Six more days until Jake and Melly get married! This morning I crossed a couple more things off my list, which felt good. We needed a few things for the bar and then photos for the in-memoriam table. Tomorrow I’ll pick up the photos and frames for the table. I still have a few more items to go. Honestly, the list seems never-ending just like it did when I was preparing to get married. Nonetheless, it will be here sooner rather than later and I can’t wait.
Yesterday I baked mini chocolate chip cookies with great success. Today I attempted sugar cookies with cookie cutters in the shape of birds and Daschunds. Unfortunately, the sugar cookies were an unmitigated disaster. The birds look like overcooked blobs, while the Daschunds look like dicks. Perhaps if you were hallucinating, you could see they’re birds or dogs, but probably not. They were so bad I threw them all away. I’ll be making the sugar cookies for Friday in their regular, boring, circular shape. Oh well, there was no harm in trying. Six more days!
What do you listen to while you work?
I like to listen to heavy metal between calls at work. If it’s not super busy, I’ll watch a live Wild Life Safari filmed in South Africa instead of listening to music. While on a call, I mute the safari but keep the closed captioning on so I can still watch it live. It’s amazing!
Boy oh boy am I a bundle of nerves today. You would think my boys were playing tonight and not the big boys. The Panthers must win one more game to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup. It would be infinitely cooler if they could do that tonight at home. Also, it would bring a lot of emotional relief for stressed-out hockey fans. Unfortunately, it also brings the end of hockey season, so I’m not sure what we’ll watch on TV now.
Luckily, the hubby and Mayor are headed to the game tonight. I wonder who will be beating the drum to open the game? Game one was the Dolphins head coach and Game two was Alonzo Mourning. It will be interesting to see who they bring out tonight. While my guys enjoy the amazing atmosphere of Amerant Arena, I’ll be baking my nerves away. Most likely, I’ll be making some more sugar cookies. They’re easy to bake even when distracted by hockey games.
What countries do you want to visit?
Where does one even start with this question? There are so many places that I’d like to visit. If I listed them all I’d be blogging for days. The shortlist would be Norway, the UK, Denmark, Italy, France, Finland, Peru and Iceland. Now back to being a bundle of nerves!
I did some experimenting in the kitchen over the weekend. My first experiment was homemade cream cheese wontons. I made pork wontons last weekend, so I wanted to expand my wontons experience a bit. Plus what’s not to love about fried dough and cheese? While I was busy experimenting with the wontons, the hubby whipped up some amazing chicken fried rice to accompany the wontons. It was a great division of the housework.
The wonton recipe was quite simple: cream cheese, wonton wrappers, scallions, garlic powder, green onions and some sugar. I found the wrappers from Target were a bit thinner than those HelloFresh had provided. Consequently, they leaked when being fried. Next time, I’ll use two wrappers instead of one. Also, I’ll fold them into little rectangles as those wontons didn’t leak at all.
Saturday I went back to experimenting in the kitchen. This time I decided to try a new lime cheesecake recipe. I find baking cheesecake infinitely easier in Florida due to the humidity. By contrast, the moisture can complicate a bread recipe. Honestly, it’s hard to bake a dry cheesecake here. This recipe was pretty straightforward except for the mousse topping. It wasn’t that the mousse topping was difficult, but I haven’t baked with gelatin a lot.
Baking the cheesecake went well and it was super tasty. The recipe was pretty easy to follow. It’s a recipe I’ll make again. However, next time I bake it, I’ll cut back the amount of gelatin. The mousse tasted great, but the texture was too stiff for my taste. Next time I’ll cut it down by 1/2 tbsp and see how it goes. It’s not like the cheesecake tasted bad, so none of us will mind testing all of my cheesecake experiments. I’ll put up the recipes for both the wontons and cheesecake tomorrow.
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
My favorite book as a child was Super Fudge by Judy Blume. I’m just here patiently waiting for them to make it into a movie. My other favorite was C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
A couple of months ago, I introduced you to rage baking and now let me introduce you to nervous baking. Since the Panthers have lost every game I’ve watched at our friends’ house, I decided to stay home like I did in game one since they won that game. Consequently, I decided to put my nervous energy to work by baking some cookies.
My go-to cookie lately has been the sugar cookie. It’s quick and easy to make. Also, they have fewer calories than a chocolate chip cookie. By the time the cookies came out, the Panthers were already down a goal. It was time to feed the dogs and head to bed. I read my book for a while before falling asleep in it. I woke up around 11:30 and saw the hubby on his phone. I was happy to learn that both the Panthers and Timberwolves had won their games. Consequently, I’ll be nervous baking for game five on Thursday.
What jobs have you had?
I’ve had several jobs over the years none as big as being a mom. I really couldn’t care less about the jobs I’ve had as I don’t derive joy from employment. I’d prefer to retire like yesterday.
Last night, while the hubby was grilling up some of his famous potatoes and steaks, I made dog food for the puppies. I bought a duck breast at Wild Fork a few months ago and defrosted yesterday. Obviously, it’s not something I’ll do all the time, but thought it might be a nice change of pace for the boys.
For their meal, I peeled 3 carrots, cooked 3 cups of rice, bought 1 large duck breast, and hard-boiled seven eggs. Note, I did not use all the eggs for their food. Veterinarians recommend that dogs have no more than one egg per day. To cook the duck, I lined a baking sheet with aluminum foil after preheating the oven to 350 degrees. I placed the peeled carrots on the baking sheet with the duck breast in the middle. The meat and carrots roasted for 20 minutes. Once the duck breast reached an internal temperature of 165, I cut it up into cubes and cut up the carrots.
Once the duck and carrots were cut up, I added them to the cooked rice and mixed them well. Naturally, I poured any of the juices from the duck into the mixture. The last step was to cut up the eggs and add them to the mixture. Ideally, I’d use more vegetables, but I only had carrots on hand. Next time, I’ll use sweet potatoes and peas in addition to the carrots. The recipe is below.
Peel and cut carrots in half and place on the prepared baking sheet
Cut sweet potato into cubes and place on prepared baking sheet
Place duck breasts or desired protein in the middle of the baking sheet
Roast the duck and vegetables for 20 minutes or until the internal temperature of the duck is 165.
While the duck is roasting, cook up the peas according to package instructions and prepare the hard-boiled eggs
Once the duck and vegetables have cooled, slice the meat into chunks and the carrots into smaller pieces.
Combine all ingredients in one large bowl and serve
I have two large (80-90 lbs) male dogs and split the recipe between the two of them. Going forward, I’ll probably use chicken as it’s much cheaper, but the duck is a nice treat. You could also substitute lamb or beef cuts as well.
What is one word that describes you?
Kind. I love people, animals, and life and want to make the world a better place. Fortunately, I think little acts of kindness go a long way in brightening the world. Consequently, every day I try to be kind to those around me (some days go better than others,)
I had a wonderful, low key birthday and I’m grateful for all the love and birthday wishes I was given. Unfortunately, I had to work a full day. It was a slow, tedious day. After work, we ordered Sushi Yama for my birthday dinner. Sushi Yama is definitely our go to restaurant for birthday dinners. By the end of dinner, I was way too full to even try and eat birthday cake. Consequently, we’ll be enjoying the cake today.
As for today, I’m laying low and getting stuff done around the house. The hubby and The Mayor headed to the Panthers game around 3, but we managed to get a lot done this morning. In fact, we actually got the bags for Goodwill out of our room and dropped off at Goodwill. Before we dropped off the bags, my Hubby made me waffles with strawberries and bacon for breakfast. I’m grateful for such a good breakfast. It was mighty tasty!
As you know, I love baking much to the dismay of my waistline. Since I have more bread than I know what to do with, I decided to bake something different today. Today I made the puppies some doggie biscuits with peanut butter. I opted to use a biscuit mix from King Arthur, which was super simple to whip up and bake. The dogs absolutely love the biscuits, so I’ll definitely be baking more of them. Now the puppies and I are watching Inventing Anna about the mass deception perpetrated by Anna Sorokin. It’s really well done.
Where would you go on a shopping spree?
If I could go on a shopping spree, it would probably be at Boca Town Center Mall as it has pretty much everything you could need from gold bars to designer purses.
I wish the weekend wasn’t so short. You blink and it’s Monday. This weekend was especially quick for me since I worked half the day Saturday. The second half of the day I spent baking bread. I started my baking frenzy with two sourdough loaves. While those loaves proved, I started the sourdough chocolate star bread dough. Fortunately, I had my timing down pat, so both loaves of bread turned out great and not under or over-proved.
Sunday I set out to bake two loaves of French bread and then bake a deep-dish pizza for dinner. I’ve made the French bread loaves several times now, so it goes pretty smoothly. I was a bit worried about the pizza dough, but that was easier than I thought. While both turned out well, I’d make some alterations to the pizza recipe. Honestly, we liked the taste of the crust and sauce. When it came out of the oven, however, it looked like it had a trifling amount of filling instead of being full of cheesy goodness. Next time, I’m going to double the cheese and double the sauce. Now it’s Monday and contrary to my weekend it’s not so short.
Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.
The most ambitious DIY project I’ve ever taken on is probably starting my sourdough baking obsession. I don’t do any DIY around the house as my husband is the absolute expert there. Starting sourdough, even as an experienced baker, was a bit intimidating. With practice, it’s becoming easier. Nonetheless, the sourdough starter can be an absolute heartbreaker. To make it more manageable I’ve started keeping it in the refrigerator during the week. This way I don’t have to feed it daily anymore.
After twenty years of faithful service, I upgraded my KitchenAid Mixer. It has served me well over the past two decades, but it’s time to move on to something bigger and stronger. We bake a lot and in larger batches, so it became obvious the classic-sized mixer wasn’t big enough to handle our regular baking anymore. After all, I bake several loaves of bread a weekend. Moreover, when we bake cookies, we usually make a double batch.
Consequently, I upgraded to Kitchenaid’s 7-quart stand mixer. The bowl is huge! Especially when compared to the bowl of its predecessor. It also has a stronger engine and more speed. One thing that will take some getting used to is that this is a lift stand mixer and not a tilt-head model like our old one. It will take some getting used to after twenty-plus years of using a tilt-stand mixer. I will say that a stand mixer is a must-have for any kitchen. It allows you to attack your baking with maximum efficiency. We use our mixer several times a week. It will make your baking and cooking life so much easier. I love my mixer!
As for our old mixer, we’re refurbishing it so it can go to a good home. KitchenAid mixers may be expensive, but we’re going to squeeze every last dollar out of each of ours. I’m excited about being able to pass it down. Some of my favorite baking tools my Grandma or mother passed down to me. The beautiful thing about baking and cooking is that it keeps us connected to our past and loved ones that are no longer with us. I will return in a few weeks with a review of the new mixer.
Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?
I broke the law at my most recent hair appointment where I may or may not have fallen asleep under the hair dryer. Unbeknownst to me, the simple act of falling asleep in that chair is illegal in Florida. This is one of the foremost issues Florida’s government wants to solve. Never mind the spiraling costs of homeowners and auto insurance.
The day after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday. After all, it’s estimated that over 16.1 million Americans will call out sick today with the Super Bowl Flu. Although I only made it past Usher’s performance before heading to bed, I fully support another Monday off work. We work way too much in this country instead we should focus on things that matter like our family, puppies, and baking.
Speaking of baking, I made two more loaves of sourdough French bread. They turned out amazing and are currently residing in my new breadbox. I also made chocolate star sourdough bread, which tasted much better than it looked. Honestly, I’m not sure what happened, but instead of looking like a star, it looks like a mutant octopus. Oh well, it just means that I’ll have to try again. Next time I’ll ask for the intercession of Saint Elizabeth the patron saint of baking. Now if today were a holiday, I could have tried again today. But no, here I am at work like schmuck.
I did make some potato crisps and spinach puffs for the big game, which we enjoyed with some brisket the hubby made. As for commercials, my favorite was the Dunkin’ Donuts ad with JLo, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Tom Brady. I did enjoy Usher’s halftime performance, especially the closing number. However, why can’t they get the sound right for the halftime performers? Year after year the audio sucks, which detracts from the whole experience.
If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?
If I had the power to change one law, it would be to suspend parking fines for elephants here in Florida. I thought I would pick something silly. Otherwise, there are so many stupid laws on the books that I’d be here all day.
Getting started with sourdough can be quite intimidating. As I shared a few posts ago, I started my sourdough journey at the start of the year. To get started there are a few things you should buy or ensure you have on hand. I did include them in my prior post, but so you don’t have to toggle between the posts. Fortunately, you may have a lot of these items on hand.
What you need:
Sourdough Starter Jar Kit that includes two starter jars, recipes, jar labels, a starter guide, and a marker
Banneton Bread Proofing Basket which comes with: an oval proofing basket, bread-making tool supplies including scoring lame, metal and plastic scrapers, basket liner, and cleaning brush
After you get your goodies, the first step in getting your sourdough started is starting your starter. There are a lot of different recipes for sourdough starters, which can make it overwhelming. For my starters, I used the guides that came with my kits.
Sourdough Starter recipe:
What you’ll need: flour, water, starter jars and kitchen scale
Day 1: add 50g of water to the jar followed by 50g of flour. Mix with a spatula until you obtain a creamy texture. Mark the feeding level before covering it with a towel and placing it in a warm place without drafts. Come up with a fun name for your starters. Mine are Dough Pesci and Marlon Brandough.
Day 2: repeat day one steps (try to feed your starter at the same time daily.)
Day 3: you should start to see some signs of activity now, like bubbles on the surface or an increase in volume. Discard 1/2 of the volume and repeat the steps from day 1.
Day 4-7: discard 1/2 of the volume of the starter before repeating the steps from day 1. You should see an uptick in activity with larger bubbles and a slightly acidic aroma.
Day 7: it may be ready to use. I was able to make bread at 7 days with mine, but the bread got better as the starter aged.
If you bake often, like me, keep feeding it daily. Remember the most important part of feeding is to discard at least 1/2 of the starter. If you don’t discard it, there won’t be enough to keep the starter fed and it will die out. To keep up with my baking needs, I feed it about 100 grams of flour and 90 grams daily and have moved it into bigger jars.
If you’re not going to bake immediately, you can put the starter in the fridge and feed it bi-weekly. I’ve noticed that most sourdough recipes include instructions for dealing with starters coming from the fridge.
I live in South Florida, so there is plenty of moisture in the house. Keep in mind if you live in a drier climate, the amount of flour and water you need may be different. Play around with it a bit to find what works for your kitchen. I chose this starter recipe because it was pretty pedestrian, which I needed. I didn’t want an overcomplicated recipe that I may screw up. In the end, my starters flourished, so I guess I was worried for no reason.
Meet Dough Pesci and Marlon Brandough
A couple of closing notes on the starter:
Discard into the trash or set aside the discard for use in recipes. There are a lot of great recipes out there that use discard.
Be careful if you have pets, as the discard will ill your dogs or cats.
Don’t discard the discard into the sink as it can muck up your plumbing.
What’s your favorite candy?
My favorite candy is chocolate. I love it and could eat it all day every day. If only eating it like that wouldn’t make me both severely obese and diabetic. I am a chocolate snob and have Norwegian milk chocolate Freia delivered monthly. Everyone my kids ask where they are, I’m a bit cagey with them. While I am happy having a piece or two a day, they’ll kill all of the bars in a day or two. I’m also a big fan of Milka and Cote D’Or chocolate bars. Also, I’d never say no to Leonidas or Neuhaus chocolates.
