Posted by
zyllah – January 29, 2010
The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca
So for the first month of belonging to the Daring Bakers, this was my challenge. Interestingly enough I actually had made non gluten-free graham crackers from that recipe a few weeks ago and had them sitting in my freezer since I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Initially they were going to be dipped in chocolate for my grandfather but I had problems with the recipe. It was quite possibly the hardest dough I have ever worked with. It was so soft and it stuck to everything. I also sort of misread the instructions. However although they were sort of ugly and overdone they did taste right so I sort of figured at some point I’d use them in a crust. When I read the challenge I had every intention of making the recipe again and conquering it. Although I dismissed the idea of gluten free since I don’t know anyone who avoids gluten and the pocket book is a little lean this month to be buying all sorts of flours I probably wouldn’t use again. That’s assuming I could even find them without going to nashvegas. Anyway then I realized I had mistaken the dates of the daring cooks and bakers reveal dates. So suddenly I had a day to get it all done and I have an eight month old so…..I decided that since I had already tried the recipe and had to results I would just reuse them. It was appealing since soon I’m going back to my more usual lower carb dieting and it would get them out of my freezer. So into the food processor they went…
Crumbs that I wish I had left bigger
Then I added them to the butter and cocoa. I used a mixture of nestle I’m trying to use up because somehow I ended up with 3 tins of the stuff and the Valrohna I got on my last trip to whole foods. Except of course Elke was awake and I got a bit distracted so somehow I forgot to add the egg. So I started over and decided to just make a double batch.
Butter and Cocoa oh My
Now when I read the recipe I realized I would have to change the bottom layer. I can’t stand coconut. I don’t coconut milk in a thai curry but actual coconut no thanks. Also I’m not a huge fan of peanuts so I decided to just use the crackers. Now I should have gone with a bigger crumb on the crackers if I was going to do that but they were tasty anyway.
The First Layer
Now at this point we have to cover a few steps without pics because I made them over the course of the day when I could snatch a few minutes and I sort of forgot to take any more pics. I read about the middle layer and realized it was essentially oreo filing so I decided we’d had enough of that since I made those a couple of times over the holidays. Now I love mint and so does my husband so since I had finally managed to track down peppermint extract (seriously ever store in town was completely out for like a month over the holidays) I decided to go with that and since I wanted to make sure people knew it was mint I tinted it green. Then I proceded to the top layer. I didn’t have quite enough semi-sweet to cover I used the rest of the milk chocolate I’d bought to dip my graham crackers into. It made a really nice ganache layer…not too sweet but not bitter.
Choco Mint Nanaimo Bars
I really liked the end result however they were so incredibly rich if I make them again I’m going to find a way to stiffen the middle layer without using quite as much sugar.
Posted by
zyllah – January 26, 2010
So I’ve been a wee bit stressed lately, and when I’m stressed I cook. My mom can’t eat when she’s upset and I have the opposite problem. Also since Justin was gone for so long I went into cooking for one mode which is sear a meat and make a veg. Not really interesting at all. So since his return coincided with the holidays I used it as an excuse to go on a recipe FRENZY. Since Thanksgiving I’ve probably tried 12 or more recipes. Some I caught on film and some I didn’t since they had to be tasted right away. However I did add a list with links to the side panel if any of these make you want to try them.
First and most importantly I have a photo of the Birthday cake I made for myself last week. Inside was a pretty awesome carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It’s the Cooks Illustrated recipe and I have to say I thought the flavor, texture and moistness of the cake was spot on. However I always make a less sweet frosting . I just don’t care for so sweet my teeth ache, but because I cut back on the sugar the texture of the frosting was a little loose.
It looks so much better under a 50mm lens...
Next up we have some pizza I made using a different and much better dough recipe. I also used some leftover amatriciana sauce I had from the night before. It was super tasty I thought. I loved the texture of the dough but next time I’m going to add a bit more salt I think. Or let it rise longer since I felt it needed to develop a bit more flavor. Also I did modify it to use some olive oil in the dough.
Justin's Pizza
I have also been experimenting with cooking via Sous Vide. It’s essentially boil in a bag cooking but you don’t boil it. You cook the food at the temp you want it to be at the end. This prohibits over cooking, and you don’t get that sort of bullseye effect in meat. There is a big fancy small appliance for it now that I covet but it is a bit pricey so I’ve been using a more uhh ghetto arrangement. It does however work and the experiment was some of the best steak I’ve ever had.
See no ring of grey!
For Christmas my Inlaws were kind enough to get me this awesome Ice Cream maker.
Lovely maker of deliciousness.
I’ve only made two recipes though so far one of which is Vanilla and the other was a candied bacon ice cream. Both of them were from David Lebovitz and were fantastic. On the vanilla one although I did double the recipe I did not double the amount of eggs but it was sill good just not quite as custardy as it would have been but that was totally my fault since I ran out of eggs. The candied bacon was shockingly good, although I did not expect that candying the bacon would be quite so messy. Next up is Coffee since I don’t like it and I need to start my post holiday diet.
Look at those flecks...
My final photo is of Challah. I finally found a good recipe. However even though it was good I felt it needed a touch more sugar or honey. Next time I’ll try that. There are only few food things I want to conquer from my jewish heritage and pass on to Elke and this is one of them.
Best bread ever.
Posted by
zyllah – January 16, 2010
I know I know I should have gotten this done on or around January first right? However….my birthday is January fifteenth so I sort of wait till that date rolls around to start any diets, resolutions or reflecting. So the year in review….last year was weird. It was a really hard year. Justin was gone till November in Afghanistan and I was pregnant. Not only that but I did not have an easy pregnancy and Elke was born 2 months early at 2.5 lbs. However….She was born completely healthy and I am unspeakably grateful for that. I know its a total cliche but she has changed my life in so many wonderful ways. She’s happy and seeing her take such delight in things I don’t even think twice about like standing up reminds me that life doesn’t have to be complicated.
Once I was able to bring her home crafting sort of went by the wayside. Now that she’s a little older and Justin is back I’ve been able to add some back in but really at this point cooking is more of a frontrunner than knitting. I *have* to eat and it doesn’t take that much more time to make something good…
A whole lot of good things happened this past year so I should perhaps make a list so I can look back and remember it.
1. Elke: She rocks and is the joy of my life. Having Elke dissolved any lingering weirdness between me and my dad. I will always be grateful for how he dropped everything when I had her and how much help he was when she was in NICU. Also having Elke made me really feel like Justin and I were a family.
2. Reconnecting with my best friend. We had lost touch many years ago but through the wonder of facebook we found each other. It’s awesome having her back in my life.
3. Justin came home safe and sound.
Now for the year ahead..
1. Keep managing to carve out a bit of ‘me’ time so I stay balanced.
2. Lose the holiday and last of the baby weight.
3. Blog more.
And since I know that it’s not a blog post without a photo….
The first bubble bath.
Posted by
zyllah – October 24, 2009
So I decided to combine all my blogs. I am not the best blogger anyway and I don’t have the time to only talk about specific subjects. However I do promise that this will not become a baby blog, although I can’t promise to never mention the sweetest of sweetness. Anyway I am working on her birth story although I probably won’t post it. Suffice it to say she was born early because I did not have an easy pregnancy. However she was born healthy and is perfectly normal albeit a bit small. Well we are still waiting on one test but it’s an easy fix so…However I have lost 30 lbs so while I’m still fat I’m not quite as fat and I can fit into my old pre-preggo clothes. So to celebrate and also because I just really needed new boots this winter I ordered these, I can’t quite get rid of my punk/goth roots I guess.
So on to other things. Knitting has been rather sparse around here but I did make elke some really cute socks out of some leftover sock yarn. I got the pattern at Petite Purls. You’ll have to pardon the bad photos since I don’t quite find the time to upload and futz from the good camera so this is from my cell phone. The yarn is Misty Mountain Farm in Apple Pie (I think). Although the next pair I’m not going to bother with heel stitch since It’s not like she’s going to wear shoes.
I’ve also got a good half of a lace scarf done, I just never quite have the energy to pay that much attention. Just like I cast on for a sweater but….I am working on some worsted weight house socks. They’re just a garter rib pattern and I’m using DIC gothic rose that I have left over from the Clap. So far they’re the perfect mindless pick up and put down project.
Posted by
zyllah – April 29, 2009
I’m not sure I mentioned it but….I started a clap sometime after Christmas. My mom ganked my old one and it was looking a bit ratty anyway so I didn’t fight her too hard for it. I had decided to go with Dream in color’s gothic rose for yarn because *cough* well if you knew me 10 yrs ago you’d understand. I was oh so very goth. At least until I decided it was time to at least go for art fag librarian instead of Elvira. Anyway without further blathering…
Pattern: Clapotis the Social Diease
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Gothic Rose
Needles: Addi Interchangeable sz 8
Size: Me
Pattern Notes: Everyone has made it haven’t they? However I did twist the stitches on either side of the dropped stitch to prevent biasing. I do wish yet again I had made it larger but I could block the sucker more aggressively.
Would I knit it again? Yes of course but I’m not sure when…
Posted by
zyllah – April 11, 2009
Well now it sure has been a long time. After my last post I went into packing and cleaning mode so I was pretty busy. Then we moved into the new house. I love the house. I’m still working on it and in fact I’ve rearranged since I took those photos.
However I’m going to wait to take more till the tv thing above the fireplace is closed off and I have it painted. Anyway after that I had to get my husband ready to deploy. Also we found out I’m pregnant.
I’ve got about 15 weeks left before I give birth. We’re having a girl and naming her Elke Sophia unless I can’t stand it by then.
Pregnancy has been interesting, they found out I’ve got thyroid issues which explains why I’ve been so tired for so long. Anyway lets just say with the tired and trying to get the house organized I haven’t been doing much knitting. I have been working on another Clap out of dream in color. So hopefully it will be done in a day or so and I’ll have pictures. I also started Strangling Vine. It’s a nice fingering weight lace scarf. I’m doing it in this blackish purple sock yarn I got from knitting notions.
I still haven’t finished that black cardi since I won’t be able to wear it for a while so I lost motivation. However I did finally get an FO shot of my wicked cardi. Which although nice looking fits almost no-one. Oh well I did it in yarn I didn’t really care about and it was a steeking experiment.
So I will try to blog more often but we’ll see.
Posted by
zyllah – September 27, 2008
Pattern: Scrunchable Scarf from the Knit List (Rav Link)
Yarn: Malabrigo in Velvet Grapes (2 hanks)
Needles: KP 8′s
Size: 62″ long, Although I did add a few repeats to make it wider.
Pattern Notes: This was supposed to be KIP at knit night knitting. Eventually the stress of the house made it my only active knitting. It’s a great mindless pattern and really you can not go wrong with that ever. Also would make a fairly economical gift. If I bothered to knit gifts.
Would I knit it again? I might if I had another 2 skeins of a kettle dyed something to use up and couldn’t find a new pattern for them. I think the stitch pattern is quite lovely.
Posted by
zyllah – September 21, 2008
The layout I think I like the best
Cabinet Possibilities:
1. Solid wood but have to assemble.
2. Norcraft
In this color
3. Greenbridge
4. Smart Via Greenbridge
5. The lowes option Shenandoah
6. The Home Depot Option
7. Aristokraft
