Versatile White Frosting

Kansas has a face only a mother could love.

Sam and I (and Pax and Ash) traveled across land and sea to be home in Kansas for Christmas. We tackled the rough terrain of wind turbines and open plains, we swam through a sea of nothingness, and we made it back home in one piece.

We had a wonderful Christmas! It was good to see family and be back where we grew up. I always miss Kansas, however, Colorado is becoming my home.

I had a request while home to make my famous Christmastime peppermint meringues. Boy howdy are those great! They are airy and chocolately with a hint of peppermint. They crunch in your mouth while the smoothness of the chocolate evens out the texture.

I'm on a baking spree! Chocolate cakes today...who knows what tomorrow. I spent most of my evening researching cake decorating methods and got inspired to make a few cakes.

Here's a simple white frosting recipe. It would remind you of a whipped cream frosting without the richness or even marshmallow fluff without the stickiness or heavy flavor. It's smooth and light and would take to any flavoring you have in mind. I didn't have any vanilla in the house so the frosting tastes pretty simple. It's delicious! Very bright white!

White Cake Frosting

1 cup white sugar

1/3 cup water

1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I didn't have tartar, so I used baking powder as a sub)

a dash of salt

2 egg whites

Place egg whites in a mixer/mixing bowl

Mix first four ingredients in a saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved and boiling.

Slowly add sugar syrup to egg whites and beat hard for a long time (until stiff like frosting).

Add Vanilla (or other flavor) and enjoy.

Happy Baking!

Time to bake!

Sam and I are finally out of our home on base. We feel such a sense of freedom living off base! It's nice to finally own our first home! We have our military inspection in a few hours. I hope it goes well!

All my bakeware has been packed away for the past week or so. I feel a baking withdrawl. I need to see some sugar and eggs whipped! I must melt butter and stir in cocoa! If I don't, I think I shall perish in the fires of a sweetless world.

Thanksgiving is just a few days away! Do you have all your food bought? Sam and I will be doing a simple at home meal. I hadn't planned on going to anyone's home. I just want to have a simple non-turkey meal at home and enjoy the company of my husband. Usually we go back to Kansas or we spend time with friends. This year, however, I'd really like to just spend time with Sam.

We haven't been alone for any holidays. I'd like to establish some traditions for just Sam and I, my little family!

Please tell me you've heard of turducken? The best Thanksgiving meal I've had was a turducken meal with a friend of Sam's. A chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey. It's divine.

Though I doubt we'll be having turducken this year, I'd like to take a stab at it next year.

What shall I make in lieu of the traditional Thanksgiving meal? I'm thinking pizza or nachos. All the same, I'd like to bake something sweet in my new home! Perhaps a pumpkin cheesecake? Maybe a chocolate peanutbutter cake?

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

Apple Cider!

As I was sitting around a firepit, wind licking my face with it's cold breath, I realized how much I wanted a nice big mug of hot apple cider. Autumn and winter bring about the desire within me to curl up on the couch with a quilt, pop in a favorite movie (Pride and Prejudice, thank you so much!), and drink some hot apple cider.

It's this time of year that I want to just relax and take it easy. I enjoy thinking about the past and all the good memories that come with it. I also remember how things aren't exactly as I remembered them to be and that things change. So goes life. My delight gained from drinking hot apple cider doesn't change!

I've found the ratio of cinnamon to apple varies greatly with mood. More cinnamon equals a more feisty attitude and more apple constitutes an easy going attitude. At this point, I'd love more apple and a tad bit of cinnamon.

I've been searching for the perfect recipe for apple cider, as I am having a small get-together on friday night to celebrate us moving into our new home! I've yet to find the perfect recipe but I have found a good one!

Check this out:

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Hot Apple Cider

6 Cups Apple Juice (cheating! I know...I know...)
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
Pinch of Nutmeg
Pinch of Allspice
5 whole cloves (more or less upon desire)
3 cinnamon sticks (more or less upon desire)
1 apple, cored and sliced.

Mix all in a large saucepan to a quiet boil. Strain out all floating spices. Serve hot!




Here's my thought: Why not add a caramel to the cup of cider? A cinnamon stick to give it some edge? Or even float an apple slice in the cup or on the side? There are so many ways to make this delicious! I'm even thinking about coming up with a creamy cider recipe, equipped with cinnamon whipped cream and caramel drizzled over the top. Yum!

Merry Cidering!

Non-Food Thoughts

What amazing creatures we are! Humans are capable of great feats and great atrocities. When one makes up his mind to achieve a goal, the task is a failure or a success based on the person's will. This will is what defines one human from another, the weak from the strong, the big from the small.

For those struggling with their place in the world, the will can be a hindrance. The indecisive person eagerly weighs options for the future but cannot decide. One person from infancy knows their place in life and acomplishes it with not a second thought. How is one to decide their own fate? Or is it just a matter of reading the signs correctly and being in touch with oneself?

I'm not feeling good right now. My stomach is ill from dinner and my eyes are throbbing from the smoke of the firepit's fire. My headache is growing rapidly into a migraine and I do not like it. I try to focus on things far away with my eyes but soon get too tired to remain staring far. I watch the ottoman in the lobby of my work and wait for it to move. It doesn't.

I look even more close at the ottoman and decide that I could design one of those as easily as the next person. In fact, I think I could create, build, and do things better than most people. Am I being arrogant? I don't think so. I feel like I can do things to a greater quality than what already exists. I have yet to muster the strength or will within me to actually try. Perhaps this is the solice I have in stating such an opinion about my abilities. Comfort in being untested.

I have grown tired of what I do. I have grown even more tired of not doing what I want to do.

What chance do I have to achieve my destiny--me, an aging woman from small town Kansas? My dreams?

What will it take for me to test my limits and weaknesses? I have never felt as bad as I do right now, guilty and ashamed of who I am. In my own complacency and weakness my future is being formed into an unwelcome guest. A pain. A rock in my shoe.

I don't ask for simplicity but merely a mind to esteem it.

Questions

A good friend of mine asked me yesterday why I don't open up my own bakery. She claims people would love my goods and that it'd be a success.



I was recently a baker for a restaurant that opened and my bosses friends said the same to him---that they'd come support him every night and that people would just flock to his restaurant. Turns out, after a few months, he went out of business.



It's frustrating. How do you know when to open a business? When you have the right location, financial backing, and client base.



As of right now, I have none of those three. That, and I don't even know if it is something I'd like to do for a living. I'm a casual baker but can step it up when I want. I can easily come up with ideas for new treats, for logo designs and for packaging. I have an idea of what I'd like a bakery to be but can't quite get there.



Life as I know it has been pretty bland lately---work, sleep. We're getting ready to move and therefore I will have to pack up my mixer and bowls. Whatever will I do?! Baking is my stress relief partly because I bake for other people. I don't bake for me to eat it later but instead to give it away. It brings me joy to be able to make something that someone else will devour with a smile on their face!

I'm still interested in hooking up with a local baker or bakery to learn the ins and outs of owning a food business. Why don't I just jump in? Because I'm a bit more cautious than that!

Lately, I've been too broke to bake, which is kinda depressing! I suppose life has it's ups and downs, sometimes you have a little extra money one month and the next you are scrounging for pennies in the couch or washing machine.

In result of working so many jobs that don't challenge me or fulfil my need for creativity, I'm trying to divine my life's purpose. What mark do I want to leave on the world for the future? It isn't hard to achieve your dreams as long as you are willing to give up a few things and step up to the challenge.

I hope you are well, friend. I've recently made cream filled strawberries dipped in chocolate and also my own hybrid monkey bread/cinnamon roll recipe. After the move and once we get settled, I hope to pick up updating and sharing recipes and photos with you. Thanks for hanging in there!

Peach Cobbler with delicious crumble topping

Though the season for peaches is fading away, you can still make a yummy fresh peach cobbler if you hurry!

This is very simple and the cobbler topping is easy.

Peach Cobbler

Peach center:

9-10 peaches

1/2 C sugar

OPTIONAL:

1/4 C Peach schnapps

few drops of:

banana flavor

cherry flavor

strawberry flavor

Cobbler topping:

2 1/4 C flour

3 sticks of butter

1 1/2 C sugar

vanilla

Cut peaches into chunks. I kept the skins on them and it tasted great.

Mix in a bowl with the sugar ( and optional ingredients )

Place in a large baking dish. This will make enough for a 9 by 10 pan with more left over.

Mix all the ingredients of the cobbler mix in a bowl. no need to mix to a pulp or use a mixer. Just mix with a spoon or a large open whisk.

Sprinkle gingerly on top of the peaches. Don't worry about patting it down

Crumbles of joy!

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. If you like a really soft cobbler topping,bake for 40 minutes. If you like a crunchy cobbler topping,bake for 50 minutes or more until it's very golden brown.

My peach cobbler came out reddish in color because of all the extra flavors I added. It was amazingly delicious. It didn't last but an hour, thanks to my friends.

YUMMY peach cobbler!! Enjoy!

Pain Au Chocolat - a delight!

I work with a French woman. Sadly, she is moving back to France in a week or two. I asked her "What would you like me to make for you before you leave?" She replied "Pain Au Chocolat!" I had never heard of such a thing. She described it as puff pastry wrapped around chocolate. YUM! I researched it and found great pictures to match but...could I make it taste fresh and delicious like it just came from a French Bakery?!

Here we begin. I found a great recipe from Dinner With Julie, another blog. I do feel bad about going off of someone else's recipe, but I had no idea how to make this otherwise. The directions and ingredients are exceedingly simple. I hope you'll give this delicious, but time consuming, recipe a try!

Pain Au Chocolat

Dough:

3/4 cup warm milk
1 pkt yeast
1/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt

Butter:

1 cup (1/2 lb.) butter, room temp
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Chocolate:

1/2 cup or more chocolate (I chopped mine into slivers. I used Ghiradelli 60%Cacao, Intense Dark Evening Dream Chocolate Bar. Found it in the candy section of Wal-Mart. I'm sure you could use a semisweet bar as well.

Mix all of the dough ingredients and knead until smooth and no longer sticky (a few minutes). Don't add more flour to reduce stickiness. Adding flour will make the end result tough.

Whip/mix the butter ingredients until very fluffy and pale. I mixed it in the stand mixer the whole time I was working on the dough ingredients and kneading it. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Butter doesn't need to be refrigerated.

Take the dough out of the fridge. Roll it on a lightly floured countertop into a rectangle about 13" by 18" and 1/4inch thick. Stand facing it so that the 18" is horizontal and the 13" is vertical.

Spread the butter onto the right 2/3rds of the dough.

You will be folding the dough into thirds. At this point, take the 1/3rd of the dough that isn't covered in butter on the left and fold it over halfway to the other side of the dough, so that it covers only 1/3rd of the butter.

Then, fold the right side over the part you just folded so that it's a tri-fold.

Wrap it up in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Take it out of the fridge, place the open ends to your left and right and roll out into another 13X18 rectangle 1/4 inch thick.

Then, do the tri-fold routine again. Don't be afraid if the butter looks odd or if the dough cracks. It will all work out.

Place it in the fridge for 30 minutes. You will do this an additional 2 times to make the total 4 times that you roll out and fold.

At this point, place the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 5 hrs or overnight (I didn't have plastic wrap, so I used wax paper)

At this point, it shouldn't take too long to get these guys in the oven. I know it's a lot of prep time, but it's worth it when you see the flaky buttery layers in croissants!

Take the chocolate and shave/chop it into little bits. I used a baking bar, so I just shaved bits off the edge.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface so that it is 1/4 inch thick. I used a pizza cutter to cut long strips and then cross cut to make pieces the size of a business card.

If the pieces are too thick for you, roll them a bit thinner. Place a small strip of chocolate down the middle.

Chocolate!!!

Roll them up tightly and place seam side down on the ungreased baking sheet.

Lots! If you have the time, let rise for an hour. I did not, so I just baked them. 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Finished! I made a mistake and only baked mine at 350 for 15 minutes and they don't seem as flaky as I thought they'd be. Be sure you bake them at the right temperature!

Pain Au Chocolat!

I taste tested a couple out of the oven and...although they tasted good, I look forward to trying them when they have cooled down. I think the flavor will come out more at that point.

Enjoy!

Great Homemade Cinnamon Rolls in 45 minutes

You'll need:

2 boxes of hot roll mix

1 1/2 C ( 3 sticks ) salted butter, room temp

Cinnamon

Vanilla

Brown Sugar

White Sugar

optional: chocolate chips, nuts

Prepare hot roll mix as directed for cinnamon rolls on the side of the box.

Note: DO NOT add more flour. Yes, the dough will be sticky. Deal with it! Keep on kneading it. I promise--if you add more flour to the mix to try to make it less sticky, you'll end up with tough hard cinnamon rolls. When you need a bit of flour to coat your table, sprinkle gently and not a whole lot.

Let rest for 5 minutes

Dough resting.

Dough should be soft, springy to the touch,and lightly floured, not coated in flour or sticky.

Whip butter.

Add cinnamon and vanilla

Whip whip!

See how soft the dough looks?!

Roll out dough. I like a thicker dough.

lightly flour as needed

Spread the whipped butter onto the dough.

Sprinkle white and brown sugar. It's really up to you. I don't like an overly sweet cinnamon roll, so I go heavy on the cinnamon instead.

Start rolling it up! I roll it towards myself. I lift up the edge just a tad, push it away from me to stretch it just a tad, and then I roll it tight. I do this the whole way down.

At this point, find a string or unflavored dental floss. Cut yourself a piece and slide it under the cinnamon roll log. Bring both edges up and criss cross the string and pull down. It will cut the cinnamon roll log into pieces. I like big cinnamon rolls so I make my pieces rather large.

I greased a pan with pam and floured it.

At this point, you can add almonds, walnuts, pecans, butterscotch or chocolate morsels!

If you prefer, you can add those things after you add the sugars. that way, they're rolled up into the cinnamon roll.

My three types of rolls- chocolate chip, almond slivered, and plain ol' cinnamon.

I sprinkled them with a bit more cinnamon. YUM!

This was an edge that I baked separate to test the baking temp and time.

Bake them at 350 for about 12-15 minutes (depending on how big the rolls are. bigger ones last about 15)

It was perfect. Soft center and a gentle crisp on the outside.

Yum!