Nothin' says lovin' ...

Last Sunday was Tim's birthday & I wanted to do something nice for him so over the past couple weeks I've been busy in the kitchen cooking up lots of tasty stuff - mainly baked goods. Arguably too many. We had 7 people in this house for Tim's birthday party but they barely made a dent in it all. I gotta admit that it was fun to make, though. I just need more people to come over & help me consume my creations!

Here's a little taste (heh heh) of what I've been making.

Dulce de leche. Also known as Confiture de Lait, milk jam, or simply wonderful, caramel-y goo. This is the easiest thing in the world to make. Do yourself a favor & try it.


The famous chocolate chip cookies from The New York Times. These babies require some unusual ingredients & have to sit in the fridge for 24 to 36 hours before you bake them. Honestly, I think the recipe is a bit fussy, but I rather liked the big chocolate disks & the way they melt out in thin layers throughout the cookies.


Almond bundt cake. Hope you can spot it in the pic. This was Tim's official b-day cake and, like the cookies, it required some unusual ingredients (good luck finding almond filling!), but it certainly was tasty.


Touch of Grace biscuits. Yes, that's a biscuit in the photo. These were by far the MESSIEST things I have ever made in my entire life. Even messier than pie crust. When I was done, there was a thick layer of flour all over the oven & my hands were covered in gluey gunk. But oh my ... so yummy. Light yet moist with a touch of sweetness.


Tutti Fruiti ice cream ... or at least that's what Tim calls it. Following Tim's suggestion. I made strawberry ice cream & mixed in candied cherries (Tim's favorite) plus candied orange & lemon peel. I don't know if it's technically "tutti" but it sure is creamy, fruity, & delicious.


Somehow we've managed to consume most of this stuff in the past week. There's a good deal of ice cream left (it keeps better than anything else), as well as one cookie & a slice of cake. I suppose Tim and I have probably put on an extra pound or so in the past week. Oh well! I guess I'm just trying to put the "love" back in love handles.

Goods - mostly of the baked variety

It's coming up on February, which means I've got a lot of cooking in my forecast - our elopement anniversary, Tim's birthday, Jennifer's return from California, and ... ummm, because I want to? Oh, and Millie's birthday! Hooray for more excuses to bake!

In honor of these occasions, I think I'll make some things from my new cookbooks, but I've also found some recipes on-line that caught my interest. I'm going to post links here just so I don't lose them. So I guess this post is really just for me. Unless, of course, you're also in the mood to cook.

Pink strawberry cake made from scratch with real strawberries (no Jello!)
Check comments for buttercream frosting recipe. I've been looking for a recipe like this for, oh, 4 months or so. Who knew is was so hard to make pink cake without food coloring?

Homemade perogies!
Because everybody loves perogies ... even if they don't know it yet.

Dorrie Greenspan's perfect party cake
So pretty! Perhaps I'm developing a thing for pink food.

Almond bundt cake
Originally found here. Tim loves all thing amaretto, so I might make this for his birthday.

The recipe that swept up a baking frenzy in the cooking world last summer ...
NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
Changes & substitutions from The Kitchn

Michelle Obama's shortbread cookies
Droooooooool.


Edited 1/29/09 to add ...
I found more stuff I want to make!

Dulche de leche made simply in the oven.

Truffles 4 ways

Peanut butter fudge rice krispie treats
Just read that name again. Amazing, no? At it's easy to leave the chocolate off for people like george.

Big hearted cookies
'Cause V-Day is coming fast

Whipped Shortbread Cookies
I've eaten the tinned variety of these so many times. Time to do it from scratch!

Cherry chocolate chip cookies
Why have I never thought of this before? Brilliant!

Whisky soaked dark chocolate bundt cake
I feel a little light-headed just reading this recipe ... but in a good way

Another link dump

My computer has been acting funky, so I'm going to post a few more links here so I can close tabs & keep my system from crashing ... again. Grr.

My dream cooker:
http://www.elmirastoveworks.com/northstar.aspx?src=ranges
If I were rich & didn't care about resale & such, I'd get that baby in red. With a matching range hood. Oh yeah, baby!

Southern Accents Design Assistant:
http://designassistant.southernaccents.com/browse/accents/spcSearch?tab=Rooms&offset=133&rpp=12&Rooms=RoomsKitchens

HGTV message boards - Color:
http://boards.hgtv.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/7644077072

Charles&Hudson decorating blog:
http://www.charlesandhudson.com/

Fancy french toast:
http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2007/09/french-toast-fancy-brunch-restaurant.html

Link dump

Just dropping off some links to food sites.


Pumpkin muffins (from Smitten Kitchen): http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/10/promise-keeper-pumpkin-eater

More pumpkin muffins (with some additional instructions): http://feliciasullivan.com/?p=725

Molasses cookies: http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2007/09/cookies-for-fall.html

Rose lassi: http://www.kurma.net/essays/e2.html

If you like that, you'll probably LOVE my favorite site for food porn: http://www.tastespotting.com/


And totally unrelated to food ...
For those who have trouble understanding my husband (or some of the language I've picked up from him), here's a guide to British slang: http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml

Shut the damn windows!

Once upon a time, my mom's best friend, Helen, lived in a haunted farm house in Pennsylvania. That's right - haunted. Helen & her family believed that the ghost was a woman because some members of the family had seen her silhouette from afar. Also, the ghost had a habit of moving Helen's jewelry around and rearranging the china in the hutch - typical girly stuff. The only bad thing about this ghost is that she had a habit of opening the windows and the front door and just leaving them open. It didn't matter what the weather was like outside; she just kept opening the windows! Well, one cold and snowy winter's night, Helen and the family drove home after an evening out to find the windows WIDE open & snow blowing into the house.
Helen had had enough.
She stormed into the house & yelled, "Listen. I don't mind that you move the china. I don't even mind that you play with my jewelry. But will you PLEASE shut the damn windows!!?!?!?!!!!!"
And the ghost obeyed. From that day on, the doors and windows were never mysteriously left open.

I love that story. I often think of it whenever I'm closing windows, be they the windows on a house or even the internet windows on my computer.

The problem is ... well, I have a nasty habit of leaving windows open for a loooooong time. Internet browser windows, I mean. I just keep finding good stuff! Not great enough to add to My Favorites, but still really good, ya know? Plus I like to have a lot of windows open at once. A LOT. For instance, I have 13 pages open on my browser right now & that's actually a fairly small number for me. This isn't good because, inevitably, Internet Explorer will crash from my over-enthusiasm & I'll lose all of those precious windows that I had kept open. This always breaks my heart.

So I think occasionally I will post links to interesting things here on my blog so I can shut some damn windows and still be able to refer to them later. And if any of you feel like following the links & enjoying my finds, so much the better!

Bake & Destroy blog: nataliecakes.wordpress.com/
Married ... With Dinner blog: marriedwithdinner.com/
Recipe for ice cream in a bag: www.kidsdomain.com/craft/icecream.html
Paris Daily Photo blog: www.parisdailyphoto.com/
"Durham: The Making of an Image" article: www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A31990

And here's a simple recipe I like. I found it at one of my very favorite blogs: Posie Gets Cozy.

(Bis)Quick Applesauce Muffins
2 c. Bisquick
1/4 c. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. applesauce
1 slightly beaten egg
2 T. vegetable oil

Melted butter
Cinnamon sugar

Mix ingredients together for 30 seconds. Fill muffin pans 3/4 full. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees F. Cool slightly, then dip top lightly in melted butter, then in cinnamon sugar. Makes a dozen.

PS: Yes, I know I should be posting the 400 photos I have saved on my camera. It's just such a hassel & I can't get things to look the way I want on the screen and blah. If anyone has some tips, I'd appreciate it.

PPS: One more link. This one is for george.
NPR/Marketplace story: "What's an escrow?"