April 30th I made a cake. I spent a good portion of my day on said cake. A GOOD portion. I made an Opera cake. It was rather a pain in the butt, I will not lie to you. So imagine my delight when I read that we were making Opera cakes as the Daring Bakers challenge. I thought yes, for once I will be ahead of the game, oh happy day. I didn't read the rest of the post and went on with my happiness, not worrying about it. Checking our website(the DB one) I started noticing that everyone's Opera cakes all had white glaze on top. Odd, I thought. I went back and read the recipe/instructions. You want to hear somebody swear? I out rivaled ANY swearing I do for hockey, I was that pissed. “I don't to make this f#%king thing again!!!” I professed loudly(you see it could not be dark in color...and mine was chocolate). And I really didn't want to. I considered not doing the challenge at all or just being a rebel and submitting the chocolate one. Suddenly I had an angel on one … [Read more...]
Sticky notes…
Having already made this weeks Tuesday's with Dorie pick(about a year and a half ago) I was originally going to pass. Give myself a break. However, this was one of my favorite recipes out of the book and so I wanted to make it again. I just didn't want to make the same way. That seems to be happening a lot to me lately. Since I am a bread pudding loving fool, I figured why not take the 3 sticks of butter brioche and make it even worse for you by adding eggs and heavy cream? Yes, lets. So that is what I did. I made Sticky Bun Bread Pudding. And it was good. And what is even better is the sauce is already there...right on the bottom. To make the bread pudding you have instead of making buns, make the two loaves of bread. Just put the filling in the bread before you roll it up. The rest is just like making regular bread pudding, well, except for the fact that you have the sticky pecan glaze at the bottom. If you haven't made the regular sticky buns yet, then definitely do that first. … [Read more...]
Back on a sugar high….
Sadly I can not remember the last time I participated in Sugar High Fridays. It seems I barely participate in anything anymore as it is(DMBLGIT). It just slips my mind(what's left of it these days :P). But when my lesser evil twin Helen(Tartelette) announced that she was hosting, I of course had to participate...how could I not? Helen picked a citrus theme, which is so versatile and so Summer. Good choice Helen. I really thought of doing something elaborate but I was sitting around looking through my blog and realized that I haven't made any cookies in a really long time. Ironically these cookies ended up being pretty elaborate for a cookie. Coconut Lemon-Lime Tassies were a little more work than I was wanting. I don't know what I was thinking. I don't like making pie, and this was pretty much like making pie....just really small ones. The cream cheese pastry is easy but you have to wait around for 4 hours for it to chill. I'm not good at smashing them into the mini muffins as I have … [Read more...]
Off roading…
The first time I saw someone picking blackberries it was along the side of the road in Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona(just outside of Sedona). It was a man, standing there, facing bushes along the road beside his car. I assumed he was peeing. Ew, I thought...and said. “Ew? You don't like blackberries?” said J, our neighbor across the street from us, who's kids I spent almost everyday with. “I don't think I have ever had blackberries...and what does that have to do with the man peeing?” Boy they had a good laugh at me and then pointed out that the man was not peeing but picking blackberries from the blackberry bushes along the road. The sheltered Suburban girl in me was shining through at that moment(I was only like 10 or 11). But still, I never stop to think up to that point how food even got to my table. I mean, didn't it just magically show up in those plastic containers, eh? :) Apparently not. Apparently, people pick and gather all types of fruit and … [Read more...]
