Time to Make the Donuts!

I am addicted to cooking shows.  Not every cooking show, I do have discerning taste (read I dislike Rachel Ray with all that is in me)....but there are some that I could (and do) watch all day!  Up there at the top of my list is Diners, Drive Ins and Dives.  Okay I know, it's not really a cooking show.  It's more of a "where to go and eat" show, but I would LOVE to have Guy Fieri's job.   

How awesome would it be to go around the country and check out cool joints and get the behind the scenes intro to how their best dishes are made?!   In fact, it gets to a point when I watch too much Triple D, where I crave something so badly, that I will go out to my kitchen and just make it or bake it!

Today's 'I can't stand it any longer' moment resulted in me making gluten free donuts.  Yep, I had to have a donut.  I had the best time playing with the recipe and making the little munchkin style things that I was actually disappointed when I was done!  I made one batch and then mixed it up and covered some with cinnamon and sugar, some with just powdered sugar. Some I filled with strawberry jelly and covered with powdered sugar....yum.  Add a cup of coffee and I was in heaven!   Sorry the picture is a little blurry, but I was on a bit of a sugar high!

Obviously, I can't keep baking things just because I want them - otherwise, I won't be able to leave my house at the end of my vacation.  It sure is fun to be able to use my culinary arts degree when a whim hits me - but I have to use the skills for good healthy food and not 'donut evil!'

As I mentioned above, I don't love ALL cooking shows - some are just annoying and insulting. I don't need to know that a teaspoon of salt should be measured exactly or that if you add vanilla to a boxed cake mix you can fake it as a 'from scratch' recipe.  That's all crap in my humble, albeit blunt opinion.  If you want to take a short cut, watch Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa.  She takes a really complicated recipe and simplifies it so you aren't in the kitchen all day, but still preserves the integrity of the dish.  Basically, she still cooks and makes it really easy.

I don't think this generation should grow up thinking slicing cookie dough from a premade roll is 'homemade' - premade dough maybe a great treat and timesaver, but spend some time actually making cookies the 'long way every once in a while - maybe at Christmas.  Get the kids involved like my Mom got me involved and have them decorate the cookies.  It's a fun activity and I can tell you it really inspired me to learn to bake as I got older!  I wanted to recreate those food memories like Mom and Grandma used to make for us.

Making dinner as a family - even just B and I - really makes it all taste better.  Seriously.  I enjoy it so much more when we spend time in the kitchen together than I would if I was just slaving away and plating it for him.  Now I don't have kids yet and I know how crazy life can be - so even if it's hotdogs and baked beans, give everyone a job and make it a team effort - so the whole family can appreciate how much fun it is to 'make dinner' once in a while!

Let's keep cooking in our kitchens and not just on television.  Don't forget that while going out is AWESOME and I love it as much as the next person - it is cheaper to eat at home and there's nothing better than leftovers for lunch my people.   I don't claim to be Betty Crocker folks, but I do love to sit down to dinner and eat things I made with my own little hands - I love it even better when it's something made with B's hands too!

Happy Cooking Ya'll and have a great Tuesday!

Bomb Pops and Fireworks

I enjoyed a somewhat lazy day - after a crazy morning.  This week coming up is going to be a real humdinger.  It's going to be loaded with lots of activity, both at work and at home and then I'm looking forward to a whole week off from work.  Now that doesn't happen often.  I'm really looking forward to an old fashioned Fourth of July.  I hope you have fun plans too!  I'm going to make homemade ice cream, we'll go see fireworks and maybe (if the weather allows) we'll go see a silly parade! 

I love the idea of homemade ice cream and fireworks - not sure why - but it really reminds me of being a kid.  Not that we had homemade ice cream a lot growing up - but we sure did go to fireworks.  I remember going to Bel Air High School early in the evening and putting out our blanket and chairs and camping out until dark.  We'd wait for the Good Humor man to show up and then line up for a Strawberry Shortcake, a Fudgecicle or a Bomb Pop.  (Bomb Pops always lasted the longest!)  Then we'd wait with the fireflies and mosquitoes and hundreds of other people and then lie back and ooh and ahh through the show.  They never disappointed.  Afterwards, you had to fight your way back through the crowds and the traffic to get home again, but it sure was fun while it lasted! 

I don't know why, but for the last ten years, I haven't seen fireworks on the Fourth of July!  So weird.  I don't think I really knew where to go see them in CLT.  Hopefully we'll find a great spot this year!  I want to go watch them in the humid air, laying on my blanket and do some people watching on the side. 

I think I might try strawberry ice cream in the old 'maker' this year.  What traditions do you have for the 4th?  Do you like fireworks or do you hate the noise?  Our Bubbies don't care about them all that much...noise doesn't really bother them like that luckily.  We wouldn't take them with us though...Paxton's Prozac doesn't really cover fireworks or crowds very well.

Now I just need to get more corn on the cob, make potato salad and bake something silly - maybe something with a flag on it...

In the meantime, I hope you have a great week!  Happy Sunday Ya'll!

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood it Ain't

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,  A beautiful day for a neighbor...Yes, I'm singing Mr. Roger's theme song.  I'm hoping beyond hope it will catch on with my neighbors and put everyone in a good mood! 

Have you ever had neighbors that you just don't get or get alone with?  No matter how nice you try to be, their kid is still ugly to you?  We have those in our neighborhood.  It totally bums me out. 

Don't get me wrong, some have been great.  Really.  Some though, not so much.  In fact, our next door neighbor mows their 'yard' with a weed wacker and a pair of scissors and that's usually at 6:30AM on a weekday.  There is so little grass that Neighbor X is just taming weeds...but it is a great visual.  Imagine someone in 80 degree weather, out in their yard with a yellow plastic dishwashing glove on one had and scissors in the other, bending over to 'trim' the tall weeds in the yard. 

We also have a food truck that sits in on the street - it's a pretty, shiny silver color - such a nice addition to the neighborhood.  Wonder if she has any gluten free snacks on board?? A few houses up from up from that we have the house that was abandoned.  They had two Great Danes, so I'm sure the inside looks great.  I'd bet a bag of gluten free pretzels that you can get it for a steal.

Back up the street is the neighbor who is our own Gladys Kravitz.   Remember her from the show Bewitched?  She's in everyone's business and she tells so many stories, I think she's forgotten what the truth is.  Based on how she talks about our neighbors, we certainly don't want to get on her radar. 

We do have great neighbors though - in fact we love them!  They are fun, caring and giving folks. I always wanted to live in a neighborhood where I'd have friends, kids to play with our children (someday), and just in general a warm, friendly, and safe environment to raise a family!    I think we've met some great friends, but I'm not sure we're in the neighborhood I was dreaming about.

But for now, we're okay...in fact, this past weekend we had a mini 'baby shower' for one of our favorite neighbors.  She's having her second child and is having a little girl!  We're so excited for her - I made some cookies for her (upon request).  We can't wait to meet her new little one! 

I think overall, this neighborhood has been great for us.  We've met some really nice people people and learned some important life lessons.  Eventually, when things calm down in our lives, we'll move...but we'll stay here in Charlotte.   I'm sure we'll find another interesting group of neighbors in the next neighborhood - maybe we'll find someone who mows their yard with a mower and doesn't care about whose car is parked in our driveway....well, a girl can dream I guess.  Happy Wednesday Ya'll!

Mousse Anyone?

Left -Toll House Cookie Bars

Right - Gluten Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

Baking is my zen time.  Call me crazy, but when I have a really bad day, week etc....I bake.  Now my baking style has kind of morphed over the last year because of the gluten free thing, but I still love it.  I typically will play with a gluten free recipe for something I'm craving and then bake something for B (and anyone else he'll share with!)

Most people these days don't care to bake and think it takes too much effort.  When you can buy ready made dough or frozen treats, why go through the effort of measuring, sifting, and mixing?  I get that.  But when I see how excited people can be over a simple Snickerdoodle or a Chocolate Chip Cookie, it seems silly to not go through a little more effort.

When I was in culinary school, I will cop to the fact that I coasted through my 'regular' classes, just to learn more about baking.  There were only a few baking 'types' in my class, so when we got to our baking & pastry class, everyone else was in hell.  It was so much fun making things like pain au chocolate and mousse until it came out my ears.

During my preparation time for my final semester 'exam' I think I made at least 100 batches of mousse, (thanks Margaret!) trying to perfect my recipe.  I don't think I've made mousse in 15 years - and I KNOW I haven't made pain au chocolate since 1996!  Sometimes you can just kill a recipe I guess.

I love to play with small desserts - the kind with immediate gratification potential - like cookies, brownies or muffins.  With a cake, you have to pray it's cooked correctly, ice it and then cut it.  Too much stress there.  It's much easier to make a cupcake or a cookie and know whether or not it's turned out - plus they bake much faster and give you a quick fix when you need it.

Oddly enough, I've never craved sweets (under normal non-hormonal circumstances that is).  I'm a salt craver and would prefer a slice of cheese and some pretzels over a cookie.  However, now that I can't eat wheat I, of course, crave sweets.  How ironic - and typical for me!   So now, I'm on a mission to create gluten free baked goods that don't make the consumer feel like they're eating gluten free!

Bryan is a trooper and is more than happy to be my 'sampler' - of course the Bubbies like to do that too!

 

So for now, until I figure out the secret to gluten free baking, I'll keep my day job and bake at night and on weekends.  In the meantime, keep your eye on Facebook.  You never know when I'm going to post that I baked something and there might be a delivery over the fence for you!

The Joys of Gluten Free...

Focusing on the sarcasm here....I HATE being Gluten Free.  Let me reiterate...having to eat Gluten Free is so frustrating that I want to stomp my feet and whine about the general unfairness of it.  I miss so much - GOOD pizza, bread in general - how good is a nice soft potato roll????  Gluten Free flour, while a mental placebo, does little for the palette.  I've started to venture in Gluten Free baking and let me tell you, it's not for the feint of heart.  I graduated near the top of my class in culinary school and baking is my passion; also known as my zen time.  Gluten Free baking is nothing but a stressful undertaking.  It's not instinctive for me yet and that is frustrating.   I think it will be a while before I just decide to head into the kitchen and throw together a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread - right now, that recipe is about 23 ingredients.  The least of them being the yeast. 

I just need to take a month and immerse myself with the 8 different flours I need to use and just experiment.  I swear to God above and all of the Gluten Free victims out there that I will find a way to make GF baking fun and enjoyable with the results both decadent and familiar.

Until then, I will have to rely on Betty Crocker - yeah, baking out of a box.  (Sigh.) Their brownies actually kick some easy butt - add some cream cheese butter cream icing and you have a tiny bite of normal. 

I'd love to hear any Gluten Free gems you've found - I've been GF for about 8 months now, and obviously I'm still learning!  Happy Baking and I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!