More baking!!! (Part 1)

So baking day fell on Wednesday this week...

Ah... must start off with a cup of tea...

So I started off with the next recipe in line in the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. So let's just say that this started out with me thinking that this recipe was going to be a complete and utter disaster!! I made the Cream Cheese and Chive biscuits.

Here is the recipe:

Cream Cheese and Chive Biscuits (Martha Stewart)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives *I used about a TBL dried*
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
4 ounces cream cheese, cold, cut into small pieces
1 1/4 cup buttermilk

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, and chives. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter and cream cheese until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few larger clumps remaining.

Pour in the buttermilk; using a fork, mix in buttermilk until incorporated and the dough just comes together. The dough will be slightly sticky; do not overmix.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. With floured fingers, gently knead about four times, until all the crumbs are incorporated and the dough is smooth. With a lightly floured rolling pin, gently roll the dough to a 8-b-11-inch rectangle, about 1 inch thick. Using a bench scraper or long offset spatula to lift the ends of the dough, fold the rectangle into thirds (like a business letter). Give the dough a quarter turn. Roll out the dough again (to the same dimensions), and repeat the folding process. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Return the dough to the work surface. Roll out as before, and repeat the folding process. Give the dough another quarter turn; roll out dough one more time, again into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Using a sharp knife, divide the rectangle into 12 equal squares or rectangles. Place on prepared sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart. Refrigerate for 1 hour. (at this point you could also freeze the biscuits…to cook, simply put the frozen biscuits on a parchment lined sheet and proceed with baking)

Preheat the oven to 424° F. Bake, rotating the sheet halfway through, until the biscuits are golden and flecked with brown spots, 15 to 18 minutes. Transfer the bicuits to a wire rack to cool.
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Ok so I followed the recipe exactly (except for the dried chives) and as soon as I added the buttermilk I knew I was in trouble. The dough was a wet (slightly sticky is a joke!!), goopy mushy mess!!! There was no way on earth this dough was going to be ROLLED out. But I was determined this was going to work somehow! Let me just insert here to say when I started this I was not even in the mood to make these because of all the steps involved... So I "turned out the dough" onto a VERY floured surface and kneaded in probably about a cup (A CUP!!) more flour just to make it slightly manageable.

Notice all the flour mounded up and the rolling pin and spatula covered in goo... I looked for a link to this recipe and couldn't find one anywhere, even on the Martha Stewart website, just so you could see in there pictures how this dough is "supposed" to look like. So not how this turned out!!

So I continued on with the recipe as directed hoping that somewhere along the way it would get better. Ha. No such luck. Even after refrigerating it was still very unmanageable. But I managed to get them rolled out and folded as best I could and into squares and in the fridge.

In the meantime I worked on my valentine's cookies, which thankfully turned out marvelously!!:)

So after refrigerating the dough for the second time I just couldn't wait till James got home for supper to try these biscuits, I just knew they would be rubbery and unedible and I was going to be sooo disappointed. Well... MUCH to my surprise, as they baked they started looking a little bit better!!!

By the time they were done baking they smelled really good!! So I cracked open a hot biscuit fresh from the oven and imagine my surprise when I took the first bite. They were edible!! And not only that they were actually quite tasty!!!  Yum!

So I will definitely be trying these again. But, with a few modifications... The notes written in my cookbook say, "Increase flour, decrease liquid" I'll let ya know if I ever come up with the perfect combo...

All this biscuit madness, add a baby on the crowded counter top and you have a mess!! This pic cracks me up because it looks like he is totally mocking my sad hunk of biscuit dough:) And no he was not exactly a happy camper up there watching me make such a mess...

The finished, and surprisingly yummy product!

Mmmm...

I only baked 5 of these and froze the rest on a tray and then put them in a freezer bag to be baked fresh later. Maybe more for supper tonight!:)

Come back for part 2 where I will show you my much more successful Valentine's Day cookies:)

A new hat:)

So I finished up the second knitted hat. This one was for Evan, of course. He is the most fun one to knit for at the moment:) But next I think James and I will be on the list for new hats. (The first one I made is not so much something I wanna wear around town, it's just a practice piece:)

So diligent in playing with his blocks:)  He's getting so good at sitting up all by himself!

"MOM! I love my new hat:)"  Haha, I'm sure that's what he'll be thinking in about 10 years from now when I want to knit him stuff:)

                          

All ready to bye-bye in his carseat with his new hat!

I am loving learning to knit! And the internet is an incredible source of info and instructions on how to go about it. Although with this hat I was so not happy with how the seams turned out but figured oh well, with practice it'll get better. Well as I was searching for new patterns for the next project I came across an article on how to stitch up a seam! Who knew!?!? There's actually a "technique" for it... Ok so as you can tell I truly am clueless about knitting!!:) But it is something I have an interest in and I want to learn, and the best way for me to learn is just to jump into it. Sooo.... Here I go:)

THANK YOU!!:)

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful suggestions about what to do with my cards and magazines. You all had some great ideas and I now have a little plan brewing as far as what to do with them all:)

MY LITTLE "HELPER"

Hmm... Not sure if licking a clean whisk is helping tho.



Mom, you have cool toys!!

Mmm... tasty too!

This one makes me smile:) I love his tongue!

Let's get as much of it in the mouth as possible!

Eh, who needs a whisk when you can have a spatula? And lets just dump the whole utensil holder while we're at it.

I can tell... once this little guy is on the move there will not be a moment's peace! Maybe I should invest in some cupboard locks...

HELP!! I need your suggestions!!!

Every once in a while... a mood strikes... and right now I'm in the mood to... PURGE. Meaning I hate clutter. Things that I don't use, don't like any more, STUFF... I want it GONE!

Right now it's our "office" that is the unfortunate target. It has long been (well ever since we've lived here), the catch-all room, where all our STUFF went that didn't have a home. Well. No. More. If it doesn't have a home, and isn't something we need, well, it's gone.

Sometimes this is a problem... Here's my problem.

I love sending and receiving cards. Especially from my hubby:) So between the 2 of us we have lots of cards from waaaayyyy back, birthday cards from my 1st birthday, special cards from family and friends that I just couldn't throw away. Cards from our wedding and shower. And now cards from when Evan was born. The pile is only going to get bigger from here. Hopefully as more children are added to our family, then there will be birthdays, graduations... The list just goes on!

So here's the thing. WHAT CAN I DO WITH THEM!?!? Besides keeping them in a worn out old shoebox that only takes up SPACE. Which is something we DO. NOT. HAVE. in this house.

Should I create some sort of a scrapbook? Make something with them? But how can I preserve the sentiments written inside if I make something out of them???? AAAHHH!!! Stuff like this almost drives me crazy.

I hate clutter so much that stuff that only sits around in boxes must GO. But stuff like this I don't want to part with, but it takes up such precious space!

On another note, I have the same question for something completely different. Magazines. How do you keep the ones that are inspiring, like as in ideas that I want to keep in mind for decorating, crafting, organizing, etc. I hate to keep the entire magazine around because, well, they take up SPACE. And also because who has time to sit around and hunt through a pile of magazines to find a particular idea? So any ideas as to how I can handle this problem as well?

I would soooo greatly appreciate any suggestions you all have for my dilemmas:)

I'm knitting!!

Yes, this really is my first ever knitted anything:) And it was fun. Excuse the horrible self pictures, and don't look too closely at the hat, perfection it is not!!

And now for a much cuter model:)

Knitting was something I thought was totally out of my reach, but this was very fun:) Granted it's the most simple of simple knitting but I'm hoping to get better. I already started another project, a tassle hat for my little cutie, made out of the cutest browns and blues, I can't wait to see it on him:) Next I'll have to make something for James, he said gloves... or socks... or mittens... or.... Hmm, we'll have to see what I can come up with:)

Monday is baking day.

Or at least it was this week. To be comfy is a must when baking:) The lovely slippers I got for Christmas from my bro. And, well, if the only apron you own is a Christmas apron, then it's just Christmas all year round... I do have a lovely green apron with pink cupcakes and red cherries on the way from my mom, a belated Christmas present. Can't wait for that:)


S0 I have this fabulous cookbook, full of nothing but COOKIES! It was given to me many years ago as a gift and I do really love it but I'm kind of in that rut (where I only make 1 or 2 recipes out of it), so I decided to shake things up a bit:) I'm starting at the beginning and my goal is to make every one of the cookie recipes at least once. That's my goal. Ok, so I didn't set a time frame for this so it may take years. Literally.:) But I'm keeping track of each recipe that I make and jotting down notes as I go. So here's recipe #1 that I tried for the first time: Oatmeal_Crispies Yummy! Ok so I'm the kind of baker who tweaks things to suit my mood at the time:) The recipe asked for shortening, I used butter. I don't know why but I just like to use butter better than shortening. I'm weird. I know. Shortening tastes good in cookies too, but I just imagine all of that FAT sticking to my gut. Ok. So butter's certainly not any better. Oh well, like I said I'm weird. Well all that to say. Um, I think shortening would have worked better:) The cookies taste wonderful (oh btw, I also added 1/4 tsp more cinnamon than it asked for cause I like cinnamony cookies:)), but they really ran while baking therefore causing some square cookies because they ran into each other. I'll be trying shortening next time. Really. I bought some when I went grocery shopping today:)


The second recipe is: Cranberry_Chip_Cookies. Oh my. These are good! These I like, but since the cookies I bake are mostly for James' lunches during the week (I try not too eat them, you know, they stick to the hips, ahem, right, wish I could say I DON'T eat any...) and his opinion is very highly considered when it comes to making these again... They're just not his favorite he says. Well, ok, they were fun this time:) Oh, and these asked for both butter and shortening and since the above cookies ran so much I did use the shortening that it asked for and they turned out better:) But, I did reduce the heat in my oven after the first batch came out REALLY dark, not burned, but darker than what I like.
So after all the cookie making, I turned to my Martha_Stewart_Baking_Handbook which I got as a Christmas present from my mom 2 years ago. My goal for that book is the same as the cookie book (and has been for the last 2 years!), so this is why I say this may take me years to get through, it already has:) So yes, I'm on recipe #5 or so for this book, sigh... Anywho, I made the buttermilk biscuits from that yet to go with supper. Those were yummy too!

Oh so much baking in one day, it was a good day:) Oh, and I had JUST enough flour in the house to make all this. Whew! Next time I'll make sure I'm better prepared:) Stocked up on that flour at the grocery store today! So sometime in a few more weeks, once all these yummy cookies are gobbled up, I will be making some more. Fun:)

All Boy

Evan is without a doubt, all boy... He is an explorer. He is a thrill seeker. He LOVES to be held high in the air and be brought back down quickly. He giggles in anticipation of the "fall". He gets terribly frustrated when he can't make his hands do EXACTLY what he wants them to do. He loves peek-a-boo and pulls off the blankie or whatever is covering his face and has a huge smile for us:) All of this makes me smile:) Having a boy is so much fun. I'm sure our lives will never be dull as long as he is around:)

Here I was sitting on the couch with him on my lap and of course he's looking around for SOMETHING, and finds the blanket and starts pulling on it (and then the first place it goes of course is his mouth). So I put it on his head.

Mom, this is boring...

Let's play Peek-a-boo!!!


This is much more fun!!!

He is rolling over, and rolls across the living room. But only in one direction, so he gets stuck:) And believe me he lets us know when that happens, afterall it's so frustrating that his 4 1/2 month old body won't do EXACTLY what he thinks it should!!

We're working on sitting... Let's just say he's not quite a pro yet:)

Yay! My favorite buddy, the elephant...


Oops, I tossed him over to the side, no worries, I can get him...

Or, I'll just let him there, this is too much work!!

Ah, yes, I love my little sweetie:)