weekend baking

When Sunday night rolled around this week, I didn’t feel like I’d done all my baking. Mainly because I hadn’t made my usual loaf of bread and that means I’ll have to make one sometime this week before we run out. But in all fairness, I did bake some. I made a dozen pear banana muffins on Saturday morning before I left for my Pilates class. By the time I got home after class, running errands and grocery shopping, only a few were left. Late in the afternoon, my guys went on a hike up the mountain so I made this apple cake for when they got home. They got back faster than I anticipated so it was still in the oven when they arrived home but it was lovely for dessert after turkey chili. On Sunday, after we did our gardening, I came inside and made strawberry almond crumble, in addition to the potato, leek and ham gratin that was supper, so we have a few treats to get us through the week.

Last weekend, on Saturday morning I made a loaf of bread, a dozen apple banana muffins and strawberry almond crumble. Maybe because I made it all at once it seemed like more.

While I was baking and cooking, I had to keep checking on the derailments occurring on our boy’s railway line. It seems that cars and trucks keep stalling on the crossings with disastrous results. And the results aren’t really disastrous until checked out by mummy. The soundtrack to the derailments has been either the boy’s version of “American Woman” – which in 5 year old language is “American wonton” (as in soup) or a somewhat garbled rendition of “my heart will go on” (from Titanic). Apparently they are learning “my heart will go on” in preschool music class.

Has anyone else seen this book, Knit your own Royal Wedding by Fiona Goble? I think I should knit my man these for Christmas…he’d especially love the corgi.

baking with mum

A wierd thing happened the other day. A woman at work approached me and said "I found a cookie recipe on your blog, the one with coconut and banana, and I made it. My family loves the cookies. I made some more with walnuts, would you like to try one?" Of course I did. They were great with walnuts and I'm so happy someone is making one of my favorite cookies for her family and made the recipe their own by adding walnuts. We didn't usually add nuts to cookies as my Dad isn't a big nut in cookies fan. Says that walnuts squeak on his teeth.

So tonight, when faced with a blackish banana left from T's lunchbox, I made a batch of oatmeal macaroons (as they are called officially on the recipe from mum's recipe box). I used a big cookie scoop so the cookies are about triple the size they normally are and only yielded about 18 cookies.

 But as I was mixing them up, I was back with my mum in our old family kitchen, with the brick wall and horrible 70's wallpaper (rust orange and brown) and the avocado appliances. And behind the ghost of my mum was the ghost of my gram, a big baker. So I hope one day, T will bake cookies and remember things we baked together and continue the tradition.

baking day

The Advent calendar is up and T's been adding ornaments in chunks instead of 1 per day and now I have carols to serenade me on my way to and from work. And with other blogs full of cookie recipes and delicious descriptions of christmas baking, yesterday I got out my baking sheets. I must admit I was partly motivated by a promise I had to fulfill - at a recent church fund raiser, a kind soul paid for 3 months of my baking (3 batches of something - muffins, a cake, a loaf of bread, etc) and she opted for two types of christmas cookies for 2 of the months. I made 2 batches each of pfeffernuse and almond butter cookies, so one batch to give as my promise and 1 batch for us.

The pfeffernuse remind me of my childhood years in Germany (my dad was stationed in Germany for a few years) but the recipe comes from my Canadian Living Cookbook (Random House/Madison Press) - which has a huge section on christmas baking (and also has the recipe I use as the basis for my fruitcake). These are easy (start to finish ~ 1 hour) and the batch can easily be doubled or tripled for a large number of cookies.

Pfeffernuse (from the Canadian Living Cookbook)
1/3 c molasses
1/3 c butter
1 egg, beaten
1 3/4 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp each cinnamon and ginger
1/4 tsp each cloves, black pepper and nutmeg

In a saucepan, heat the butter and molasses until the butter melts.

 Take off the heat and cool. Add in the beaten egg. Mix the flour, soda and spices together and add into the molasses mixture.

Blend well, first with a spoon and then with your hands. Form the dough into 1" balls and drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at 375 deg F. Dust with icing or granulated sugar while still warm.

After our boy played soccer and we ran some errands, including the purchase of a door wreath from a craft market, I made almond cookies. I can't share the recipe because it isn't mine but a blend of butter, sugar, almond extract, eggs, salt, flour and ground almonds morphs into a lovely buttery bite of nutty goodness. I'm glad I made 2 batches, T and D love them.

Saturday

This was our Saturday yesterday. Awakened just minutes after the clock rolled over to 7AM by T - " Mummy.....Mummy.......Mummy.......Mummy - when are you waking up?" Then he decided to start wearing my glasses and I figured for the future of being able to see, it was better to get up and keep the boy somewhat amused with things other than my glasses. Of course, as soon as I get up and give him juice and breakfast, he can amuse himself with making lego roads and reconfiguring his trucks into new positions on the roads. So I took myself to the kitchen and roasted rhubarb. Once that was in the oven I made banana chocolate chip muffins (again) except I only had two remaining bananas in the freezer so I added one very ripe pear to the mix and used white sugar instead of brown. I guess I zoned out during the mixing process. D ate two muffins seconds after they came out of the oven and pronounced them delicious. The roasted rhubarb

was also declared delicious as dessert after supper. I debated making lemon yogurt cake but in the end decided against it as I would likely eat it all. (This morning I read this post and think that might be made soon.)

We all got ready and off we went to run errands and then it was time for soccer! Yes, yesterday marked the second week for T's pre-school soccer - mostly a 40 minute running around session for 7 kids T's age with some soccer balls thrown into the mix. T doesn't listen very well to instructions, so during the drills was the only child continuing to run around the room when all the others were stopping their ball with their heads or ears or elbows as instructed. He did better with the airplane kick the ball into the net drill and actually played "what time is it Mr. Wolf" this week although he is still a bit unclear on the rules. I think we'll be doing some soccer drills and playing Mr. Wolf a bit today. Then it was time for the game - 10 minutes of kids running in a pack after the ball, all around the room! Very fun. The kids don't really have a sense of which net they are supposed to be defending or shooting into. T scored a goal in his own team's net this week....Oh well. The kids all end the class with pink cheeks and they have fun!

After soccer we met up with some friends visiting from out of town for lunch. After a long visit we came home in time for me to make almost vegetarian chili and for T and D to play with trucks.

Almost Veggie Chili
1 onion, chopped
sliced mushrooms
1 sliced red pepper
2 carrots sliced into thin slices
1 c. frozen corn
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 cans (or cooked equivalent) of beans (red kidney, black, navy)
1 jar tomato sauce (I used a batch of frozen sauce from last year's harvest)
2 tbsps tomato paste
chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika to taste
4-5 bacon rashers, sliced

Saute the bacon and onion together until the onion is soft. Add the pepper, mushrooms, carrots, corn, garlic, chili, paprika, mustard and brown sugar and cook about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste. Then add the rest of the ingredients and cook together for at least 20 minutes until the flavours are melded. Adjust seasonings to taste. Serve topped with grated cheddar cheese and sour cream.
Note - I sometimes add chopped zuccini to this recipe - yesterday I added 2 c of cubed roasted winter squash (from the freezer) - it added fiber and texture to the chili.

christmas cake part 2

Yesterday, after swimming and grocery shopping, etc I decided to get to work on our Christmas cake for 2009. Out came the raisins, currants, dried cranberries and apricots and the candied peel. So here is how I adapted the recipe:

Dark Fruit Cake (adapted from the Canadian Living Cookbook)

1 c. candied peel

1 c. dried cranberries

1 c. dried apricots

Place all these into a food processor and grind until finely chopped.
1 c. currants

2 c. sultanas

2 c. raisins

Add all the fruit together and add

1/2 c. brandy or rum

Let sit for a couple of hours or overnight. Grease cake pans, line with waxed paper and grease the paper. Preheat the oven to 275 deg F.

2 c. almonds finely chopped

1/2 c. flour

Mix these into the fruit mixture

1/2 c. butter

3/4 c. granulated sugar

1 c. packed brown sugar

5 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Cream together the butter and white sugar. Add the brown sugar and keep mixing. Add the eggs into the mixture, 1 at a time. Add vanilla.

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp each of cinnamon, allspice and mace

Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and incorporate well. Then fold the fruit mixture into the batter. Pat into the prepared pans.

Bake for ~ 3 1/2 hours or until the cake is brown and bounces back when poked. Wrap the cakes well when cooled and they will keep for at least 6 weeks.

The whole house will smell cakey and spicey. Yum!