See

See what I've been making in the kitchen?

First, I nuked some Peeps in the microwave. Then I used them to make krispy treats which I'm calling...

...Krispy Peep Treats. I layered them in a pan. You can see the layers in the photo above. Once they had cooled, I cut them into bars and put them in baskets with dyed coconut and not nuked Peeps.

I also baked Emily's Best-Ever Oatmeal cookies. I'm known for them. By five people.

I also made my Famous Brownies, aka Amazing Brownies. The same five people call them by their proper names.

I also made seven layer bars. Which, if I count, are really only six layers. I guess they're technically seven layers because you melt the butter and pour the graham crackers over that. See how that works?

These are all things for the Youth Auction being held at our church tomorrow. I also made a coupon book, but I forgot to take a picture.

Tomorrow is also the Palm Sunday Brunch. There will be pancakes, sausage, and eggs. Yum! I hope to see you there.

Practice

I was just saying the other day that the practice of writing this blog has made me a better writer. There are times when I have written more consistently and maintained a practice schedule as it were, but nonetheless I've kept at it for eight years now.

As it stands I have written 1220 posts. This one makes 1221. That's a lot of practice.

Are you asking yourself, "is she practicing to write a book?"

The answer is a plain and simple no. (Unless someone offered me money, at which point I would think about it.)

We practice as a way to improve a skill or ability. Therefore, each time I write, I'm practicing.

I didn't set out to practice writing. I set out to share the random things I bake, cook, craft, photograph, or think about. Yet it turns out, all along, I was practicing my writing too.

C is for Cookie

Make these cookies.

Double the recipe and add an extra 1/4 cup of flour.

You will not be disappointed. Unless you don't like chocolate.

But make them especially if you like chocolate. If you do, add one cup of semi sweet chocolate chips and one cup bittersweet.

I recommend eating these cookies with a tall glass of milk.

Oh my.

They are really good.

My problem, and yes it's a problem, is that we're taking these all the way to St. Louis. How am I supposed to sit in a car for eight hours with these cookies taunting me. Oh sure, I'll put them in a bag that will go in the back seat so I don't have to stare at them.

But I'll know that they're back there.

I'll be able to smell them.

I'll be able to sense them.

Seriously, these cookies are that good.

The recipient (one of our former students now at college) may only get crumbs…

To keep that from happening, I put some in a container for her and some in a container for us.

If I share any with Bill.

I know what I'm making for the next cookie swap!

Artisan bread

My aunt gave me a recipe for No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread.

I finally made it.

It is so easy! And unbelievable good.

I also found the same recipe on this blog and the writer discusses that this recipe is no-fuss. No matter what you do, you can't ruin it. I'm glad I read that. Sometimes that kind of advice helps me. Especially with dough and yeast. Those two things can be intimidating.

I made the dough yesterday, let it rise overnight, baked it today and we used it for BLT's for dinner.

Next time I'm going to use my smaller cast iron dutch oven. I'm hoping that will give it more height. Not that it really matters. It really is amazingly delicious bread.

Is it too obvious to give thanks for the bread?

Thursday & Friday with Skylar

Thursday we went Grand Haven. It was sunny and gorgeous. You can just make out the lighthouse behind us in the photo.

 Then we went to Jersey Junction.

We also baked cookies when we got home. Then we delivered a plate of them to our friend Jess who is nine months pregnant. It turns out she had been craving cookies that day!

Friday, we got up early and drove to Petoskey. Neither one of us have ever been there. It was a much bigger town than I expected. We shopped for a few hours and ate lunch at Parkside Deli which has delicious sandwiches. Then we drove over to Petoskey State Park and hung out on the beach.

It was a cloudy day, but the temperature was 75, so it was nice and warm. Skylar and I tried taking a hike, but we didn't have bug spray. About a quarter of a mile in, I looked over at her and her back was swarmed by mosquitos. She looked at me at the same time and said mine was also swarmed by mosquitos. We turned around and walked back out quickly.

Then we drove over to Harbor Springs. We walked around there, got ice cream at Velvet's, and sat down by the harbor to eat it.

Then we ate dinner at a place called Turkey's (named after the owner who got the nickname in high school after spraining both ankles playing football and was walking around the field like a "turkey" as the coach said). Later I sent Bill a text telling him where we had gone and he knows Turkey! Well, he met him once.

Skylar and I headed back to Grand Rapids.

We stopped to take a picture and another car pulled over to ask if we needed help. We found that to be Midwestern at its heart, but also funny because we counted at least twelve cars that were randomly pulled over to the side of the road in the course of the entire trip. No one else was stopped at the 45th Parallel to take pictures. We're awesome like that.

Here are some stones we found at the beach. At least two of them are genuine Petoskey stones, the rest are just stones we found in Petoskey. 

Tuesday with Skylar

We had a very busy day.

After staying up way too late blogging and chatting, I got up this morning way too early.

Once I finished getting ready, I woke up Skylar and we went to Meijer. We also stopped at Russo's for root beer. Greg and his family have a summer bucket list and they had a root beer tasting (read about it here). Skylar and I picked out four root beers to try; Virgil's, Dog 'N Suds, Boylan, and Henry Weinhard's Root Beer. They also had Dang (which we've had) and Dad's (which we've had). There were a few others but we limited ourselves to four.

We did not do a blind taste test. We did have a sample of each. My favorite in order were the H.W., Dog 'N Suds, Boylan, and dead last is Virgil's. The guy at the store said Virgil's was his favorite. Unfortunately for us it has licorice in it and neither one of us is a fan of licorice. Anise. Don't like it. So if anyone reading this blog does like it, leave a comment and I would be happy to let you have the other three bottles.

We went downtown to the city market. That was the first time I have been there. It's fantastic! We bought some Michigan cherries and blueberries at one of the outside farmer's stands. We bought some chocolates and breads inside and walked around. There are still a few empty spaces but it seemed to be busy.

After a quick stop at CVS because Skylar accidentally forgot some medicine (just amoxicillin, nothing too important) we walked to Ken's.

Then we made No-Bake cookies, Rice Krispy treats and we were going to make white chocolate chip, dried cranberry oatmeal cookies but we used all the sugar. We took another trip to Ken's to buy more sugar and we came back and made the cookies.

I made Club Em's for dinner (chicken, bacon, avocado, cheese - Gouda today on a hard roll - pretzel bun today) and beer battered onion rings.

I washed dishes and we watched the Tigers game. Now it's time for bed. We have another long and fun-filled day tomorrow.

Early bird

It has been another busy day.

I spent the day at the office, finishing my hours for Pastor Tish and the Adult Education "hat" I wear.

I'm now done for the summer.

Jr. High is not over yet. Confirmation Sunday is this coming Sunday. Then, in August, we'll have our mission week. I have a little bit of planning and coordinating to get that all set.

When I got home I ran/walked. I ate dinner, swept the driveway, ran the vacuum, did my workout/yoga, made baked oatmeal, and washed dishes.

Now I'm working on a few things before I go to bed. I have two emails to send out regarding this Sunday. I could probably wait and send them in the morning.

It is getting late. I was up early. You really do get a lot done when you start the day early. My parents laughed when I told them that. They have done their share of getting up early. Dad is retired and Mom is semi-retired and they are enjoying it. I think it's great.

But for now, I have things to get done.

the chocolate muffins

I just finished reading my BH&G April issue. There is a section on baking muffins and several recipes. One of them is a dark cocoa muffin with banana. I looked through the ingredients and realized I had everything I needed to bake them. Since I am going to visit my parents, I thought they might like to help me eat the chocolate muffins if I made a batch.

I started baking them while Bill talked to his mom for Mother's Day.

I must have been paying more attention to their conversation than my baking.

I got the muffins in the oven and was feeling really good about the whole thing until I looked at the counter and saw the brown sugar sitting there.

Brown sugar that was supposed to go into the muffin mix, but didn't.

Brown sugar that had been sitting there the whole time. Right in front of me.

What could I do? The muffins were already in the oven.

I tried googling it, but apparently Google doesn't know what to do when one forgets to add the sugar.

I decided that they would either turn out okay or not at all and there was nothing I could do until they had finished baking.

It turns out that they turned out okay. I can only surmise that the muffins are relatively tasty because of the cocoa. And it turns out they're healthy since they're sugar free. I do recommend serving them with honey or even ice cream. But they really are okay, just on their own.

Saturday

I'm on vacation. If it weren't for these posts, I wouldn't even know what day it is.

It was a busy Saturday is what it was.

First, I made the homemade cinnamon rolls.

It's a good thing I cut the recipe in half, because it still made six pans full of cinnamon rolls. That's okay, they are delicious. The house smelled of cinnamon.

Until I put the pork in the oven. 

Since it had to bake for six hours Bill, Heather, and I went to Hoover Dam.

This is where I wish I had blogged earlier, but I don't even know if blogs existed when we were here in 2001.

That is so long ago. Anyway, we were here in 2001. We took the dam tour with Don and Judy.

We did not take the tour today. We just walked across the dam into Arizona. And we took pictures from the dam.

The last time we were here, this bridge did not exist. It was pre 9/11 by just a few weeks. We were visiting Vegas for our one year anniversary. Which is in August. Which meant it was hot. Ridiculous hot. I don't know if I've blogged this before, but "they" say it's a dry heat. Whatever. 110 degrees is still hot. I passed out on that trip because of heat exhaustion. Drink a lot of water if you ever visit the desert.

When we left the dam, we stopped at the scenic Lake Mead overlook. It was very pretty. Then we drove over to Hemenway Park in Boulder City and saw the Big Horn Sheep.

They decided to be camera shy and run away from us. But I caught a couple of them in digital form.

This is at Hemenway Park for a sunrise service tomorrow. Lake Mead is behind it. How beautiful of a setting is that?

When we got back to the house we ate the spicy pulled pork sandwiches. They were spicy and amazing.

Then I baked Bill's birthday cake, the peanut butter sheet cake with chocolate frosting. Pictures will be posted tomorrow.

I'm sitting outside, writing this at 8pm. It is still 80 degrees. It looks like it's going to be a clear night.

I'm not writing that to brag, I'm writing it as a statement of record for future reference. Heather is into genealogy and she tells me over and over that writing as much detail as possible is important to future generations. 

Anyway, I'm thankful for the the amazing construction of the dam. It is truly remarkable. 

the tale of two cakes

This is why I'm not on Pintrest. I find enough recipes from other people's posts. Then I google them and, if it sounds good enough, I make it.

Recently, a friend mentioned that she made a chocolate cake, but it was gluten free. It used quinoa. You'll remember my quinoa experience. Since I had quinoa left over, I decided I should try this cake. I googled it and found it. Don't be fooled by the recipe (linked below). This makes a LOT of frosting. And the quinoa I used required 3/4 cup uncooked to equal two cups, cooked.

On St. Patrick's Day, someone posted a Guinness chocolate cake. I googled that and the picture looked beautiful. I knew I had to make that one too. But when and for what occasion would I make either cake?

We had dinner with friends Saturday evening. I took the quinoa chocolate cake. It was a hit.

Today we had a staff lunch at work, so naturally I took the Guinness cake. It was also a hit.

If you like chocolate cake, both of these are superb in completely different ways. The quinoa cake is light and fluffy and the frosting is also light. The Guinness cake is super dense and super moist. It has a cream cheese frosting which is very rich. But it compliments the almost molasses flavor the beer gives the cake.

Here's one of the cake recipes.

Here's the other one.

I think you should decide for yourself.

Oh, and for Bill's birthday? I'll be making this cake.

from scratch

I made this today.

I am in trouble.

It looks delicious.

It smells delicious.

I managed to wait until after dinner to cut a small piece and try it.

It is unbelievable.

It tastes just like cinnamon rolls.

And now I want to make cinnamon rolls. I don't know why. For now, I have the entire cake to eat.

Just kidding. I'm going to take it in to work tomorrow and share it. I hope to have a few pieces to bring home though.

I'm very thankful for cinnamon roll cake today.

Baked Oatmeal

I was all set to blog last night. We had run a few errands and when we came home, I finally had time to compose a post.

That's when Bill informed me that our internet was down.

I watched the Olympic Opening Ceremony instead.

I will post this to Friday's date, since I was all set to write it yesterday. Then, I will write another post for today that will post later tonight.

I have been searching for a baked oatmeal recipe. There's this little coffee ship in the town where I grew up that served a baked oatmeal for breakfast. For a few years my family went there to have breakfast (I think) with their Sunday school class. My mom always ordered the baked oatmeal. It always looked good, but I chose the cheese omelet instead.

The coffee shop stopped serving the baked oatmeal.

Recently, for whatever reason, I remembered that baked oatmeal and wanted to find a suitable substitute. I enjoy the homemade granola recipe and my oatmeal cookie recipe is delicious. Why not baked oatmeal?

I searched online and found several recipes. I tried one, it was nothing like I had hoped for.

I sort of gave up the search.

Then, on Thursday morning you'll recall I walked down to a friend's house for our book club, Trina had made a baked oatmeal. I had already had breakfast, but since I had walked through the snow I decided the extra calories wouldn't hurt.

Her baked oatmeal was exactly what I've been looking for! I begged her for the recipe, which she gladly shared. She has modified the original and this is her recipe:

Baked Oatmeal

from Trina Rookus

3 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 eggs

1 1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk eggs, milk, and butter. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Pour into a greased 8x8 dish. Bake 40 minutes or until set.

She had yogurt, blueberries and maple syrup for toppings. Really, you can top it with anything. It was so good. I'm excited to make some. Thanks again Trina!

my super hero

I don't know how many posts I'll write about being grateful for Bill. In one year, it will probably be a lot. I've already given him props a few times and I'm about to again.

He helped me around the house today. It was small, simple things. Nothing worth shouting from the mountaintops, or throwing a ticker-tape parade. He ran the vacuum, he took out the trash, emptied the litter boxes, and he cleaned the bathroom. I didn't ask him to do the last chore. He took it upon himself to do that.

I was busy cooking and baking. We delivered dinner (and breakfast) to a family. The mom is an amazing woman. She is battling breast cancer. Both of her youth have gone through our youth groups. They are amazing kids.

Our church put out a call to deliver them dinner and I signed us up. Since we were at the Auto Show yesterday, in Detroit, I didn't have a chance to do much prep. I hurried home from church (hurry is sort of a joke, it hasn't stopped snowing… since November) and got to work.

Bill came home later; he had stayed for a chili cook-off between mission groups. His chili had the most compliments, but since the cook-off is rigged (in a very good-natured way), his mission -the youth, did not come in first place.

He had sat down to read. I asked if he could help me do one thing, run the vacuum. That's when he sprang into action doing all the above mentioned chores. As I was waiting to put the last batch of cookies in the oven, he asked if we would have time to run by the bank. We also needed two gallons of milk. Looking at the clock, I realized the best thing would be if he ran out while I baked the last of the cookies and finished washing the dishes. As I explained all that still needed to get done, he suggested he do the errands, and off he went.

He deserves a super-hero cape.

muffins

Have you ever baked a muffin without the paper liner?

Have you ever eaten a cupcake without the paper liner?

There's something to be said for one less thing to get in the way of eating a scrumptious cupcake, but one of the things that makes eating a cupcake or a muffin special is the crumbs that cling to the paper liner.

I am a scraper.

I scrape the paper liner with my nails (I even have a special technique) and eat every last crumb.

Please tell me that you do that too?

Well if you haven't, those crumbs tend to be moist and, I think, a great finale to the cupcake/muffin.

The technique is quite important. I learned long ago that scraping off the crumbs with your fingernails can get a little gross. Especially when you go to scrape your nail on your tooth to get said crumbs out from under your nail.

I know. It sound ever more gross than watching someone do it.

The technique I discovered is to use the outside of your fingernail. Instead of scraping toward you with the inside of your nail, scrape away from you using the outside. The crumbs collect neatly to your entire nail and then you can simply lick them off. No messy, scraping your nail on your tooth. You can even scrape them together and make a little pile. This technique also saves the paper liner from being ripped. Which, if you're a scraper you know how devastating ripped paper liners can be!

As I was eating a Cranberry Harvest muffin this morning, I realized the importance of paper liners and wanted to share it with you.

the outcome

I know, I know. I promised a picture of the bread. It actually turned out better than I expected. Sometimes, I don't knead dough long enough for fear of over-working it. Having grown up without the hands-on experience of the "old world" style of baking, I am mostly self-taught. When you don't grow up making your own bread, you have to learn these things by trial and error.

I have learned the way!

Check out the challah before it goes in the oven...

and after!

 Delicious!

more on bread

I apologize to my paleo readers.

If you just read that and went, huh? Don't worry, it's not you.

I'm baking challah bread today.

Why? You ask.

Because I found a recipe for it when I was looking for a soup.

I found the soup recipe but couldn't stop thinking about the challah.

Mostly because I like saying it.

"Holla!"

That's how I say it.

With attitude.

So today, I decided to bake it.

Because I had time.

Or I thought I had time.

It's rising for the second time.

I braided it.

It looks pretty.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Chew on this

I have an additional goal for the year. This is not meant to be gross, but I'm warning you in case you find things like this gross.

I am trying to chew my food more thoroughly.

After my food poisoning incident, or rather during, I realized how quickly I eat. I eat too quickly because I have poor chewing habits.

It's probably healthier to chew your food rather than chomp twice and swallow.

So I'm working on that. It is not easy. Mostly, when I'm home by myself, I remember to chew. When I'm out with friends, or eating dinner with Bill, I get side tracked and don't pay as close attention as I need to.

Hopefully this will become natural over time.

There's one more thing I wanted to share today.

I just wiped off the tops of my cabinet doors.

Ew.

There was enough grease and dust that I was literally scraping it off.

Perhaps I need to clean up there more often.

I wipe off the drawers quite often. Every time I bake; just because flour and sugar and various other ingredients fall onto the tops of the drawers. But not the tops of the cabinets. You have to stand on a chair to reach up there.

This is another reason why flush cabinet doors are a good idea and are on my dream kitchen list.

At least they are clean again for another six years!

"C" is for cookie

I won't go on a tirade about how the Cookie Monster is no longer the Cookie Monster.

I'm not good at tirades.

I don't like discord.

But I will talk about cookies.

Because I like cookies.

I baked a lot of cookies this year.

Last year's count can be found here.

This year, I did indeed make a ginger crinkle. I also made frosted sugar cookies, hershey kiss peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip bars, pecan puffs, and these amazing Nutella stuffed triple chocolate chip cookies.

Wow. I'm making those again.

And again.

But for the cookie exchange, I made peppermint kiss cookies.

I didn't let the first batch cool enough, so the kisses started to melt a little...

As you can see, I rolled half in green sugar and the other half in regular sugar. These are tasty and thanks Heather O. for the recipe!

And thanks to Bill for the amazing new cookie sheets! The cookies are perfectly baked, not burnt on the bottoms. And for the sugar cookies, I was supposed to grease the cookie sheet, but didn't. But the cookies didn't stick! That's how amazing my new baking sheets are.

Mmmm cookies.

tying the apron strings...

I set about baking nine dozen cookies today, with eight or nine more to make tomorrow. I made three desserts for our neighborhood good-by party for Glenn and Nancy (that's tonight).

That was a lot of baking. And it will still be more.

I was going to create a new poem, but the one Sami wrote stuck in my head.

Sami's poem

Sami wrote this poem for me after I informed her that I would be making No-Bake cookies for the Workcamp Trip (specifically for her; Bill will get his own batch of cookies and the kids will get their own cookies).

My Dear Emily Crocker,
Her cookies make her a true rocker!
If I'm craving something sweet -
Her yummy no bakes are the perfect treat!
Oh, I would swim across huge lakes,
For a couple dozen no-bakes!