Macadamia White Chip Cookies

I wanted to try out the cookie-baking tips I read the other day in this NY Times article. I picked the Ghiradelli Macadamia White Chip Cookie recipe from the back of the Ghiradelli Classic White Chips bag. This is the first time I made these, but the recipe is similar to the well-loved Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, only with macadamia nuts and vanilla chips. The Times article, among other suggestions, recommended refrigerating your dough for at least 24 hours, preferably 36 hours before making your cookies. I have to say, what they said would happen seems to be true. The nutty flavor seemed to permeate the cookies, along with a nice toffee flavor. They were quite delicious. It was also true that the dough did get a bit dry and crumbly, but I was able to mold it into balls with my hands. I tried to make larger cookies since they said they would be chewy in the centers and crisp on the edges, but I think they came out small because my dough was still very chilled. I'm not sure. They were chewy in the middle and crisp on the edges, just the same. All and all, it was a good experiment.

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

This pineapple upside-down cake recipe came from the "All New All Purpose Joy of Cooking". The pineapple, maraschino cherry, brown sugar and butter top came out all nice and chewy and sticky :)

Brownies

They may not be fancy, but they are good. These are the made-from-scratch kind of brownies. I got the recipe right off the box of my Baker's unsweetened baking chocolate squares, Baker's One Bowl Brownies. I never have pecans around, and so I always go for the chopped walnuts instead. Quick and easy.

I had my first sculpting lesson from Max today. I was told that I behaved myself and didn't yell, although I did get a little frustrated at points. All in all, we both thought I did pretty well, better than I expected. Hence the need for a brownie reward. I was going to take a picture of my first kitten, but I was afraid to touch him/her because he/she wasn't dry enough. At some point I will have to decide on a gender. It is always hard to tell with kittens, isn't it ;) So far my kitten makes me think of what a Maurice Sendak version of a kitten might look like, which is good, I think. Quirky, cute, a little odd.

Sugar Cookies

Just checking in...These are really easy sugar cookies. I made them from the "Basic Drop Cookies" recipe in our ancient, stained, and falling-apart edition of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. It is so tattered the page with the date and edition have fallen out. I have a newer version, the 12th edition, and the "Chocolate Chip Cookies" recipe in that is close enough. In fact, any basic drop cookie or chocolate chip cookie recipe will do just fine. Instead of nuts or chocolate chips, add a cup of golden raisins and you have it. I sprinkled sugar on top in the last two minutes of baking them.

I'm adapting a doll pattern so I can take some sculpting lessons from Max Bailey, and I'm working on getting a hand piecing tutorial installment of my Stitch-along together. That will take me a little time since the hand sewing part is a bit slow. Right now, I'm thinking a quilted pillow cover would be the best project to demonstrate with the bluebird block, since it is can be done more quickly, without a long wait or a chance of my getting distracted by other things ;) I'll try make the design quilt-friendly so more blocks can be added to the layout design if desired.

I'm also debating over whether or not I should be taking the two quilting classes I signed up for this year, as I have a backlog of projects from previous classes I would like to finish and not enough time for both. I really like going to class, as it affords me some out-of-the-house time and I like the social aspect of it. But the pile of unfinished projects causes me some stress, especially when I have work-related crafts projects to do as well. I haven't made up my mind yet. I guess it will be made up for me if I don't get to my homework!

"Did you photograph them yet?"

Yes. Yes, I did. LOL. I know it is kind of strange to make your family wait to eat their cookies while you photograph them, isn't it? Contrary to popular opinion, it doesn't take nearly as long as it seems to take.

These are sand tarts, from my mom's relatively old edition of Joy of Cooking. The latest copyright in it is 1964. I have the newer All New All Purpose Joy of Cooking version, but I wanted to make the same cookies we had when I was little. It could have been a little easier...Those old recipes have you sifting and resifting and sifting this with that. I guess that's why I couldn't find the recipe in my new version. I also couldn't find our "Little Drummer Boy" or snowman cookie cutters. So, the Christmas bunny and the Christmas elephant had to stand in for them. Never heard of them? Well, never mind ;)

I iced them with confectioner's sugar mixed with milk and a couple drops of vanilla, then sprinkled them with colored sugar. Now, they are ready to be eaten :)

Apple Crisp

All done. I made my apple crisp this morning using the "Fruit Crisp" recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. Yeah, I ate some already. Before lunch even.

I am supposed to be resting, but, of course, I am not. Resting is boring...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Cheesecake

One more dessert to make and I'm ready for Thanksgiving. This is "Cheesecake Supreme" from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. It's really pretty easy to make and it comes out very nicely. I'm getting better at making it. This time the middle didn't crack.

Here is a slice with strawberries in sugar on top. I ate this piece right after I photographed it. It was hard to wait.

I am just starting another round of antibiotics, and so it will be interesting to see if I can manage an apple crisp tomorrow or if I will be too loopy to bother.

Carbohydrates make the world a nicer place

It's raining here, which is wonderful because we have had a terrible drought, but it is also quite dark and dreary this morning. I woke up feeling melancholy and decided it was a pancake day. These are "Vineyard Pancakes" from Beth Hensperger's The Best Quick Breads: 150 Recipes for Muffins, Scones, Shortcakes, Gingerbreads, Cornbreads, Coffeecakes, and More, or, in other words, 150 shortcuts to happiness :) I know...carbohydrates are just a temporary high, but, well, who cares?

These are really good pancakes. They have a little cornmeal and whole wheat flour in them, which gives them a nice texture, and they puff up nice and big. We all sat down and ate them together, which was fun too.

Big Cookie, Little Cookies

Someone's birthday is near and so it was time for a big cookie. Hopefully that someone does not read this blog :)

These were made using the Nestlé Toll House cookie recipe on the back of their bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels. Once you make up the cookie dough, divide it in half. One half goes in a buttered 9 inch round spring form pan and bakes at a slightly lower temperature, 350 instead of 375 degrees, for a longer period of time, about 25 to 30 minutes. I found this suggestion in The Family Baker by Susan G Purdy. It's a fun cookbook full of traditional treats.

The other half of the cookie dough is baked according to the package directions. This way, even though the big cookie is leaving for a far away place, we still have a plate of chocolate chip cookies to enjoy here.

Best if used before 1982

I woke up again not well, headache, stomachache, etc, and thought it might be nice to make peach muffins for breakfast. Without being truly awake, I just started to follow the Basic Buttermilk Muffin recipe in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, using the Fresh Fruit Muffin variation. I remembered making these before and they were quite good, only I didn't remember how long ago that was.

I scooped out some whole wheat flour (it was supposed to be whole wheat pastry flour...but that's what I had) from I don't know when. It smelled, um...a little dusty. I threw it out and found a "new" bag I must have gotten to replace the first one, but even that expired a year ago. Then there was the bag of peaches that I obviously hadn't checked on in a week. Out of three, I got almost enough fruit. I threw out two bags of shriveled frozen fruit, two jars of old baking powder, didn't even have enough vanilla, but I still went through with my plan to make muffins.

Well, I know they were good the last time I made them. Sorry to Deborah Madison...all the recipes I've tried from this book have been good. I just didn't do her proud this time around. That's all I'm going to say about that! :)

We did get some art doll photography time in yesterday and the day before. I've got to edit and upload Max Bailey's new kitty doll photos to Flickr and then we'll get them up over on the Ruffing's blog.

Soft pretzels

While working on a new doll pattern today, I had a mad, desperate craving for soft pretzels, the kind you buy from street vendors in NYC. I was frantically looking for a recipe, going through my pile of cookbooks, until I finally found one in Beth Hensperger's The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook.

I loaded up my bread machine, forgetting to put the paddle in the pan so that it sounded like it was kneading the dough, when it was really doing nothing. I've been a bit spacey lately. Fortunately, I checked on the dough in time to reach in and insert the paddle.

After the dough finished the bread dough cycle in the machine, I shaped it into pretzels, left the pretzels to rise a second time, then boiled each one in a couple quarts of water with two tablespoons of baking soda for about a minute each. This is what makes them chewy.

I brushed them with an egg white beaten with a tablespoon of water, sprinked them with Kosher salt, and put them in a 400 degree oven for about sixteen minutes until they were golden.

Then...carbohydrate relief. Sigh.

A similar recipe can be found here.

Potholder Project

I made this set of potholders by sandwiching one layer of cotton duck/canvas between two layers of organic cotton batting, then sandwiching those between two layers of cotton terrycloth (I used cotton washcloths), all roughly 9.5 inches square. I used my walking foot to quilt the layers together. Then I trimmed them down to 8.5 inches square with my rotary cutter and ruler.

Since I didn't have enough of my polka dotted cotton to make a true bias, I cut 2.5 inch strips and sewed them on the edges of the potholders without turning the corners. I put the strips right sides against the terrycloth, on one edge at a time, sewed a 0.5 inch seam, turned each strip over to the back, turned under the raw edge to match the front, slipped stitched it down, and then topstitched it down from the front side. I did all four edges this way, turning under the corners where necessary so no raw edge was left out, but leaving about 5 inches of the strip loose at the final corner.

At the final corner, I took the 5 inches of the strip I left loose, turned under the raw edge, then flipped it over on itself to make a loop for hanging, which I then sewed down by hand on the back of the potholder.

We then tested them out on some homemade cheesecake, and they worked great :)

Order out of chaos

Finally! I've sewn and stuffed and attached all my previously adrift doll parts. They look like little fencing champions, all lined up in white. Are there only ten? Oh, but it feels like there must be more! Perhaps I just had two more in mind.

To celebrate, I made Swedish Lucia buns which, according to our old Betty Crocker's International Cookbook, are traditionally served in Sweden to celebrate their Queen of Light Festival, also known as Saint Lucia Day, which comes at the beginning of the Christmas season. Once again, I am a bit off with my holiday traditions.

They are wonderful, however, and a very similar recipe can be found here. Copies of the old Betty Crocker's International Cookbook can still be found on EBay, which reminds me...I'd like to get an extra copy for myself. Ours is getting tattered.