Sunday, May 16, 2010

So today was NICE and warrrrm! I haven't closed windows all week!
Plus today was the first picking of my lettuce mini garden :]

The bare bones left after i was mostly done

My first bird house hanging :]

Daisy enjoying some time on the deck :]


Well, that was my day. Warm then storm, Some knock off in-n-out burger for dinner and me=a happy kid!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Chocolate... cobbler?

Yes, I made it :] You can start drooling in envy of my weekend away from classes in which I had a rendezvous with some chocolate cobbler... Try it, but don't blame me if you develop a problem, the first step is admitting you have a problem.... back away from the chocolate ;]


For those that are strong enough to handle this baby, here is the recipe...

Recipe from The Tasty Kitchen Blog
  • 1 cup All-purpose Flour
  • 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • ¼ teaspoons Salt
  • 7 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder, Divided
  • 1-¼ cup Sugar, Divided
  • ½ cups Milk
  • ⅓ cups Melted Butter
  • 1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • ½ cups Light Brown Sugar, Packed
  • 1-½ cup Hot Tap Water



The ingredients are simple. You’ll need flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder, sugar, milk, melted butter, vanilla extract, brown sugar and hot tap water.






Begin with the flour in a mixing bowl.






Next add the baking powder, salt, 3 tablespoons of the cocoa powder and 3/4 of the sugar.






Side note here: I used dark cocoa powder for this recipe, which can be found in most local groceries. I’m a dark chocolate fan. You can certainly use regular cocoa powder, but if you can find it, the dark cocoa powder gives it an extra kick of richness that would make Ree’s skirt fly up. I don’t wear many skirts but I felt a distinct breeze up my pant legs.






Okay, back to the recipe. Mix ingredients well.






Next add the milk, melted butter and vanilla extract.






Combine well until you have a smooth batter. At this point it looks much like a brownie batter. I suppose, if you wanted, you could stop here and call it day. But Granny has bigger plans for us, so hold your horses.






In an 8 x 8″ or equivalent size casserole or baking dish, evenly spread the chocolate batter and set aside.






Moving right along, in a bowl place the remaining white sugar, the brown sugar and remaining 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder.






Combine well. The mixture was a little lumpy due to my brown sugar clumping but I just broke apart any large clumps and didn’t worry about the others.






Evenly distribute dry mixture over the chocolate batter.






Now here’s where it gets a little wonky. You may wonder what was Granny thinkin’? I even checked the recipe, concerned I had missed a step. Pour 1 1/2 cups of hot tap water over the whole thing and don’t stir.






Again, don’t stir. Just let it be. It looks kinda wrong, I know, but some kind of Granny magic happens. Trust me. Or rather trust Granny. She knew what she was doing.

Bake in a 350° F oven for approximately 40 minutes or until the center is set


Those photos up there are from the original post, as I did not take in process photos, but here are my finished product photos!



Sunday, April 18, 2010

Well its been an interesting few weeks... I've had family come and go, and come and go, a little cooking, a lot of baking, even a little planting! Some shopping to keep me sane and school school school and more school. I will be taking my camera to school from now on to get some good pictures of the wonderful stuff we whip up! As for now, some pictures to hold you over...

My dad thoroughly not enjoying me taking pictures

From the pot, to the plate, to the post...

First Meatball dinner :]

The beautiful view from the top of Pilot Butte during a mini rain storm

Grandma setting up the garden!

Checkin the flowers!

Maybe we should do this? haha maybe not ;]

Anyways, that was my last few weeks!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Scones If You Please, please?

So, last semester in our baking class we had some amazing things to cook up, one of my favorite was our scones, fluffy yet crumbly and bomb with butter :] and no damn buttermilk to be seen!

sorry its all in metric...
bread flour 1 lb 8 oz
pastry flour 1 lb 8oz
sugar 6 oz
salt .5 oz
baking power 3 oz
------------------------------------
shortening or 1 lb 3 oz
butter
------------------------------------
eggs 7 oz
milk 1 lb 5 oz
now this makes 6 lbs of scone batter, but i think they freeze just fine :]
Make up: blend the dry ingredients together and put it in your mixer, starting low and slow with the paddle attachment chop the butter in until it looks grainy.
After you have incorporated the butter, add the eggs and milk and blend. If the dough is to soft to work with right away, put it in the fridge for a while, it should come out just right.
Now, you can either drop them by spoon fulls on a sheet pan the British method, or you can form them into larger circles and cut into 8 slices and then bake for the English method.
Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 mins

Have fun with it, I love to add orange zest to it, and a little orange juice to the milk makes them nice and tasty, put a nice glaze on them... oh gosh, now I want a scone :[

Monday, March 15, 2010

culinary school, semester 1

Well, I totally forgot I even had this blog, lol. So now I'm going to continue it. Although the first semester seemed to fly by with very little issue, I think second semester might involve a temper tantrum or two. Classes have been awesome and pictures of our creations will come. For now computer universe, I'm going to go look for some herbs to start growing and some stuff for my cat :] enjoy. I will be tuning in on at least a weekly basis come second semester. A new Job at MT Bachelor and a new semester of chocolate torture to blog about. Let the fun begin!