Cookie Platter and Learning Adventures

Saturday night I attended a charity event for the Springville-Griffith Community Education Foundation, Inc where money was raised to purchase a new mammography machine for the local hospital. The event had a great turnout -- between 300 and 400 guests, and it was packed! The cookie tray I made was a success (once out of the kitchen -- more on that later). I stealthily stood within viewing distance of my platter to see who (if anyone!) was bidding on my platter. I saw many people checking it out, a couple bending over to write down their price, and a very nice looking older gentleman took my business card! He stuck it right into his breast pocket after showing it to his wife and thoroughly investigating the platter and card. In the end, most of my business cards had been scarfed up, and the last I saw the highest bid was $40. Not too shabby for my first cookie platter!

Let me tell you though -- the going was not full of sunshine and daisies. Well, it was up to a certain point. Mom and I got up early and we were ready to go! We donned our aprons, tied our hair back, and started pulling ingredients from the cupboards. Mom cleaned up our work surfaces while I started making the Spiced Almond Wafer batter.
                                                                                              

Dark brown sugar, butter, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

Once this batch was completed I made another -- Dutch Nutmeg Cookies, and mom whipped up the Banana Oatmeal Cookies and the Chocolate Chunk and Cherry Cookies. We were in excellent shape. And then we started baking. And that is when things started to go wrong. The damn oven was too hot. When put on the lower racks of the oven the bottoms of the cookies burned leaving the tops raw. So the bottom rack was out of the question -- leaving one rack to use -- with multiple trays of cookies per batch. No matter how much we tried the cookies seemed to be near burned on the bottom and not quite done in middle -- even when closest to the top burner! GAH! I wanted to pull my hair out! That said, there were only a few cookies in each batch that I would allow to be put on the platter. You cannot give away (especially when someone is paying for it) burned and underdone cookies. It worked out though because we had just enough of everything. And the final product was quite pretty. And I must say, the peanut brittle was my absolute favorite! It was sooo simple to make, and it turned out beautifully. 

Overall, the baking and the event turned out to be a great success. Mom and I learned how well we work together in the kitchen, and to let the cookies tell us when they're not done, burned, and to not listen to the oven. Fucker.

Cookie Creations

Tonight I am preparing for an exciting weekend. My aunt invited me to attend a charity event, and asked me to make a platter of cookies that will be auctioned off. Of course I accepted immediately! How exciting! I scoured my recipes to find the perfect treats for the event, and decided on five cookies that have similar ingredients. They either include spices (tis time for the holidays after all!) or almonds...or perhaps both. The cookies have a theme while being completely different in flavor: Chocolate Chunk and Cherry Cookies, Dutch Nutmeg Cookies, Spiced Almond Wafers, Banana Oatmeal Cookies, decorated Sugar Cookies, and to top it all off, we're throwing in some peanut brittle. I can't wait to make everything, see what the finished product looks like, and, most importantly, to see how they all taste! This will be the first time I make the majority of these cookies -- hopefully there will not be any major disasters. Tonight I made the Sugar Cookie batter, it's chilling in the fridge overnight so it'll be perfect in the morning. I have made these before, so I'll post pictures of last years' creations -- Cookies made by me, decorated by mom.

Last years' Jack-O-Lantern and Ghost

 

Bundled-up Snowmen

Will post pictures of the new cookies tomorrow!

My Favorite Creations

When people find out I love to bake and cook they always ask me what my favorite dish is to make. My very favorite thing to make is the most wonderfully smelling and even more divinely tasting cinnamon raisin bread. The recipe I found online looked decadent -- cinnamon, sugar! BUT, the dough was just regular white bread dough. The spice was only included in the filling. Well, my friends, that just does not cut it for me, especially when it is called cinnamon raisin bread! When I started making my version of the bread I ransacked my spice cupboard and hauled out the giant container of cinnamon, and the essentials -- cloves (put in absolutely everything that needs a spice!) and nutmeg. And then I dumped cinnamon into the prepared flour mix -- give it a sniff -- still smells like flour -- dump some more in, and so on. And then the smell perfumes the flour without becoming overpowering. The next time I made the bread I measured the amounts of spices I used for future bakery purposes. It comes out to three tablespoons of cinnamon just in the dough. Wonderful. And then there are two tablespoons in the filling. When finished, the bread smells and tastes like your most wonderful memory of the winter holidays.

Aside from making this most delicious bread, I don't really have one thing I make the most. I love keeping track of the mouth-watering recipes I create, but I really love to try experimenting with foods that may be seen as rather unique and out of the ordinary. This summer I drew inspiration from my garden -- every time I walked into the house I was overcome by the intoxicating scent of lavender, and decided to incorporate it into my next cupcake creation. I used a chocolate foundation, and chopped two teaspoons of lavender petals, and threw that into the mix. Then I made a chocolate fudge frosting and decorated it with the dainty, precious lavender petals. The outcome was gorgeous, not to mention a delicious treat for the taste buds. They were all pleased with the faint floral taste among the depths of dark chocolate.

-We did not eat the non-edible silver balls of death.-

Rosemary and Sage Perfume the Air

While I love to bake, I also love to cook, and there is nothing better than using your own home-grown plants to create the most delicious meals you will ever taste.

This summer my mom and I planted a garden -- ok, she stuck them in the ground while I dictated. There was a vegetable patch with corn, beans, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and onions. Across the path was my favorite area -- the herb garden. The scent of oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, parsley, and dill perfumed the air on many a muggy night -- not to mention the sweet smell of lavender, tucked neatly behind the tomatoes and garlic, drifting through air. MMmm.

Since summer is now through..boo..it's time to harvest what hasn't been thrown into countless pots of spaghetti sauce:

Apart from the oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt, everything in here is from the garden. And I have never tasted sauce that is more delicious. My sister hasn't either -- she gives her mom hell for opening a jar from the store.

A couple of days ago I dried my rosemary tree -- it smelled wonderful while I was cutting that sucker down and breaking the branches from the stem. I'm sure the smell will stay with me for days. This morning I dried sage -- the plant, not the cat, and made sage bundles for smudging The result -- many delicious meals flavored by my very own plants. And, the house smells divine!

Drying parsley is next, and in the meantime the cats will be chasing and pouncing on bugs brought in on the plants (Gracie is stalking some vile creature as I write this) . The advantages of pesticides are duly noted, however, will still not be used. Will just have to deal with insect infestation -- the cats will gladly help. 

Introductions -- First Memories

I am an aspiring baker/bakery owner. I have been baking since I was a small child, which started with my grandmother (Grammy). Her mother was an ambitious, poverty-stricken, over worked woman, so both baking and cooking were a means to an end for her. Grammy married a farmer when she was nineteen, and had three babies in three years, which meant that she was beyond busy taking care of a farm, a sick husband, and, not to mention, raising her children. While she had many obligations, she also found that she had free time that absolutely needed to be filled. This is where she found her love of baking and cooking. I have seen pictures of holidays filled with loaves and loaves of bread surrounded by dozens of rolls, and birthdays filled with cakes and pies. My mom was at the center of many of these pictures, frosting sugar cookies and smiling brightly at the camera holding a sprinkled treasure. She passed her love of food, all things sweet, and baking to me. My first memories of baking must go back to when I was only a couple of years old. I remember licking chocolate chip cookie batter off the spoon she was using and then scraping it out of the bowl and eating that, too. I very distinctly remember insisting that she let me eat the scraps of pie dough -- it looked just like sugar cookie dough, and must be as delicious. Alas, it never was. The disappointment I felt as soon as I tasted the bitter, unsweetened dough is something I am sure I will always remember. Why didn't it taste the same?! My little self could never figure it out -- no matter how hard I willed the dough to taste sweet and wonderful it just never did. You think I would have learned, but I always asked for the pie dough scraps, and mom always gave it to me.

Now I am baking every chance I can. The last thing I made was a ginger cake -- filled with ginger, cinnamon, applesauce, molasses, and Guinness. It is surprisingly delicious, especially when a paired with a cold glass of Guinness. The buttercream frosting perfectly complimented the bitter taste of the beer, and resulted in a piece of heaven on a bubble glass plate. Perfection!