Making something awesome. #bakery #kitchenchemistry

1:59 pm  •  14 February 2013  •  2 notes  •  View comments

Saturday morning baking sesh. #bakery

1:06 pm  •  5 January 2013  •  2 notes  •  View comments

My challah no. 3 turned out way prettier than the previous two. #bakery

2:08 pm  •  8 December 2012  •  1 note  •  View comments

Late night bake fest. Chocolate shortbread. #bakery (Taken with Instagram)

12:52 am  •  13 October 2012  •  View comments

First time to bake apple pie. #fromscratch #food #pie (Taken with Instagram)

12:33 pm  •  5 August 2012  •  2 notes  •  View comments

I baked these for my old team at the VA a couple of weeks ago, and I baked them tonight for my new team at the Presby.

I used this recipe with a few modifications as listed below:

• 2  cups flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1  cup dried cranberries
• 1  egg
• ¾ cup orange juice
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• zest of 1 whole orange

9:52 pm  •  2 February 2012  •  4 notes  •  View comments

Interesting name. I wanted to make dinner rolls, but didn’t have any baker’s yeast at home, so ended making these instead. They turned out to be pretty delicious, but more suitable for dessert than as a dinner roll.

Our dinner— grilled shrimp and scallops, corn, cheesy broccoli rice, and nun’s puffs.

8:49 pm  •  6 March 2011  •  2 notes  •  View comments

i baked snickerdoodle cookies for the first time ever today.

i don’t love them. they’re for my friend, whitney. it’s her birthday today, and she said she likes snickerdoodle cookies. i hope she likes these.

2:09 pm  •  4 March 2011  •  6 notes  •  View comments

My husband’s favorite dessert is French Silk Pie from Spear’s Restaurant in Wichita, KS.

I’ve never attempted to make him one, mainly because I’m afraid I’ll never live up to Spear’s standards. But I may have found a good recipe, so I’ll try it whenever I have a free weekend.

***

French Silk Pie Tips, Tricks and Ingredients:

• This is not the time to scrimp on ingredients. Only the best will do.
• Chocolate: Use the very best unsweetened gourmet chocolate you can buy. Baker’s is the most popular. It comes in one ounce squares. Important! It MUST be unsweetened chocolate.
• Butter: Pure butter is the only way to go. If you must substitute, use a butter blend or high grade margarine. Make sure it is softened, not cold or warm.
• Whipping Cream: Also called heavy cream, has the most butter-fat. Make sure it is fresh.
• Pie Pans: Any pan will do, but your pie will look especially nice in a deep dish pan. It also gives you more height to pile the whipped cream as high as you dare.
• Mixer: A high speed KitchenAid mixer will whip this pie together in no time. Doing it by hand will take forever and will not give you the same results.

French Silk Pie Recipe

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 one ounce squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
• 2 tsp pure vanilla
• 3 large eggs

Directions:

Part 1:

1. Melt chocolate in a small bowl over hot water. Do not let the chocolate harden up.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter at medium to high speed about 1 minute.
3. Add sugar, 1/4 cup at a time and continue to beat until light and fluffy. This will take 3-5 minutes. Scrape bowl often. It must be mixed long enough so it is no longer gritty.
4. Slowly add the melted chocolate to the butter mixture, beating on low to medium speed until the chocolate is well blended and mixture is smooth and creamy. Scrape again.
5. On medium speed, add eggs one at a time, beating after each one before adding the next egg.Scrape bowl.
6. Add vanilla and give it one more mix.
7. Spread into The Best Ever Pie Crust. Set aside.

Part 2:

• 1 cup Whipping cream
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla
• Chocolate curls, optional for garnish

Directions:

1. In large mixing bowl, beat cream until it sets up. There is no way to explain how long this will take. Every mixer is different. It should be light and fluffy and look like soft whipped cream. Do NOT let it get to the butter stage which can happen very quickly. If in doubt, under mix. You can always whip it a little more after the sugar is added.
2. Add powdered sugar and and vanilla and beat until fluffy and stiff. Do not over beat.
3. Put whipped cream into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip and decorate the pie. Or pile the cream on high with a spatula.
4. Sprinkle with chocolate curls.
5. Refrigerate pie and any leftovers.

Makes one 9 inch pie

9:17 pm  •  2 March 2011  •  1 note  •  View comments

before i talk about oreo balls, a cool thing that happened this morning….
it’s been raining all morning. i opened up my iTunes just now to listen to some music (which i rarely do, because i usually listen to last.fm), and i put it on shuffle (which is also strange, because when i listen to iTunes, it’s for a specific album), and the first song that came on was bonnie somerville’s “winding road.” the first line of the song: “Well, the rain keeps on coming down… feels like a flood in my head….”

okay now for these oreo balls. they are amazing. the recipe calls for 3 things: oreos, creme cheese, and almond bark.

basically, grind up all the oreos, mix it with creme cheese, form balls with the mixture, then dip them into melted almond bark. super easy.

so easy and so yummy.

10:18 am  •  12 November 2010  •  View comments

our house smells so good right now. i wish i had time to bake every day.

batter with toasted walnuts about to get mixed in

in the oven

all done after 50 minutes

yummy!

3:11 pm  •  9 October 2010  •  View comments

My baking buddy. He’s working so hard!

12:04 pm  •  9 October 2010  •  View comments

i love my duke so much, it’s stupid. he’s the loviest dog i’ve ever known, the first pet and possibly the only pet i’ll ever have. he is taking a nap in his crate right now, and i can almost hear him snoring….

the other night, i felt inspired to bake (not sure why). so i opened up my williams sonoma baking book and looked for the cutest picture the book held, and it turned out to be these chocolate crinkle cookies. the recipe turned out so many cookies, i wished that i had good neighbors (that’s a story to be told another time) with whom to share.

8:16 pm  •  4 October 2010  •  View comments

Thought #1:

I love cooking/baking, but just can’t seem to find the time for it these days.
Being snowed in helped both Sean and me be more domestic.

***

Thought #2:

Creative people make life more enjoyable.  Jian made a little snowman and brought it back to the mod to decorate it with everyone.  Afterward, we took it all around the second floor, including Dr. O’Don’s office, and showed him off.  Fun times.

8:50 pm  •  1 February 2010  •  1 note  •  View comments

Baking again.

10:30 pm  •  29 January 2010  •  View comments