No dough

Well no dough for now since I didn't set up enough time for it to rise. (More dough of the other kind is always a good thing.)

I have a bad habit for bread. I decide I want to make bread but then forget that it needs to rise. True I can still make it now but fresh bread earlier in the day is always a great thing. Plus it makes the house smell so good.

I have make breakfast breads and egg twist (or egg braid if you prefer) before and both turned out well. There is a recipe in The Blue Ribbon Country Cook Book that I want to try for white bread. I have had homemade white bread before (my gram makes really good bread) and am hoping it turns out well when I actually make it.

Worst case, I'll have homemade croutons.

Do you have any bread success or horror stories?

Meow, NOM, Meow

Hubs bought a tree skirt this year. We didn't have one in the past and had used a red plastic tablecloth from the dollar store last year. It worked but the cats were quite interested in it.

Sadly, they are much more interested in the tree skirt. Bond is especially fascinated in it.



Seriously Mom! I was having fun. Why are you bothering me with that flashy box thing???

In between resituating the tree skirt and misc other stuff around the house, I noticed the bananas in our hanger were getting spotted. I am not a fan of sweet sweet bananas. RIGHT when they start turning yellow works the best for me. Dalmatian bananas mean it's time to bake.

I wanted an easy banana bread recipe that I hadn't tried before and one that included ingredients that I had in the house. I did a search for banana bread + easy + blog and ended up with a few options. The one I settled on was this one from Simply recipes that had been mentioned as a crowd winner. Perfect.

It was.



It browned on the edges but since it didn't include brown sugar it really didn't burn. It was moist, banana-y, and springy. I've made banana bread before that is more bread-like. This one was more cake-like texture wise. I will definitely be making it again. Next time I am contemplating cinnamon or a walnut crumble on top.






I'm comfy. Mommmmm just go back to eating that good smelling stuff you made on the oven this weekend yet won't let me have.



I've just given up for now and let him play in it. When he's done rolling around in it, it goes back on the bottom of the tree. He's not chewing on it. Nor is Frankie. So for now that is fine.

If they start, I'm getting the duct tape and taping the skirt to the tree.

Cookie weekend

A few years ago Hubs and some of the guys went to a Bears game in Detroit. (If you are a Bears fan and do not want to spend a fortune on decent seats, this is a good deal. If you have a friend who lives in the 'burbs of Detroit, it's a even better deal.) With the guys out of town, the Annual Cookie Party was born. It's a mix of ladies night, movie night, and an excuse to bake and eat cookies until the sugar makes your teeth hurt. It has since evolved from a dozen cookies per person to a half dozen to bring something to share. Believe me, the evolution is good. No sugar coma and yet a successful night.

Yesterday was this year's cookie party. I brought out my default always amazing cookie recipe from Hershey's Cocoa: Easy Baking. It is a book I found years ago and I absolutely love it. The recipes are easy but everything I've made so far have been a hit. Plus is is one of those books with the cardboard pages like a little kids book so I can wipe it clean if I spill something on it. Now that I have ever spilled a single thing on it. It's more like multiple things.

I call them my double fudge cookies because I add extra cocoa powder. The batter ends up looking and tasting like brownie batter.



I think they look like brownie cookies as well.




Still warm quality control testing.




This batch ended up being topped with melted chocochips and the sugar snowflakes. The second were plain and a bit flatter since I melted the margarine more so. The batter ends up a little mushier when that happens but they still taste amazing.

This morning we woke up to snow. The animals always go wacky when it snows. The cats get super lazy in Bond's case or super snuggly in Frankie's case. Bond napped upstairs most of the day. Frankie tried to either sit on my lap or glared at me as I knitted. (He gets annoyed that the knitting is where he wants to nap.)

The dogs wanted to play outside in the snow. They did and then they wanted to play more inside.



Tug of war w Hubs.

The baby gate at the patio door is our attempt to not have the dogs run through the screen door. Cosmo has done it once already. The squirrels sit on the fence and taunt them.




Cosmo is worn out.



Molly wasn't and wanted to go outside and run around more.

Food wise, today was another slow cooker Sunday. With it being so cold lately, I've been wanting soup. I tried a new version of chicken soup today. I included rosemary and thyme as the base rather than basil and oregano. I had to tinker with it a bit since it went a bit mellow. A few dashes of black pepper and some crushed bay leaves later, it is working out well.

Frosting on the cookie

I have limited experience making cookie frosting. I can only recall one year I made elves (My mom still has the cookie cutter.) for Christmas. There is a Polaroid picture somewhere of me grinning and holding the plate of decorated cookies with a big grin on my face. I even dyed the dough with food coloring so there were REALLY red ones and REALLY green ones.

I need to find the photo and scan is mostly due to the title of the picture. Scrawled in my kid handwriting is something along the lines of The Evil Cookies. Since they were evil we didn't eat them. Actually, it wasn't due to their moral standing it was due to the shortening being expired. OOPS! and GROSS! at the same time.

I don't even remember why I didn't check the date since it was so long ago but every time I see a larger tub of shortening it makes me think of that plate of cookies, especially around Christmas.