Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Junk Drawer
I was looking through my junk drawer the other day (don’t pretend you don’t have one, I know you do) looking for I-don’t-know-what because invariably while going through there looking for one thing your attention gets drawn to some other little long-forgotten bauble. As I continued to rediscover my treasures, I realized that it would be interesting to know what normal other people have in their junk drawer. And I knew just how to find out.
I neither wanted to ask people about everything they had stowed away nor thought they’d take the time to tell me, so I emailed a bunch of friends and asked them to tell me about just one item they had and, in 3 sentences or less, tell me why they keep it. I got some pretty interesting answers. Here’s a peek into some well-known bloggers’ drawers (come on, you knew I was gonna go there):
Friday, November 22, 2013
November Fly on the Wall
Happy Birthday, Fly on the Wall group challenge.
Fly on the Wall posted for the first time on November 16th, 2012.
Today I post a Fly on the Wall piece for the 13th time.
Welcome to a Fly on the Wall group post. Today 13 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house.
When you’re done, click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:
Me: What have you got for homework?
Son: Nothing Mom, homework’s for chumps.
So glad you straightened me out on that issue.
And yet another conversation with my concrete and literal son:
Son: Where’s the pizza sauce?
Me: We finished the one that was in the fridge, open a new one.
Son: Where is it?
Me: What do you mean where is it, where do you think we keep it? In the toilet?
So we figure out that the sauce is kept in the pantry.
Son: Where’s the can opener?
Me: In the toilet.
There are lots of things that a “normal” person might say at dinner that would result in incredulous stares from their family. Here are a few examples of statements made by a blogger that have become so much the norm that no one even bothers to look up:
*I need a picture for the blog so if anyone’s thinking of breaking an arm, this would be a good time.
*Can one of you guys stand up, turn around and let me put a bra on you backwards for a picture?
*After dinner I need you to go out to the back yard and take a picture of a weed (this one) for me.
*Someone needs to count the M&Ms in that big bag for me before you leave the kitchen for the evening. They need to match up to the Kisses and the pretzels.
On Tuesday night my son asks if his friends can come over the next night to play pool and poker. I tell him that of course they can and ask if he wants me to bake something. He and I decide on two treats.
Me: I’ll bake those treats for you tomorrow, but next time maybe you could invite them a little earlier than the night before.
Him: Oh, I did. I invited them last week.
Well OK, then.
Hubs: Where’s “J”?
Me: He’s sleeping on the couch.
Hubs: When he wakes up, tell him . . . and he goes into a 10 minute play-by-play of some college football game; team names, who did what, scores, overtime, who knows what else.
Me: I’m not going to remember all that.
Hubs: It’s one thing, you can’t remember one thing?
Me: Fine.
Son wakes up and I tell him: Dad said to tell you there’s a football game on.
Chocolate Fluffernutter Cookies
It is so frustrating to be a sarcastic mom of a concrete and literal son. I posted on my FB page:
“Just sneezed so hard I saw a squirrel fall out of a tree in the back yard.”
Then I explained why it’s funny to my son. Three times. He still doesn’t get it.
Sigh.
It’s a rare occasion around our house, but we were running low on milk and I wasn’t going grocery shopping until the next day. My husband and son usually have a bowl of cereal for breakfast so at dinner that night I had them drink water, telling them that I was saving the rest of the milk for their breakfast. About an hour after dinner I walked by the kitchen where my son was having dessert: Oreos . . . with a big glass of milk.
Although I did not try to kill my son last year, I’ve been informed that I’m not allowed to bring the umbrella in from the porch this year (or ever again, for that matter). Apparently shattering a table your son is sitting under (trying to help release the umbrella) has a lasting emotional affect. Sheesh, who knew?
Halloween night a little girl I’ve never seen before, maybe 3 years old, comes to the door. I give her a candy and she says “agua”. So I go down to the basement and get her a water bottle, hand it to her and her parents smile at me. She steps aside and I see more kids. The little boy next in line gets his candy and says “agua por favor”. So I call out to the kids behind him “agua?” No response, it looks like he’s the last thirsty one. I go back down to the basement, get another water bottle, give it to the little boy whose parents smile again. Next to the door comes another little girl. I give her candy and she says “could I have some water too, please?”
Just to be clear, I am NOT the genius parent who told my younger son that he could take the surround sound speakers off of the wall in the basement and hook them up to his computer in his bedroom.
Chocolate Fluffernutter Cookies
©www.BakingInATornado.com Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup chocolate peanut butter (can substitute regular peanut butter)
½ cup peanut butter
2 ¼ cups flour
1 cup potato chips, finely crushed
¾ cup mini chocolate chips
Approximately 100 mini marshmallows
Directions:
*Cream butter, margarine, brown sugar and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and peanut butters. Mix in the flour, then the potato chips and mini chocolate chips.
*Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
*Prepare 2 cookie sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*Roll dough into approximately 50 balls and place 25 at a time onto prepared cookie sheet.
*Make an indentation into the center of each ball and push 2 mini marshmallows into each.
*Bake for about 13 minutes or until the marshmallows and bottom of cookie starts to brown.
*Allow to rest for 2 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.
*Repeat with the second batch of cookies.
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.
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:
*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?
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
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.
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
*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?
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
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