Category: Cooking and Baking

Cooking and baking experiments

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Rainy Thursday

I woke up this morning with an idea that I had had before for a doll. I had put it off before, not knowing where it would fit in, as far as marketing it went. I still don’t know, but eBay has been frustrating lately anyway. So, I decided it didn’t matter if I made a doll I couldn’t include in any of the popular categories there. I wanted to do a more colorful, maybe 1920’s style doll in a more stylized way, as opposed to the antique/primitive style that is more popular on eBay. The primitive dolls tend to be more subdued in their colors, and earlier in their clothing styles. I’m thinking of something more along the lines of my cloth dolls and toys, but as an art doll, for display only. Instead of putting it off again, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. I don’t know where that will lead me. Right now, I am trying a little of everything.

I made some pineapple and cilantro pizza last night. It came out okay. It is much better with fresh cilantro. It’s pretty simple. Take any pizza dough (I used the pizza dough recipe from The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger), roll it out, and put it in a pan that’s been lightly coated with some olive oil and cornmeal. On top of it I added some olive oil, mozzarella cheese, cilantro, and pineapple slices (no tomato sauce). I baked mine for 13 minutes at 475, but you’d probably want to follow the directions for whatever pizza dough you use.

I’ve also been sewing up more fleece “Hug Me! Slugs” in different colors. I’ve got a couple of pinks, blues, greens, a yellow, a lavender, and an orange fleece, just to expand the choices. I’ve been amassing a pile of odd supplies lately. That way, I can get up in morning and make just about anything I want!
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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.

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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.