Pansy-versary!

It's Pansy-versary! 2 years ago today, Pansy came to live with us. Let's look at Pansy through the years.

2007, 6 months old, 2.75lbs

2008, 1.5 years old, approx. 4-4.5lbs, winter coat of fluff

2009, 2.5 years old, 5 lbs, and less of a winter coat (due to a very mild fall)

The Plague

I have the plague. It's a cold, really (I hope- I hope it's not swine flu, but I don't have a fever), but I'm still stuck at home. When I'm sick, I usually get huge crafting/baking urges, which is awful because 1. I can't share any baked goods, and 2. I can't get out to acquire all the necessary crafting supplies.

Luckily, I had red yarn. So I got started on Christmas gifts for everyone.They still need white beards and white hat pompoms, and faces, but so far I've made 6 of these little guys. Now I have... oh, probably 20 to go.

And some recipes: These are all ones I've seen in the past week, and look forward to making, but haven't actually tried yet.
Cranberry ribbon cake
Gallina de madre
Honey brown butter sauce for manchego cheese (you can be sure this'll appear at my next cocktail party)
Beef in salt crust

Craft project ideas:
Glitter painting (wedding photos, perhaps?)
Glittered snowflake candle holders (based on this Halloween project)
Glittered birds (idea suggested by Bird)

Halloween treats, part 2!

Spicy kettle corn! Gah! Hot!

But oh, so delicious.

1/4cup oil
1/4cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chipotle powder
1/2 popcorn kernels

Combine all ingredients in a big pot with a tight-fitting lid. Stir to coat the kernels. Place on a burner turned to medium-high, and cook. Once popcorn starts to pop, start to shake the pot (up and down or swishy side-to-side, but swishy results in less chipotle steam in your face). Once the corn seems to have stopped popping (maybe after a total of 10 minutes), transfer to a big popcorn bowl. Eat and enjoy. Serve to your friends without warning them it's spicy, and watch their sinuses clear right before your eyes.

Taken from Rachael Ray.

Stay tuned for more spiced kettle corn variations in the next few months.

Halloween treats, part 1!

In preparation for Saturday's Halloween party, I have made tasty things.
First, the ingredients for Bakerella's new Spider Bites. We have (clockwise, from middle-left bottom): red raspberry gumdrops, black sugar, liquorice, brownie balls, and not pictured is melted chocolate. I still haven't assembled everything, but that's up for tonight!

Pumpkin pecan raisin bread. Recipe from a recipe swap that I must share- it's delicious!!


And I taste-tested a candy corn martini. I think this become an annual tradition- it's delicious!
Recipe:
combine 1/2cup candy corn with 1.5cups vodka in an airtight container, let sit for 3 hours (I did 6- btw, the candy corn dissolves.), then discard candy.
combine: 4oz candy corn vodka, 2oz triple sec/cointreau, and the juice of one lemon (2-3T) with ice, shake, strain into a martini glass. Garnish with candy corn.

Lots of deliciousness happened at my house last night.

Planning

I'm working on a menu for my Halloween party this weekend. It needs a lot more thought... so far, we have:
caramel fondue (served with apples)
apple cheesecake tart
pumpkin bread
chicken skewers with peanut sauce
candy
cheddar cheese muffins
?

One issue I take with the draft of this list is that the foods are not especially Halloweeny- with the exception of the first three. I feel rather sad that I don't have any cupcakes on the list, but I thought the cheese muffins might be a nice savory substitute. I also completely lack cookies of any type, which would be easy to do with some Halloween flair- that shouldn't be hard to find.

I need to spend some more time recipe browsing- hopefully in time to start preparing food on Wednesday.

Pumpkinny weekend

My weekend included (among other things): apples and pumpkins.

1 peck of Mutsu apples for eating and for caramel apple fondue (passed along in a recipe swap, I'll share after I make it)

1/2 peck of Millenium apples, for general enjoyment

4 pumpkins: 1 orange one for my parents, one orange for us (for carving), one green one for us, and one small-ish white one for us.

One loaf pan of Harvest Bread Pudding- this is bread pudding that uses not only typical yeasted bread (looks like white or wheat), but also pumpkin bread. Yum! The next time I make a loaf of pumpkin quick bread, I'm using a portion of it for bread pudding. And I'm considering making a bananas foster bread pudding, using banana bread (which I never really like once it's cool)

Turtle cheesecake: from the banquet facilities at the Marriott in Rocky Hill, CT, but I've been thinking about cheesecake lately, and the perfectly decent piece of cheesecake hit the spot. Also, layer of chocolate ganache, yum.

Experimenting with apples

At least my experiments in the kitchen (as opposed to lab) are successful!

Clint brought me some apples (per my request) from NH about a month ago, and this past weekend, I realized I really should finish off the bag. Since I'd had such success with those danishes from a few weeks ago, I proceeded with round 2.

This time, however, I tossed the super thinly-sliced apples (4 or 5) with a mixture of about 1T brown sugar, about 2-3T apple cider, and a healthy dose (maybe 2t) cinnamon, before arranging them on top of the puff pastry square with a dollop of cheesecake mixture. The result?

Heaven.
(please pardon the oh-so charming used parchment paper/cookie sheet background). However, while the apples were perfect, the puff pastry didn't puff up- I'm not sure why this happened. Unlike the previous round of danishes (and every other time I've used puff pastry), when I thawed the pastry on the counter, this time I thawed it for the whole day in the fridge. This is what Ina Garten recommends, though, so I doubt that's the problem. I baked them at the same temp, for the same time. Any ideas? I'm totally willing to try this again, now that I've perfected the apple filling.

After making 18 danishes, I still had 5 apples left, and I happened to have enough crust for a single crust pie in the fridge. So!
scrappy apple pie, apple cheesecake tart thing, apple dumpling.

The dumpling was: one peeled and cored apple dusted with cinnamon and filled with 2t brown sugar, then wrapped in pie crust. I baked as I would a pie- maybe a little shorter.

The apple cheesecake thing.... this was an experiment, and it worked. The tart pan is lined with pie crust, and then filled with the rest of the cheesecake filling from the danishes- however, I didn't have enough, so I made another half batch- this time adding cinnamon and substituting brown sugar for white. Then I placed the thinly-sliced apples (again, coated in the brown sugar/cider/cinnamon mix) on top, and drizzled the remaining brown sugar/cider/cinnamon mix on top. I baked.My pictures lately are lousy- it's been so rainy that there's no good natural light in the kitchen. But as you can see, it's flat like a tart, and the cheesecake portion is just slightly thicker than the crust. It's good, though- just a little sweet, allowing the apple flavor to dominate the tart. I'm definitely making this again.

Finally, the scrappy apple pie was the leftover apple slices and remaining pie crust stuck in a tiny pie dish. I really just wanted everything used up. Since I ate the apple dumpling, I told Clint this one was his- only 4 days later, he still hasn't eaten it.... so I just might. ;)

In non-food news, I am ill (in a non-contagious way, at least) and feeling very run-down. I had a very busy and productive day at work planned for today, but wasn't able to complete it- I had to go home and rest and apply some hot compresses. But! As I was making a pot of tea (well, ok, cookies- nothing stops me from baking), the UPS truck just happened by, and delivered these lovelies, to cheer me up...and lest you, dear reader, think I'm terribly frivolous and irresponsible with my money, please note that these three pairs of shoes, and the shipping thereof, cost me less than $40. Yay huge shoe sales!