October 9. Pumpkin Buns.

I'm not a fan of those "woman's" magazines (with the exception of "Bust"). I prefer house, craft, or cooking magazines. BUT, when I'm in work and it's S L O W, I'll read anything. "Rod and Reel"? Why not?! "Men's Health"? Pass it my way!
That's how I came upon this recipe for pumpkin buns. A co-worker brings in her "Family Circle" and"Woman's Day" mags. I'm a sucker for any magazine with pumpkins or Halloween items on the cover.

I photocopied the recipe a few weeks ago and finally decided to make it yesterday. I didn't have to work and Abby didn't have school. There was time for this recipe... finally. Then I realized I finished up my butter on the snickerdoodles. I used Promise Light spread. Worked well and cut back fat. That's good. I added some cinnamon & nutmeg to the dough. Then I realized I was out of 10x sugar for the glaze. Boo! BUT, I did have cream cheese, so I blended that with about an 1/8c granulated sugar and a splash of milk. That worked well and probably canceled out the usage of the Promise Light.

The first rise took awhile, longer than the recipe-stated 75 minutes. I just left it for 2+ hours. It rose nicely. We rolled out the dough and added the filling (added a bit of nutmeg to this too). Rolled it and sliced it and let it rise again. They looked beautiful!


While they were baking my house smelled divine! When they cooled a bit, I smeared the cream cheese topping on them and served them to some of the neighborhood kids since one of them came in for a bit and smelled them and promptly asked for one! They were a delicious success. Time-consuming, but tasty. Admittedly, the pumpkin flavor was kind of lacking. The pumpkin gave the finished buns a nice orange hue, but left a very mild pumpkin flavor. The filling was good, but I guess I'm greedy because I wanted more filling!

Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of the finished product because my husband, ever vigilant about the potential for ants, put them in the fridge and now they look kind of gross. I'm sure their texture changed as well. Oh well. At least I had one yesterday.

October 6. Snickerdoodles.

Well, that daily posting was shot to hell. Two reasons, I don't really have time to blog on the weekends and then my husband had to take the laptop to work. So, oh well. Here's a post.

Yesterday, in an attempt to stop my daughter from watching TV, I suggested making cookies. We decided on snickerdoodles. Instead of looking on the internet (no laptop, remember?) I looked in my cookbooks! The Joy of Cooking had a simple recipe. It's a basic butter cookie (with cream of tartar, which is *supposed* to help items rise) rolled in cinnamon-sugar.



The cookies are super flat, but good. I think they could use more cinnamon. Next time, I'll add cinnamon to the dry ingredients as well as rolling the cookie in it. Actually, I'd also decrease the amount of sugar that the cookie is rolled in. I wanted the cookie to be thicker and spicier.

Unlikely Trio.

Inspired by a recipe in the new Cooking Light, I decided to make a Lemon-Lavender Olive Oil cake. The original recipe is Lemon-Rosemary Olive Oil cake. I didn't have any fresh rosemary, but still have a lot of lavender left over from last year. I was intrigued by the use of olive oil in a cake instead of vegetable oil or butter.

Despite the unique ingredients, this cake is quite mediocre. There's a small amount of lavender flavor, but not enough to make it outstanding. The lemon flavor is barely there and the olive oil flavor is non-existent. I guess you have to have olive oil in the title of the recipe since it's such an unusual cake ingredient, but it really shouldn't be there because if you didn't tell me olive oil was in the cake, I never would have guessed.

Needless to say, it was a disappointment. I may try it again, this time using rosemary and a lot more lemon.

Easy as Pie.

I have a confession. It's difficult to admit. It's kind of embarrassing as well. Please don't think any less of me.

OK.

Here goes...

I suck at making fruit pies. There. I said it. *looking down at feet*

Seriously. I've never found a crust recipe that tastes good to me. There is never enough filling and/or it's too runny. The crust gets soggy. I want to be good at making pies. They seem so comforting. And so simple. I don't have a family recipe for fruit pies either, which kind of makes me sad. Now, if you need an heirloom poundcake recipe, or a cheese pie recipe, or a cookie recipe, then look no further, I've got you covered.

Where am I going with this? Well, I had about 8 about to rot peaches. (sounds yummy, right?) But seriously, they were so sweet, too soft for me to want to just eat them. So, I went to epicurious.com for a recipe for anything peach-related that didn't involve milk (none in the house) or eggs (still in my mother's fridge). Pie! Ooh. Look at this pie recipe! Sounds good and a little different! No bottom crust to get soggy! The reviews say how easy it is! I have cardamom! Serendipity!

So, Abby and I started with the crust (after warning her that pie crust must chill in the fridge for 7 years... that's the pre-school equivalent of 1 hr.). Things were going swimmingly. Ooh, and the raw dough is very tasty! This is going to be the perfect summer's evening dessert.

We work on the filling. I'm thinking I may not have enough peaches, so I added a mango. Same color and equally as sweet. I'm so creative! We smell the cardamom and declare it wonderful.

Finally the pie crust is ready to roll out. The child does this (with some help from me) and she expertly cuts out little hearts with a cookie cutter.

After consulting with my friend and expert apple pie baker, we conclude just to sprinkle the crust with water (remember, out of milk & eggs) to make the raw sugar stick to the crust. No biggie.

The pie comes out of the oven. My house smells pretty damn delicious. This will be so good!!!

After everyone was in bed (my husband went to bed early and my daughter had Mr. Softee for dessert), I cut myself a slice of the pie.

The result: Meh.

The crust, well the crust was delicious. I will keep this crust recipe. The filling was scanty and reminiscent of baby food laced with perfume. The cardamom just didn't do it for me. Too much, or just not the right spice for me. I think allspice would have been perfect. I would normally say, "Oh well, next time." But, I'm pretty sure there won't be a next time. Hey, at least it's pretty!

Dinner & Dessert.

Lately I haven't been in a mood to cook. Just quick, simple things. The same quick and simple things over and over. And over. So boring.
I don't know why, but when I woke up yesterday, I was overcome with the desire to cook! Me & Abby headed to the store and got our supplies (minus the parsley.) So annoying! How is the grocery store totally out of parsley!? Anyhow...

We decided on this hearty lasagna recipe, but subsituted the ground meat with Light Life "ground beef." I also skipped out the parsley, not by my choice, though! I didn't follow the sauce recipe exactly, I used my own herbs and seasonings. Oh, and I used the no-boil type of lasagna noodles...so much easier!

For all the work, which technically isn't a lot until you add a preschooler into the mix, it was pretty good. The child just picked at it; she preferred the salad's "crunchy things" (romaine ribs), cucumbers, and tomatoes. Husband said it was good, but didn't seem too impressed. *sigh*

For dessert, ice cream. Delicious, creamy, flavorful blueberry cheesecake ice cream. I saw this recipe on Cooking Light awhile ago and have been wanting to try it. I finally decided to do it. Another multi-step recipe whose steps are just prolonged with the preschooler helper. Honestly, I also added more steps because I thought it would be better. Firstly, I tempered the hot milk/half and half into the egg/sugar/cream cheese mixture. And then strained it. Glad I did both because when I strained, despite the tempering, there was a tiny bit of scrambled egg. Ew. Who wants that in ice cream!? This ice cream is very good, but not really *that* "light." I mean sure, compared to Haagan-Dazs, it is, but compared to the light ice cream I usually eat, it's not. Oh well. It was delicous. Husband liked it, but didn't rave (he wasn't in a good mood yesterday.) Daughter didn't like it...maybe because she's not a blueberry fan? Don't know. I used frozen berries instead of fresh because they're not in season.
This will be made again. Possibly with a different fruit. Strawberries, raspberries, peaches... so many possibilities!

Mousse!

For New Year's Day dessert, I made Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse à l'Orange from Cooking Light. It was pretty good, but for my sweet-tooth, could have been a tad sweeter.
I did, of course, make some alterations. I used the juice of one orange instead of the Grand Marnier since my three-year-old would be eating it. I also used all the zest from the orange instead of just the recommended 1 teaspoon.
I was very pleased with the result, I've made chocolate mousse from silken tofu before and have yet to be disappointed. My father, the genetic contribution for my sweet-tooth, and hard-core meat eater really enjoyed it. Not until I was certain that he was genuinely enjoying the dessert, did I let on that it was made with tofu. He seemed a bit disturbed, but oh well.

Dinner & Dessert.

For dinner we had Black Bean Quesadillas with Goat Cheese. I made this a couple of weeks ago and it was a hit with everyone involved. Plus, it's quick, so you can't really beat it. I would like to try this with homemade tortillas, but that kinda defeats the "quick" part.

My only alterations to the recipe are:
1. I use a lot more cilantro and cumin than recommended and
2. I use peach/mango salsa; it adds a nice sweet complement to the tangy goat cheese.

For dessert. Ah, sweet, sweet dessert. I made the ice cream. Since I messed up somewhere in the cheese making process and only had half of the amount of fresh ricotta I needed for a full recipe of the ice cream, I halved the ice cream recipe. To my chagrin, I only have half a recipe of the lucious, creamy, smooth, aromatic, savory, deliciousness that is the Honey-Lavender Ice Cream. Oh. My. God. This stuff is divine. It is reminiscent of Capogiro's rosemary honey goat's milk gelato, but the base is sweeter and the flavor is more condensed. The only potential adaptation would be the elimination of the honey because the flavor is masked by the lavender, and it really only adds more sweetness; I have an intense sweet tooth, so I love it, but I know others will find it to be too sweet.

Also, this is the first homemade ice cream that I've made that isn't overly icy or hard. I always make the ice cream low-fat or even vegan. Sometimes both. Those two things do not contribute to a creamy ice cream. They really only satisfy my need for an evening sweet. This ice cream, this ice cream is pure bliss...don't let the bland photo trick you!