Saturday, June 16, 2012

What's in a Name?

When I was trying to decide whether to blog or not to blog, I did ask my family about picking a name.  I knew this could turn out to be a mistake, but ultimately I was blind-sided by the direction that mistake came from.  Let’s just say it was from someone who hasn’t seen his “teens” in quite a while.
 
First, my younger son was at work, so it was my older son and my husband who got to brainstorm (more like brain drought) in the initial round.  My son fired the first salvo and it was much as expected.  Something about me being a woman and being in the kitchen.  A salvo is defined as the firing of guns either to hit a target or to perform a salute.  Let’s just say this kid was NOT saluting me.
 
But it was my husband whose thoughts got away from him.  “How about Karen’s Kreative Kitchen, you can use KKK.  Oh, oops, DEFINITLY not”.  This was the point at which Jason banned his father from the rest of the discussion.  I said “what about Baking 4 J&J” (for my kids' names) “Clever”, I thought.  “Forget it Mom, that’s just bad”.  Older son's next suggestion: “JIsTheNicestPersonIKnow.blogspot.com. OK, this is going well.
 
When my younger son arrives home from work at 11pm, I ask him what he’d suggest for a name.  “How about MeanBeanMomsCooking”.  Clearly 7 hours at McDonald’s affects the brain.  If I fail at blogging and decide to become a neuro-scientist maybe I’ll look into that.  Until then, I guess I’m playing the name game alone.
 
I think that part of the issue with choosing a name is that I’m suffering from Blog Identity Crisis (when I become a neuro-scientist I’ll let you know if that’s a real identified medical condition).  The truth of the matter is I have no idea what I’m going to be doing here.  I know I need an outlet for posting my poorly taken pictures of my baked catastrophes…I mean attempts…I mean snacks.  Therein lies the yin and the yang of my baking habit.  My baked goods NEVER come out looking as pretty as I envisioned (and on the rare occasion that they do, my crappy picture ruins the aesthetics anyway), but those boys just scarf them down regardless.  Pretty, ugly, as intended or not, they don’t care!  I think I started taking pictures of what I bake because the kids (and I don’t just mean my two) eat them so fast that I sometimes wonder if I ever really made them.
  

What's In A Name | www.BakingInATornado.com



There are millions of blogs written by amazingly creative people who design their own recipes and actually know the science and rules of how to bake.  That’s not me.  I mostly search for others’ recipes to start with and adapt them to my taste or skill level.  I DO sometimes create my own recipes but they are frequently based on a little of this from one recipe and a little of that from another.   I don’t plan to include recipes in this blog, but I’m not opposed to giving out recipes.  If people actually end up reading this and leave feedback wanting recipes, I’ll revisit that.
 
Although I do bake to relieve stress, there are other strategies I’ve been trying as well. Face it, I have WAY more stress than I have flour and sugar.  Life is exceedingly difficult right now on a number of levels. Sometimes I just need to vent and my sarcastic sense of humor serves me well in that particular arena.  It’s an attempt to cry less and laugh more.  Sometimes something I see or read, having nothing to do with baking, may hit me as prophetic or funny and that’s what I’ll want to share on that day.  That’s why I say that this blog may suffer from an identity crisis.  I’m just going to have to see how it goes.  I hope you’ll choose to go with me…


White Chocolate Blondies  | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com

White Chocolate Blondies



Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


P.S.  Two of my new blog followers (yes, you boys know who you are) were bribed with White Chocolate Blondies.  I make no apologies.
 
P.P.S. 7-16-12 My above comment “I don’t plan to include recipes in this blog” lasted for one month.  I’ve been asked for recipes, so where I can I’ve gone back and added them.  In instances where I’ve used others’ recipes with little change, I’ve just added a note as to where you can find them.
                            
           
White Chocolate Blondies 
                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com         
                       

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1 stick margarine
3/4 cup plus 1 cup white chocolate chips
4 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
 
Directions:
*In microwave, melt butter, margarine and 3/4 cup white chocolate chips at approx. 70% for about 1 minute. Stir and continue at 10 second intervals until smooth. Cool slightly.
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 13 baking dish.
*Beat eggs with sugar and vanilla. Add white chocolate/butter/margarine mixture.
*Stir in the flour, salt and the other 1 cup of white chocolate chips.
*Bake 30 minutes, or until it springs back to the touch. Cool and cut like brownies.

8 comments:

  1. So far so good. Can you mail me some chocolate blondies??????

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for sticking with me, Reisa. All snacks are available on a "come and get it" basis. You have to hurry though, the time between coming out of the oven and "all gone" seems to be decreasing now that the kids are out of school!

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  2. Another yummy recipe. Can't wait to try this one!! Thanks so much for linking up to Tasty Thursdays on The Mandatory Mooch. I hope you will link up again. The party will be live tomorrow night. www.mandatorymooch.blogspot.com

    Thanks, Nichi

    ReplyDelete
  3. This looks so good. I think I am going to give this a try next week. I am a stress baker as well. I only have a few recipes on my site but you can check it out if you have time
    http://www.nickisrandommusings.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm starting to learn that there are more stress bakers out there than I thought. Glad to hear from another one.

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  4. I do a lot of baking as well, and these sound wonderful! I am more than a little curious about the margarine though. May I use 2 sticks of butter instead?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Vickie, butter would work just fine. Some people prefer to use all butter, I know people who prefer all margarine, and I tend to use one of each. I hope you enjoy these.

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