Sweetness. Let me tell you, these things were worth every bit of time it took me to make them. You make a caramel sauce and pour it into the bottom of the pan and then sprinkle that sauce with pecans. You place your cut rolls onto the sauce and, after baking, invert the whole thing onto a plate. The caramel then runs all over the rolls making for a completely sinful, gooey treat. I think the secret weapon here are the pecans. A little salty, a little buttery, and a little sweet. They wound up much like pralines. Ok, that's enough. You can tell I loved them, right? In the photos below, I take you from the unbaked rolls through to the final masterpiece. I was so proud of them, I had to have my picture taken with them! Yummy! Click on the picture for a larger view, trust me, it's worth it.
