Tuesday, November 19, 2013

By Any Other Name

This post is not meant to be an answer to anyone’s {{ cough . . . Ms. Stewart }} public comments about bloggers. I’ve deliberately not posted this until after that whole debacle died down because I don’t speak for anyone but myself and I don’t pretend to be in the majority. There are some fabulous, inventive, artistic bloggers out there who I do consider to be experts in creating recipes. I’ve never claimed to be one of them.
 
I’ve said many, many times on this blog that I’m just a mom who bakes to relieve stress and cooks because her family insists on eating. I post my recipes because people asked for them. I also acknowledge, begrudgingly, that I may have needed to give my personal friends a break from all the food pics I had been posting to my personal FB page. (For more on how this blog came about, read Can I Blog?, What's in a Name?, Eye of the Storm, and I Used to Mow the Lawn.)
 
Honestly, this is my take on experts: they are truly in the eye of the beholder. We each get to choose who we emulate, who we learn from, what we read and what we choose to take away from what we’ve read. It’s not up to one person, it’s up to us all.
 

By Any Other Name | graphic designed by and property of www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

 
I really don’t believe that not being considered an expert is an insult. There are many levels in anything we try to do, and I’d say that I’m somewhere on that ladder, holding on for dear life and working on taking that next step up. Just for fun, let’s see where I stand:
 
*I suppose real foodies don’t have to go through their pile of chopped vegetables to pick out their fingernails.
 
*I’ve never once watched a cooking show where they turn the upper oven on and put the food in the lower oven. Turns out that even if you do remember to set the timer the cookies aren’t ready when it goes off.
 
*I use cheats and short cuts every chance I get. They have to work in the recipe and suit our tastes, but I have no problem with them. Like this recipe that starts with frozen bread dough:
 
Pepperoni Pull Apart Bread | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe


Pepperoni Pull Apart Bread
 

 
*I’m fairly sure most bakers aren’t in a well-documented, publicly admitted long-term war with yeast in which yeast wins each battle. Well, except one. I won one. Got a picture too, in case I need to prove it. It’s the last picture in this post where I talk about why I only make Quick Breads.
 
*“Expert” is rarely a word used to describe someone who has no idea what all of those blade attachments for their food processor do. I haven’t thrown them out though, so if anyone ever enlightens me, I’ve got them.
 
*I’m guessing that most people who would be considered experts know the name of all their cooking utensils. I’ve been known to call one of mine “that scraper doohickey”.
 
I may be no expert, but I get points for trying, right?
 
  Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


 



Pepperoni Pull Apart Bread
                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com
                                                                                                                                                   

 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
18 Frozen roll dough balls (I use ½ package of Rhodes dinner rolls)
36 Pepperoni slices
Approximately 1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 stick butter
1 tsp garlic powder
1 TBSP grated parmesan
 
Directions:
NOTE: Because this takes about 6 hours to rise, I prep this in the morning when making to serve with dinner.
*Put a sheet of heavy foil in your oven. Leave oven turned off.
*Defrost 18 of the rolls until just barely defrosted and still cold. Don’t let them rise or warm to room temperature. Cut each roll in half.
*Grease a bundt pan.
*Melt the stick of butter with the garlic powder and grated parmesan cheese.
*Take each roll half, flatten in your hand, put a pinch of shredded mozzarella and a pepperoni slice in the center and close the roll around the ingredients inside until the cheese and pepperoni are completely enclosed inside.
*Roll each of the bread balls in the butter mixture. Try to get some of the garlic powder and parmesan onto each of the bread balls. Place them evenly all around the bottom of the greased bundt pan.
*Spoon whatever is left of the butter mixture over the top of the rolls.
*Wet a towel (can use a paper towel) with hot water and wring the water out so you’re left with a damp, warm towel. Place over the top of the bundt pan but not down inside, you don’t want it to touch the rolls.
*Put the towel covered pan into the oven onto the heavy foil. Allow to rise for approximately 6 hours.
*Once risen (it will be close to the top of the bundt pan), take towel out of the oven. Leave the pan in the oven and turn on to 350 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes, then check and put a piece of foil over the top of the pan if the rolls are starting to get too brown. Bake another 10 minutes.
*Remove pan from oven. Let sit 5 minutes. Gently loosen the rolls around the pan, put a plate over the top and, holding the plate onto the top of the bundt pan, turn the entire thing over so the rolls come out onto the plate.
NOTE: This can be served with my Homemade Marinara

34 comments:

  1. Elitists like (*coughs*Martha*coughs*) those commenters are part of a dying breed who long for the "good old days" before technology & the internet took so much of their power away. Of course, that's just my opinion. It's not like I'm an expert or anything. So what do I know?

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  2. I agree, in the eyes of my family and friends, I'm the expert, this could be the expert at making the best ceviche in town or the expert on burning every single cake I try to bake from scratch to the point of having a Fire Extinguisher sign above my stove purchased by no other than my loving husband, My mom was no expert, but I treasure the notebook she gave me when I got married with all the recipes she wrote on her own hand, while chasing after her mom (my grandma) getting all the tips she could before she, my mom , got married, that is my most valuable possession and I wouldn't trade it for a library or sign and autographed first edition MS cookbooks.

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    1. I agree. The best recipes are those that are handed down. They're not just good food but they carry memories and our family history as well.

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    2. I am not an expert, but, I know what works for me, and that is what I pass on to my friends. .People (friends) pass things to me, that work for them...we share, we chat...okay, so what if we are not in the same room?, so what that we have never been face to face? It doesn;t seem to make a difference when we are sharing! And actually, I have never been a fan of 'stuck up Martha' who assumes we are all the same....we are not, that is for sure! and .PS Lizy is one of my favorites along with Karen! Thank you!

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    3. I agree, blogging and social media is about sharing. As long as we're doing that, we're doing it right as far as I'm concerned.

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  3. We are all experts at our own lives. And your recipes are amazing.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Sharon and I couldn't agree more about the expert thing. We all know what's best for us and for our families.

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  4. I agree with Sharon. I don't bake, but your recipes look delicious.

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  5. Your recipes have inspired me on more than one occasion...um can I just say the chicken with the apricot sauce. I will make yours because they seem real and not too difficult, and I don't have to break out all those utensils I have never, ever used. Some of the so called experts are way too complicated for this mom! So you hang onto that ladder because it's much more fun with you on it.

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    1. Thanks Jennifer, I'm just like you, looking to make food that makes sense for my family and won't have me spending hours cleaning every pot and pan I own.

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  6. I love your recipes because they are ones my family will actually eat. Fancy schmancy recipes with 106 ingredients that I have to google don't tend to get eaten by teens and pre-teens, and definitely not a 2 year old. So to me, you are an expert. An expert in what I am looking for, but maybe not someone else. To each their own. Although the others would be wrong ;)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, that's exactly what I was going for (read this to mean "all I'm capable of")!

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  7. I love this! It's so true, experts like beauty are in the eye of the beholder. I think at first I was like how can I post this recipe or give blogging tips or do this or that and then I said, I write what I know. If it ends up helping or inspiring someone, then it served its purpose. The great thing is, I'm forever learning so I look forward to learning more things so that I can write about them too. This bread looks tasty for someone who isn't much of a cook. :)

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    Replies
    1. I think everyone has something to offer. If we don't see it, it's because we're not looking hard enough.

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  8. Haha .. you are right though. Especially now! Everyone considers themselves to be an expert at something. But it is all in the eyes of the beholder. I'm sure Giada de Laurentis thinks she is a bad ass in the kitchen but not necessarily an expert in all culinary measures :)

    Lanaya | xoxo
    http://raising-reagan.com

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    1. I think we all get to decide what we read and who we learn from. People, whether famous or not, can express their opinion, but in the long run it's just an opinion, not fact.

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  9. I love this. A lot. You're an expert in my book. Anyone who makes something from scratch that is not only edible but delicious? Expert!

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  10. Great post, and you're so right! (I also have many doohickeys, dealywhoppers, and thingamajigs, so I know what I'm talkin' about!) The best recipes I've ever made were those handed down, and a new one in my rotation is from YOU!! (peachy chicken, is that the name? the chicken kabob peach dealies) And I double-dog-dare an "expert" (cough-Martha-cough) to go against my aunt's effins any day of the week! BOOM.

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    1. Yes, the Peachy Chicken! Completely agree with you, no one's ever going to beat out your aunt's effins. No way!

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  11. You're so wrong, my friend. You ARE an expert! You are the expert at knowing how to make me smile. :)

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  12. That WOMAN! Sheesh. The only time not being an expert is a bad thing is if you are erroneously CLAIMING to be an expert. And honestly, if I had a team of researchers and designers and (oh Lord, this brings a tear to my eye...) kitchen cleaners following me around telling me what to do and all I had to actually do was stand there doing the "Diana chin tuck smile" from under my coiffed bangs, I could get away with wearing the expert badge too!
    Deep breath.
    We're all learning together, right?
    And...my cookies are never done when the time goes off. So I regularly say "just another minute or two" and don't bother setting the timer. If there's anything I'm expert at it's letting cookies burn!!!

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    Replies
    1. I'm so with you, who among us couldn't up our game if we had a staff. But I'll take standing in my own kitchen cooking and baking for my family all by myself any day.

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  13. You are an amazing cooking expert! That pepperoni bread just proves it as my keyboard is covered in drool!

    Plus, you're a great blogger. Nuff said.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Phil, I love reading your blog as well. It not only makes me drool but has me thinking I need to move to NY.

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  14. I owned my Kitchen-aid stand mixer for 9 years (and had used my mom's basically my whole life) before I read a post about making cinnamon rolls and she said she used her mixer. And suddenly a light went on- that's right! It came with a bread hook! Why had I never considered using it to make bread dough (or any dough besides cookie!)? Haha. No expert here ;)
    I will be making this recipe for dinner tomorrow- seriously. My husband LOVES pizza and pepperoni, and frankly, I get tired of it, so I'm always looking for new ways to satisfy his craving without overloading myself!
    Thanks for linking up at Saturday Dishes!

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    1. This is great as a dinner, appetizer or side dish. Hope your husband loves it.

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  15. We are featuring this recipe at Saturday Dishes this week! Thanks so much for linking up with us! Hope to see you again this week. The theme is healthy recipes.

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