Bulking up and other such nonsense...

Breakfast?

Yep.

Sad, I know.
(I'll make no comment about how this little delicacy looks just like a..... well, you know that two veterinarians live in this house)

Seems like I've spent a lot of time baking and cooking over the past few months....

I'm really in need of some warm weather so I can burn more calories than I make (and eat).

Whole wheat bread is good though.... unless you are trying to eat less carbs.

Potato soup... aka Carrot stew (you know, from The Tawny Scrawny Lion book)

We call it Carrot Stew because of course little children are more likely to eat Potato Soup if it is called Carrot Stew.... sometimes we sprinkle on a few fishy crackers because the Tawny Scrawny Lion's carrot stew had fish in it, you know.....

Chocolate chip cookies.... that fly out of the freezer faster than you can say, "Walter be nimble, Walter be quick."

And.... something delicious just for Mom and Dad. Yum.

Do you, like I, bulk up over the winter months?  I think "bulk up" is a nice way of saying, I'm saving up energy for a long winter's nap.... which would be fine if I actually used up all those calories during winter hibernation.  But, I don't.  Every winter.  Which means more time on the treadmill..... which is boring.

Boring unless you are watching Downton Abbey on Netflix, that is.  Do you know about this series?  I LOVE it.  {L.o.v.e.}  I cannot wait for the series to start up again to find out what happens next.....  which brings up the problem that since we don't have cable or satellite.....  HOW ON EARTH AM I GOING TO FIND OUT BEFORE NEXT YEAR (or whenever Netflix puts it on streaming)?   If you're a local sort of person and you can tape this for me from KWSU -- I'd make you a steaming batch of cookies.... or healthy bread if you'd rather --- just for making my jogging on the treadmill more enjoyable.  Chocolate pinky swear.

Watch the full episode. See more Masterpiece.

{Linking up to Mosaic Monday at Mary's}

{Click on over to see some beautiful hyacinths}

Christmas cards have NOT been sent....

...and holiday treats multiply....

....but I still have one wish to make....

.....of that I can't deny.

Merry Christmas darling
We're apart that's true
But I can dream and in my dreams
I'm Christmas-ing with you ....

Holidays are calorie-ful
There's always something new
But every day's a chocolate-day
When I'm near to you ...

The lights in the kitchen
I wish you could see
I wish it every day ...
Caramel on the fire,

fills me with desire....

to see you and to say....

That I wish you Merry Christmas
Happy New Year, too
I've just one wish
On this Christmas Eve
I wish I were with you ....

Merry Christmas, darling.

Apple Pie -- I ♥ Faces

The theme this week at I ♥ Faces is "What's for Dinner?"

Here's what's for dinner at our house.... and maybe breakfast, too.....apple pie.

This post is mostly about photos, and not so much about cooking.  

I really love the symmetry and simplicity of the above photo.

Granny smith apples waiting to be transformed into pie...

We've had this antique apple peeler/corer/slicer for forever....

but every time we tried to use it, we gave up before getting the knack of it.

Well this time, I was not going to give up..... success!!!!

(the secret?  firm apples stuck to the hilt on the tines and a steady, continuous turn)

How many apples do you see?

...shapes and textures...

Into the pie shell... and out of the oven....

...a' la mode...

Here's the recipe taken from Bon Appetit:

Crust

• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/4 cup frozen solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Filling

• 3 1/4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Topping

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

• Vanilla ice cream

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

This is the first year that my rhubarb has produced enough for me to actually use in a recipe. Last year I planted a sad little rhubarb split that was mostly roots and dried up leaves, but look at them now! I'm thinking that in a couple of years I will have to split some off myself before the garden is taken over by rhubarb! Yesterday, in the wind and rain, I sent Wyatt out to cut me some rhubarb stalks. He was more than happy to comply since the "job" involved using a knife. He did a good job.


The rhubarb washed, trimmed, and chopped. Did you know that {rhubarb leaves are poisonous}? I'm sure you did. The leaves are poisonous to humans and animals if ingested (so don't feed them to your critters). As the story goes, the leaves were discovered to be poisonous during WWI, when people short on fresh vegetables, were encouraged to eat rhubarb leaves. It is a sad story, as many were sickened and some even died. The roots are also poisonous. So, wash your stalks carefully, and toss the leaves where no children or animals will munch on them.....

.... and don't use the leaves as props in your photography! (He he)
(No, these strawberries are not from my garden. If they were, they would be far tastier and juicier than these were.)

Simple ingredients

Ready for the oven.

Ready for the tastebuds....... YUM!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp Recipe

2 c. sliced strawberries
3 c. chopped rhubarb
3/4 c granulated sugar
2 Tbl. corn starch
1 3/4 c. all purpose flour
1 c. quick oats
3/4 c packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  
• Prepare strawberries and rhubarb. (Frozen fruit could be substituted for fresh.) Add the strawberries, rhubarb, granulated sugar, and corn starch together in a bowl, mix, and let sit until ready to use.
• Add the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, melted butter, and vanilla to another bowl. Mix together until coarse pea-sized crumbles are formed.
• Press 2/3 crumb mixture into the bottom of a greased 9 X 13 inch pan.
• Spread fruit mixture on top of the crumble layer.
• Sprinkle the remaining crumble mixture on top of the fruit.
• Bake for 40-45 minutes.
• Serve with a dollop of cream or vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!
  

My ever present happy helper gives her bite of approval.

Have a beautiful weekend!

{Linked to "I'm Lovin' it Fridays}
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Bar-B-Que Baking

Yep, that's right -- baking on your Bar-B-Que.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
You see -- last weekend, our oven control board shorted out and burnt up when I was pre-heating the oven for a pie.
So, the pie was ready to bake, and I had no oven.

Plan B: the BBQ.
It's basically a gas oven, right?
What's the worse that could happen?
You really can't eat an unbaked apple-blueberry pie.
I heated up the BBQ, turned off the middle burner to make indirect heat, and let her bake.
The pie turned out OK. It might have been better if I had used my regular pie crust.
There you go -- baking on the BBQ is possible.
I think a berry crisp would have been really good on the BBQ --
I might have to try that this summer.

So, I decided to make cookies too as it had been nearly a week and our oven part was yet to arrive, and my cookie monsters didn't know what to do without cookies in the freezer.

I used my baking stone (like I always do) straight on the BBQ.
This time I left all 3 burners on because with the stone being so big, I couldn't use indirect heat.
The bottom of some of the cookies got a little brown.
It could have been because I was too cold to stand outside in the cold wind and check the cookies frequently.
Or, it could also have been because the timer on my stove doesn't work and I am so lost without it.
Anyway, they got a little overbaked.

Next try: cupcakes.
OK-- I will be the first to admit, cakes bake better in a real oven.
Although the cupcakes raised well and tasted fine, they stuck to the bottom of the cupcake liners. The kids didn't mind as 3/4 of them just eat the icing anyway.
Next time, I should just make icing and let them eat it off a spoon.

Our oven control board is supposed to arrive today.
I will be glad to get my oven back.
But, I predict that my BBQ baking days are not over -- not from necessity, but choice.
Let me know if you've ever baked anything on the BBQ -- I'd love to hear about it.

Brownie Bites

Here's what I made for Wyatt's class party. It was approaching 10 PM as I was finishing these, so they are sloppy. Ten o'clock is my curfew. If I don't adhere to my curfew, I turn into a mean, wicked-witch of the north pumpkin the next day. I think the above pictures are pretty self explanatory. Yes, I did {the applesauce substitution} -- straight across. The icing is actually melted red and white candy melts. Once again, I wanted a hard covering so that the 5 year old wouldn't make brownie smashes before he got to preschool.

My little brownie helper had to have a bath after all the fun.
First there were smiles.

Then there were giggles.

Then there was a streak of white light!

Wilton Heart Cookie Pops

My two oldest both have Valentine's Day (or Valentime's Day if you listen to Wyatt) parties today. Here are the treats I made for Reid's class. I thought I would post some pictures -- a short "How To" because I couldn't find much about these little heart-shaped cookie pans when I googled to find out how to use them. For the cookie dough, I used a sugar cookie mix (the big box that you buy at Costco......um, yeah....... I bought mine last Christmas...... No, not this last Christmas ..... the Christmas before. No, it's not rancid and it raises perfectly fine. Waste not, want not ..... or the chickens will have a cookie dough breakfast.) I followed the recipe for the cut-out cookies.

*** Very important: spray the cookie pan with Pam before each batch*****

You will thank me for that little tip. I filled each heart shape with dough to within an 1/8th of an inch of the top edge. Then I pressed in the cookie stick (bought them at Wal-mart) into the dough so that the top of the stick was 2/3rds of the way up the cookie, covered the stick with a little more dough, and popped them in the oven. Bake the cookies as directed in your recipe.

**** Here is another very important tip:***
**** let the cookies cool before carefully removing them****

I decided to ice the cookies with a thick royal icing. Reason? Well, since the cookies were going to school in the care of a 7-year old, I thought a hard icing would be better than a soft icing. Butter cream would have tasted better, but royal icing would *hopefully* keep it's shape until the other 18 kids got their hands on the cookies. I followed {the recipe for royal icing on the Wilton meringue powder can}. Here is the sloppy base coat I applied before doing the fun part. I let it dry for 15 minutes before proceeding.

Let the fun begin! I put some icing in a pastry bag, and using different icing tips, I decorated away. It was fun. The royal icing was pretty thick, but still it didn't hold the intricate shapes really well. Good enough for first grade, right? Reid was slightly concerned that the boys would not like pink icing. Tough cookies, I say.

Ribbon or basket tip (I just made that up, I have no idea what that tip is called)

Star tip.

Leaf tip using different force on the tip and pastry bag.

This would have to be my favorite design.
I used the leaf tip and tried to make little rosettes.
OK, it's pretty sloppy, but I still liked it.

Hope this "How To" has inspired and helped you.
I will post later on what I made for Wyatt's class.

The Secret is in the Sauce

While Daddy and two big brothers were away,
the two little ones and I made cupcakes.

Walter and Winona have been playing musical chairs
--each thinks the other's chair is better.

When Daddy got back home, he was kind enough to lend his fingers.

I couldn't decide which picture I liked best,
so you have to look at both.

Yes, I ate some.....3 to be exact

(no-- not all at once!!! what do you think i am?!!!!)
.....they were delicious......scrumptious
....the secret is in the sauce.

......... applesauce that is. I used a plain white cake mix, and then substituted applesauce for the oil straight across. The applesauce made the cupcakes so moist, and as an added bonus cut out about 750 calories from the cupcake mix.

No, I didn't make lowfat icing.
That would be just sad and wrong.