We were back to baking with butter and sugar this month, something I have no complaints about (and have plenty of on hand still.)
I mean, really, how horrible can it be to be making a Caramel cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting? And having the option of making homemade caramels, which, I admit, I opted to not make (not when there were two different bags of yummy caramels in my baking pantry for chewing away at.)
This months challenge came to us courtesy of Dolores, Alex, and Jenny, who chose this recipe from Shuna of Eggbeater.
Writing this now, and finally following the link to Shuna's original recipe, I realize I should have followed that link on the first day, rather than just printing the recipe, reading the recipe several times, and then making the recipe. I might have been a bit less disappointed with the final results. Now, looking at the pictures there, I see I was indeed supposed to have a fairly dense, one layer only, cake with a thick icing on top. Which is what I had. I simply think I had something else in mind when I read the words "caramel cake with caramelized butter frosting." Something with layers. And lighter.
Not to say the cake wasn't good. It was tasty. But sweeeeeeeeeeet! Actually, no, the cake wasn't overly sweet. It was just the frosting. Make your teeth ache, give your kids a sugar high, send a diabetic into shock, kind of sweet.
For a change, I had no problems at all with making the caramel for this. I have been known, in the past, for burning my first batch of caramel since it had this nasty habit of going from light color to black and billowy in an instant. This time, I stood on guard, I watched, I showed patience I was not feeling, and I was rewarded with a nice amber colored syrup that made the house smell sweet (instead of the usual burnt sugar smell) And it was nice making a caramel without the sound of the smoke detector going off. 
Now that this challenge is done, I'm anxious to find out what next month's challenge will be, the December challenge. Will the DB's be making something sweet, or savory? Will I need to wait until I can unpack my baking pans, or is the one flat pan I left out going to be enough? Will I need to replenish my spice cabinet, which I took the opportunity to clean out while packing up all but my most frequently used spices? I may have been patient making the caramel for this months ultra sweet confection, but I'm certainly not feeling patient about next month's challenge!
So while I wait, I will be attempting to read some of the 1000+ other posts about this months cake, though please don't take it personally if I don't leave a comment on yours. With that many cakes, and my limited free time right now, comments will be few this month. So in case I can't comment on your challenge.... "Your cake looks amazing, I can't believe what you've managed to do with it! Did we make the same recipe?!?!"
Daring Bakers: Sweet tooth beware!
Making bread for homework (and butter too)
With the move now only two weeks away, and last weekend's out of town trip changed to this weekend, now is the time to start packing up what is left of my baking pantry and start on the rest of my kitchen. For the next two weeks, we are going to be having the minimum in kitchen items to work with.
This could be both a good and bad thing. Good because if I do bake something, I will have the chance to see what tools I really can't live without. And bad because the chances are my children will be getting store bought baked goods in their lunches for the next few weeks.
So if you are in Ottawa and see a twitching lady walking around with a purple hat on her head, don't worry, it is probably me going through baking withdraw.
In the meantime, here is something from my archives to keep you entertained while you wait anxiously to see what the Daring Baker's challenge for this month is. 
One of the school projects my oldest son had to work on last semester was about the pioneers. The kids had to pick something about the pioneers and make a model, if they could. Some chose log homes, making them from sticks, others chose toys and tried to reproduce the kinds of toys pioneer children might have had. My son, doing me so proud, chose bread. He wanted to show how the pioneers had to make their own bread, that it didn't come in a bag, presliced, with colorful dots all over the outside. And that butter did not come in a foil wrapped block.
We could have gone to the library or searched the internet for pioneer style recipes, but he was lucky. His cookbook-a-holic mother happened to have a reproduction copy of the 1904 Good Housekeeping Cookbook, that she had picked up for $3.99 one day when bored and needing something to read. I doubt he knew I had that when he chose his project.
With Mom on standby to help with the bread, just in case, he set out to gather his ingredients, mixed his yeast and flour and liquid, checked with me to be sure it was working (it was, lots of bubbles in the rise), until he was finally able to take a turn at kneading, the old fashion way. Without a stand mixer or a bread machine. A messy task, one requiring lots of muscle, but a worthwhile task. The dough was tougher to knead than he thought it would be, so I did have to step in to help with that, but he did show a very good understanding of how you do it, and with a bit more practice at it, could probably do it completely on his own.
He was a very proud young man, with his 3 loaves of whole wheat bread, each a different size, but obviously hand made. What is fresh bread, though, without butter? 
So he made some butter too, putting whipping cream into a container, making sure the lid was tight and got another arm work out. Sure, it looks rather ugh, but after he poured off the buttermilk and mixed in a bit of salt, he had very nice butter for his bread.
His classmates loved it, one even asked for the recipe so his mother could make it for him at home.
While he did very well, markwise, on this project, and raved to me how good the bread was, how easy it was to make, I've noticed that he never did ask if he could make it again. Maybe if the pioneers had also make home made peanut butter, he'd have come back asking to make that again.
Still working on pantry clean up menu plan
This isn't my regular pantry. Normally I have a much larger area, with big wooden shelves and alot more space. Instead we moved on of our bookshelves out into the hallway and I tried to organize it as a temporary pantry. The amount of items in it has gone down significantly lately.
Looking at the contents now, it doesn't look like I'm using too much from the pantry this week for dinners. Of course it is meager pickings there anyways.
Monday: Roast beef with gravy, mashed potatoes and carrots and bean mix (yes, I know this was supposed to be yesterday's meal, but yesterday was very busy and turned into the kids eating hot dogs and pizza they received free at the Santa Claus parade, the hubby eating left overs and my making alfredo with salmon and shrimp late at night.)
Tuesday: spaghetti with homemade sauce, made using the oven roasted tomatoes from the freezer, augmented with a can or two of tomatoes from the pantry
Wednesday: Roast chicken with roasted potatoes and broccoli
Thursday: turkey meatballs with pineapple sauce and rice
Friday: we are away for the next two nights
In the meantime, today I am working on the November baking challenge recipe, and in a few days expect to be working on a special birthday cake. As I still have several pounds of butter in my other freezers (along with waffles, frozen bananas, hamburgers and a mountain of freezies), making cake still counts towards cleaning up the pantry and freezer.
You know it is good when you can't get a picture
White chocolate, raspberries and a sprinkling of sugar on top. How bad could that be?
Let me tell you, bad is not a word you can use to describe these blondies. They were so good I actually had to wrap up and hide the last piece so I could take a picture of them before they were gone.
I picked this recipe up awhile ago from Jenny over at Picky Palate, who was celebrating her blogaverssary with these amazing blondies, topped with ice cream. Thank goodness I did not have any ice cream in the house or I might have been tempted to try that!
The only change I made to the recipe was omitting the nuts. Oh, and I didn't have sour cream, so used a splash of buttermilk instead. Divine!
Raspberry White Chocolate Blondies
recipe from Picky Palate
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 cup fresh raspberries
2 tablespoons sanding sugar (I had Turbano)
Preheat oven to 350F.
Line a 8x8 baking dish with tin foil, so the edges hang over the sides, and coat the foil with cooking spray. Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl. Stir in the ¾ cup white chips until melted and smooth.
In a large bowl add the sugar, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and the ½ cup of white chips. In a small bowl whisk the eggs and sour cream (or a splash of buttermilk). Pour into the dry ingredient bowl along with the melted white chip mixture. Mix until just combined.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and top evenly with the raspberries. Sprinkle the sanding sugar over the top before baking for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick comes clean from center.
Makes 9 really good brownies.
Cleaning out my freezer and a dinner plan
As we are getting closer and closer to our moving date, I'm being forced to look into things I might generally prefer not to. The hidden depths of the storage space, or the children's closets. Boxes are piled up everywhere, some full, some empty, some in between full and empty. And I am running out of things I feel I simply cannot pack when we are 4 weeks away from moving.
One thing I can do, however, is clear out my freezer and my pantry. Since my new home will also be coming with a nice shiny new stand up freezer, clearing out and defrosting my tiny little chest freezer is now a priority.
With that thought in mind, I dove right in and found out exactly what I had hidden in there.
No surprises really. I'd forgotten about the flank steak, but aside from that, I knew what was in there.
And now that I have it officially written down, I'll use it to help me in my menu plan:
Monday: Butter chicken with rice and naan bread (the chicken is already defrosting, hence not on the list)
Tuesday: Baked pasta with baguette (sauce also defrosting, again, not on the list because it isn't currently in the freezer.)
Wednesday: steak fajitas
Thursday: Balsamic chicken with California mix veggies
Friday: pancakes with mixed berry smoothies
Saturday: Husband's night for dinner, he gets to figure it out.
Sunday: Roast beef with mashed potatoes, bean and carrot mix
That takes care of a few things in my chest freezer, at least. (I've highlighted everything from the freezer in this lovely blue color.) Did I mention I also have 2 fridge freezer's to go through and clean out?
All Things Edible Pizza....May I take your order please?
Hello? Is anyone out there? I know I'm late, but I brought pizza! And not just any pizza, homemade pizza, with Daring Baker Challenge Dough!
Last month Rosa, from Rosa's Yummy Yums chose pizza dough for us to make, in memory of Sher, who was to be one of her co-hosts for the month. And I missed the party. Actually, I missed most of the month due to illness, so did not get my dough made in time to join the 1000+ other Daring Baker's who brought pizza to the party.
Now I have a pizza dough I am pretty happy with, nothing fancy, but it comes together in a jiffy, and rises in about an hour. It works for us. Which doesn't mean I'm not willing to try other recipes, I'm open to them. Maybe one of them will be even better and come together even quicker than my current recipe.
The challenge was to make pizza dough using the recipe from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, easy enough to do. Oh wait, there was a twist - we had to try and toss at least 2 balls of the dough, and try and get a picture of us doing so.
Do you see a picture of me tossing dough anywhere? Don't go straining your eyes, it isn't there. I tried, I really did. Several times. But this dough is soft! And very pliable. So soft and pliable that picking it up off the counter usually resulted in it being stretched very thin, ready to be topped.
Oh, did I mention I had cleaned up my pantry recently, and had thrown out my cornmeal? It was a surprise to me as well, and a bit of a pain for transferring pizza, ultra thin, pizza too. By the 4th pizza, I gave up trying and simply pressed the pizza out onto a pan instead.
Homemade pizza in my home is usually "make your own pizza" night. I set out toppings that the children will eat, and they each make their own. My youngest always makes a face on his (which did not survive the transfer to the oven, but was still eaten.) I have found I usually go vegetarian on my pizza's when we do this, but went a little different to try out this dough: On half of my pizza I brushed garlic butter, generously, then topped it with marble cheddar, mozzarella and parmessan cheese. On the other half I spread homemade tomato sauce, then used crumbles of a medium Italian sausage and a generous amount of mushroom slices, which I had sauted in garlic and butter, before I put on both mozzarella and parmessan cheese. 
It was yummy, though not exactly pretty.
Now this dough did come together quickly in the mixer, though it required the advanced planning of being made a day ahead. It was soft, almost too soft, and while I like thin crust pizza, I like to have the option of a thicker crust, which I really didn't have. It also didn't have much flavor to it, not even the slight yeasty aftertaste which most dough has.
So while it might be good for an ocassional change, it won't replace my regular dough.
Normally about now I'd suggest you get out there and read all kinds of other Daring Baker post about this month's challenge, but I suspect everyone but me has done that already. Personally, I am far behind on my reading, but at least I finally caught up on making the challenge.
Oh and I'm really looking forward to this month's challenge, probably making it this weekend, so no worries about being late with that one!
Happy Halloween!
My boys have just headed out a few minutes ago with their Dad, while I man the door. But before leaving they posed for a picture or two for me.
Oh you thought those pumpkins were my boys?
Hehehe
Actually the pumpkin on the right is my son's first ever pumpkin that he carved himself. I chopped off the top, but he emptied it and made the face and cut out all the pieces. I'm quite proud of how well he did, so wanted to show it off.
Here you go, here is my boys, getting ready to go out and see all their friends. They will likely get enough junk to make up for their mother not making them Halloween cookies or funky cupcakes this year. Oh well, there is always Christmas. Or New Years. Or maybe Groundhogs day.
Have a safe and happy Halloween!
Yes, I know there is supposed to be pizza here somewhere....
but not in my house right now.
No, Bob has not yet been packed up, nor has the yeast or the flour.
Instead it is just the cold from _________________ (fill in the blank with whatever nasty description you'd like.) I've lost my voice several times, I cough, I choke, I snorkle trying to breath, I am best friends with a box of kleenex, and cherry koolaid is about the most challenging thing I have managed to make all week. Even the caramels for the caramel apples have stayed, closed up, in the pantry, waiting for me to feel better and want to make them.
If anyone has a surefire way to get rid of this cold, before it turns into something nastier, please, leave a comment, drop me a line. But if it involves cooking or eating, chances are I'll read it and then go and try and take a nap.
I'll be back later, when I'm feeling better and up to eating, hopefully with some homemade pizza.
Goodbye Hershey, stockpiling, and the rain
Saturday's have been about family and little outings lately. Spending time together, exploring around us, doing something a bit different.
Today was no different. We took the day off of our normally scheduled activities, I took some cold medication, and off we went to Smith Falls and the Hershey Factory, which closes in December of this year.
The factory does not seem to be producing anything right now, so there was nothing to see on the tour except a vat of chocolate being mixed, but we've seen the tour before. We were there for the chocolate shop, some snacks and for me to stockpile for some baking.
This picture does not do my stash justice. And I certainly didn't arrange it so it would look "pretty". All total, I bought cocoa, milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips. And the a set of nesting cookie cutters, Hershey's Kisses. I could have bought so much more but decided to stick with "the basics."
We took the scenic route back, while rain poured down around us. We explored a little town on our way home, which looked like it was trying to host an outdoor Halloween festival, with little red tents set up on the street corners of down town. At one tent I saw several men bundled, cold and wet, but manning their crock pots for a chili cookoff, as the handmade sign said. Nothing, however, was happening, due to the rain.
On one corner was a group of kids, in their hockey jersey's, part of the event, but also trying to raise some money by selling candy apples. As we drove by, we could see no one was out, no one was stopping, no one was buying. So despite the 4 bags of chocolate and treats in our trunk, we stopped.
Does a blue candy apple taste any different than a red candy apple?
Speaking of pumpkins
It was time to make a change from our usual pumpkin picking place. Not that they don't have good pumpkins or service, but I wanted some place were you went out to the field and picked your pumpkin there instead of from a pile that were pre-picked. 
So we loaded up our pickers and head out to Miller's while the sun was shining and the weather was still reasonably warm.
We don't have a preset limit on our children for their yearly pumpkins. Instead the rule is: If you can't carry it yourself, you can't have it. And every year they try for bigger and bigger pumpkins!
They are always allowed to pick a gourd or two, but surprisingly this year, neither wanted one. 
One did come home with one of these pretty squash, but don't count on it being eaten.
On Monday I spent the day with my co-workers on a preschool course. Our key speaker at the beginning of the day was Suzi Sauvé, a laughter and happiness coach, who was the highlight of the day. Part of her talk involved finding a happy thought, a time when you were relaxed and feeling good and training yourself to think of it when you need to de-stress. I think pumpkin picking with my boys, enjoying the warmth and colors and laughter, plus Miller's hand made butter tarts, are my happy thought.
Yes, there is some baking going on
Looking at my blog recently, it sure doesn't look like there is much going on in my kitchen. No, it is no longer immaculate - far from it! Nor have I packed everything up. I simply have not been inspired to make much lately and have stuck with alot of tried and true things.
I do have a few things in the files, though, and a new file building of other items to make.
Actually, in the next little while, you can expect to see alot of items that were made off recipes from other bloggers. I did pack most of my cookbooks when prepping for selling, but there has also been so many good things in the blog world recently that I have taken my inspiration from them rather than going looking for something in the dwindled cookbook pile.
Let's start with these cookies, from my friend Megan over at My Baking Adventures. I actually did comment when she made these that I was changing my plan for the day from my standard ginger cookie to these instead, and did. Or did as soon as I picked up some shortening, which I'd have needed to do for the ginger ones anyways.
I pretty well left these just as as, only using the seeds from half a vanilla bean instead of the extract.
These cookies were great! They did not last long at all and I am surprised there have not been requests for more.
The one thing I need to add in to Megan's recipe for these is in regards to the texture of the cookies. I admit, I jotted this one down on a post it note for that day, so did not add in all the instructions. Which means I could not remember if you were supposed to press down on the balls after putting them on the cookie sheet. So I did some of each and what a difference! 
If you press down lightly on the ball, flattening the cookie a bit, you will get a flatter, thinner, crispy cookie with a smooth top. If you leave them as is, you will end up with a smaller cookie, but much thicker, chewier and with a crackly top. It doesn't show in the pictures but only because these cookies were made a few days later, after the dough had sat in the fridge for awhile. And by then I'd decided I liked the chewier version best so didn't press down on the dough balls. It's all about what you like!
Speaking of liking - I would really like to make this recipe I read a few days ago for a pumpkin cranberry muffin, but cannot remember where I saw it and don't seem to have sent it to myself. If it was your recipe, please let me know so I can start roasting my little pumpkin and make those muffins while the kids are still willing to try eating pumpkin!
How to spend your Saturday night
Last minute lunch dessert
Not the greatest picture that I've ever take, but I was snapping a quick shot before sending this tasty cake off in lunches.
I wanted an apple snack cake recipe that did not require me to have softened butter and that could be thrown together quickly. The plan was to use the two pears I had in my fruit basket, getting over ripe, but cutting into them revealed it was too late. So apple it was.
No flour used in this recipe, it all comes from the graham crackers instead. I admit, I was skeptical about that, but the final result was a moist, flavorful cake that was tasty and great for lunches.
Apple Snack Cake
from Recipezaar
I made only minor changes - skipped the nuts and ignored the icing sugar, but otherwise made it as written.
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 butter, melted
3 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (or 28 squares finely crushed)
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and chopped- I used a granny smith
Blend sugar, butter and eggs in a bowl with spoon. Stir in graham crumbs, apple and cinnamon. Spread batter in a greased 8X8 pan. Bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes or until firm to the touch. Cool completely.
Happy Birthday to my little boy!
Thanksgiving this year has been replaced by a much more important holiday. At least for our family.
No more 5 year old helper here, I have a 6 year old now!
A 6 year old with lots of opinions about what he likes, dislikes and wants. And when it comes to food and dessert, he knows what he wants.
Last weekend he had a little party with some friends, where everyone got messy with fabric paint and then turned their faces and teeth blue enjoying these chocolate surprise cupcakes with blue vanilla marshmallow frosting. The surprise was a chocolate caramel cup inside, which unfortunately melted into the bottom of the cupcake but was still tasty.
I still have half the batch of blue marshmallow frosting in the fridge if you live in the area and need some icing. 
Today is his actual birthday, however, so these sparkly blue treats were only practice for the real thing....
Not the greatest Lightening McQueen ever, but considering I could not get the enthusiasm to make him, he didn't turn out too badly.
And, yes, it's chocolate. I told you my little guy had opinions about what he wanted!
I'll get back to everyone later on the recipe for this cake. As for the cupcakes, go look at Baking From My Home to Yours. See the cover cake? It is that one, including the frosting, just shaped and colored a bit differently.
Apple Picking
Hail did alot of damage to the apples this year. Most of the Honey Crisp were marked with black spots. Won't make any difference for apple pies, sauce or butter, but not so good for eating off the tree.
Unfortunately most apples were like this, laying on the ground. Our selections were limited to the Honey Crisp and McIntosh apples, with all the other trees empty.
At least it was a nice afternoon out with my boys.
Are you looking for the Daring Baker's recipe?
If you are, sorry, it isn't here.
Life happens, and time flies. This month time flew by as we prepared for the selling of our house, which resulted in an immaculately clean home, a kitchen that has not looked this sparse since it was built, and no cooking. And by no cooking, I mean there has been alot of take out in the last few weeks. Alot.
My apologies to Shel and Natalie. Please be assured that my lack of participation this month had nothing to do with the recipe itself, lavash crackers, simply life.
While I'm apologizing, a big sorry to all the blogs I regularly read and comment on - I'm trying to read them, as time permits, but mostly I'm just scanning, falling further and further behind.
Enjoy the view of my sparkly clean kitchen. And cross your fingers that the cooking/baking can resume soon.
When salad is dinner
It better be a substantial salad.
Cobb salad, family style.
With homemade ranch dressing. Where my kids discovered they liked to munch on chives, fresh from the garden.
Ranch dressing recipe found over at Pioneer Woman Cooks. What a cool kitchen she has. I love the glass fronted binds for flour and sugar.
Recipe Door
How do you make recipes that you are trying from the internet? Do you print the entire page? Bring your laptop close by? Use my post-it-note system?
(And, yes, that is a Daring Baker recipe taped to my kitchen cupboard doors - but don't get too excited, it is last months' recipe, not this months!)
Dinner has to be good, not pretty
While summer doesn't officially end until next week, the weather has not felt like summer. Between the rain and the cold, it seems winter is on its way fast!
What a better way to warm up dinner than with a tasty pot roast, one you can throw into the slow cooker and walk away from. Served with cheesy mashed potatoes and caramalized carrots, this was a tasty dinner.
Southwestern Pot Roast Cooked in the Crockpot
recipe created by Kalyn
3 lb. boneless chuck roast, trimmed of visible fat (I used a sirloin tip, couldn't find anything else)
1 can reduced sodium beef broth
1 1/4 cup salsa (I used the last jar of homemade, but next time will use Pace or something I like to dip chips in)
steak rub or your favorite seasoning for steak to rub on meat before browning
1-2 tsp. olive oil for browning meat
While beef broth is reducing, trim all visible fat from chuck roast. Rub pot roast on all side with steak rub (or your favorite seasonings for steak.) Heat olive oil in heavy frying pan. Brown roast well on all sides.
When roast is browned on all sides, put in crockpot. Pour reduced beef broth into frying pan and use a wooden spoon to scrape off any carmelized bits from the browned meat. Add salsa and stir into broth, then pour salsa/beef broth mixture over pot roast.
Cook on high for one hour, then turn to low and cook 3-4 more hours, or until meat is very tender when pierced with a fork. (My crockpot has one setting only, so set the timer for 5 hours then left.) Remove meat from crockpot, tent with foil, then pour sauce into small saucepan, simmering until reduced to about 1 cup.
To serve, slice meat across the grain and serve hot, with sauce spooned over the top.
