Last week my nephews and neices came over and we made some lemon bread. I don't remember what it was called...but anyways it turned out pretty good. It was a bit dense but still had a really good texture. When you get it out of the oven you pour a lemon glaze over it, which soaks into the bread as it cools and makes it really moist and gives it a good strong citrus flavor. The kids had fun making it. I was trying to teach my 8 yr old nephew how to crack eggs...he like to try to just stick his thumbs in it and hope it cracks open right. Of course it doesn't and egg shell is all over the place...haha...but it was cool, they are learning. And my neice got angry because there were only two eggs to crack and she insisted I let her do one. But I didn't. I'm a bad auntie.
Oh and I'm baking more brioche...I got my sister to buy me some butter, so I made some more. It's in the kitchen rising right now. I'll bake it soon and eat the whole loaf. hah!
Oh btw I took pictures of the lemon bread but they turned out ugly. So I won't show you.
On the subject of school, I have a computers class and a nutrition class. I already know most everything they are teaching so I get bored. But I have to have those classes if I want the dang certificate. So I'll still do them. And the homework...which I need to do now...before Tuesday...bleh. Well Mr. Pachutto usually has some good stories, so at least that is a bit interesting. And we start lab next week in nutrition, so we'll see how that goes.....
I was going to bake again the other night, after making that lemon bread, but for one reason or another I just didn't. And I didn't sleep well that night either because of it. I suppose that's the reason why I decided to make brioche, to satisfy the fact that I didn't bake the night before. I wonder if I talked in my sleep that night, like I usually do when I don't bake when I say I will.
well shoot. This is a boring post because I don't have any pictures. I will bake more and more this week and make a blog with pictures sometime soon. I'll go bake my bread. You go....do..something. goodbye.
~lacey
"There are people in this world that are so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."
~Mahatma Ghandi
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Oooooh boy
There's a new kid on the block, folks. My new baby nephew, Brock Thompson Nickell, was born last Friday night at 11:51 pm ( go to http://www.thenickells.net to see pics :D) Mom and baby are doing awesome :) He is a cool little kid. My sister, Heathyrre, and my brother-in-law, Isaiah, are going to be great parents. I'm so excited for them. It's still really weird for me to know that my sister has her own baby now.....
Unfortunately, with the start up of school last week, I've been pretty busy getting papers and other boring stuff sorted out and I haven't had a whole lot of time to do much in the kitchen. I
did make some chow mein a few weeks ago, 
which turned out pretty much mouth-watering. I have a few pics to share of that, chopping onions over there <--- and the finish product in our wok down there. The recipe I used, (I actually used one this time!) was a mock recipe for *official* panda express chow mein, but, in my opinion, it tasted better than their stuff ;) I made egg rolls too, but the pictures I took of them turned out crappy because my lighting was leaving me and I was too lazy to set the ott light up. So I'll just have to trust your imagination to conjure up an image of the best tasting egg rolls you can imagine ever eating, along with the best sweet and sour sauce you've ever eaten as well. Your probably wondering whats the deal with the Chinese food. And, unless you are an old hermit who lives in the mountains or possibly a deserted island somewhere off the coast of Bora Bora, you will probably assume it's because of the recent Olympic games that are held in China this year. Well congratulations, you are correct. Watching all those Chinese people all over the tv made me want to eat their food, so I made some myself. Smart, huh? I made some tomato-basil bread on Friday night, when I was too antsy over the current baby situation to do anything but bake. It was delicious (of course!) but I've realized my recipe needs some perfecting. The bread is a bit too dense and I need to fix that....somehow. As far as school goes, I got two classes out of three that I wanted to take. Computer concepts and Cooking for a Healthy Lifestyle. I must say, the computer class is pretty boring so far, but my teacher, Mr. Pachutto, seems cool. Plus! His name is really fun to say. Say it, Pah-chew-toe! yipee. My nutrition class is actually a bit boring so far too...I don't mean to be vain, but I already know everything being covered in the class so far. I can't wait until our lab days start though, and we get to actually cook. My sister Laurel finally got herself a culinary blog set up, ( allnaturalbakerwoman.blogspot.com ) go see it too! I added her and some other blogs and websites to some lists on the right, so you can check them out anytime you like. Ok I think that's it for now. I will write again soon, because baking competition is coming up for our county fair, which is coming up in a few weeks. Hm. I don't know why, but this link won't stop linking itself. STOP! Eeep! It's like a never-ending link that's following me, watching everything I type and think!!! RUN RUN!!!! AIIYEEEE!!!!
Oh phew. All I had to do was insert a new paragraph. That was a bit frightening.
And I'm off! *whoosh*
~lacey
"I always wondered why babies spent so much time sucking their thumbs. Then I tasted baby food."
~Robert Orben
Unfortunately, with the start up of school last week, I've been pretty busy getting papers and other boring stuff sorted out and I haven't had a whole lot of time to do much in the kitchen. I
did make some chow mein a few weeks ago, 
which turned out pretty much mouth-watering. I have a few pics to share of that, chopping onions over there <--- and the finish product in our wok down there. The recipe I used, (I actually used one this time!) was a mock recipe for *official* panda express chow mein, but, in my opinion, it tasted better than their stuff ;) I made egg rolls too, but the pictures I took of them turned out crappy because my lighting was leaving me and I was too lazy to set the ott light up. So I'll just have to trust your imagination to conjure up an image of the best tasting egg rolls you can imagine ever eating, along with the best sweet and sour sauce you've ever eaten as well. Your probably wondering whats the deal with the Chinese food. And, unless you are an old hermit who lives in the mountains or possibly a deserted island somewhere off the coast of Bora Bora, you will probably assume it's because of the recent Olympic games that are held in China this year. Well congratulations, you are correct. Watching all those Chinese people all over the tv made me want to eat their food, so I made some myself. Smart, huh? I made some tomato-basil bread on Friday night, when I was too antsy over the current baby situation to do anything but bake. It was delicious (of course!) but I've realized my recipe needs some perfecting. The bread is a bit too dense and I need to fix that....somehow. As far as school goes, I got two classes out of three that I wanted to take. Computer concepts and Cooking for a Healthy Lifestyle. I must say, the computer class is pretty boring so far, but my teacher, Mr. Pachutto, seems cool. Plus! His name is really fun to say. Say it, Pah-chew-toe! yipee. My nutrition class is actually a bit boring so far too...I don't mean to be vain, but I already know everything being covered in the class so far. I can't wait until our lab days start though, and we get to actually cook. My sister Laurel finally got herself a culinary blog set up, ( allnaturalbakerwoman.blogspot.com ) go see it too! I added her and some other blogs and websites to some lists on the right, so you can check them out anytime you like. Ok I think that's it for now. I will write again soon, because baking competition is coming up for our county fair, which is coming up in a few weeks. Hm. I don't know why, but this link won't stop linking itself. STOP! Eeep! It's like a never-ending link that's following me, watching everything I type and think!!! RUN RUN!!!! AIIYEEEE!!!!Oh phew. All I had to do was insert a new paragraph. That was a bit frightening.
And I'm off! *whoosh*
~lacey
"I always wondered why babies spent so much time sucking their thumbs. Then I tasted baby food."
~Robert Orben
Monday, August 4, 2008
pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce?
What's the difference between pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce? It's a question I've been questioning my innermost culinary mastermind for some months now, and last night I finally decided to do something about it, since I couldn't think of anything myself that sounded legitimate enough.
The answer is this: traditional pizza sauce is made smooth, and has more spices and herbs than spaghetti sauce. The simplest sauce for pizza you could make is tomato sauce, garlic, basil, and oregano. Spaghetti sauce can be made with big chunks of tomato, or smooth, but usually has vegetables or italian sausage added to it, along with the traditional herbs and spices used in most italian cooking.
So there. With my curiosity finally satisfied, I decided to make spaghetti, food sent from heaven above, with a new recipe. When I watched the food movie No Reservations last night and saw aaron eckhart eating spaghetti, I couldn't wait any longer and I decided to make some.
Well ok, that's a lie, I went and happily slept for 9 hours, ate breakfast, did some stuff around the house, then I made it. So really I did wait much longer than I wanted, but who cares, I made it eventually.
I didn't make the spaghetti from scratch this time, because I was just focusing on the sauce itself.
But! I will next time, I promise. I started out with some roughly chopped onions cooking in some olive oil in the skillet, along with some fresh Gilroy garlic. I added a can of tomato sauce, and a can of chopped cooked tomatoes and let those hang out for awhile and get to know eachother. Then I threw some otehr good stuff in, steamed chopped carrots, mushrooms, fresh basil, fresh oregano, pepper, and a few other things. I simmered it up and meanwhile cooked some whole wheat spaghetti. I threw them all together in a bowl and tossed on some fresh parmesan, and there ya go. Man it was gooooood. One of the best bowls of spaghetti I've had in my life. I wish you all could have eaten it too.
I had also been wanting to try a new bread, something other than my oh-so-good garlic bread that I love so much, so I brought out our trusty Joy of Cooking book, and picked out a bread. I decided to make brioche, which I'd never even heard of before, but the book made it sound pretty dang good. I'm not even sure, but I think it might be italian bread? Sounds like it anyways. I had actually started making the bread to go with the spaghetti, but I was stupid and once again didn't read my bread recipe all the way through to see how long it needed to rise and all that jazz. I thought it'd just be a standard 3 hr. rise in all, but no! After rising for an hour and a half, you had to let it chill out in the fridge for 4-12 hours! Well I was already half-way into making it, so I figured on having it with dinner instead. I was skeptical when I saw how sticky and wet the dough was, but the book warned to avoid the temptation of adding extra flour, so I pushed my doubts aside and stuck it in the fridge. After waiting 5 excruciating hours filled with
anticipation, anxiety, and out-right constipation of thoughts reeling in my head about this bread, I was pleasently surprised to find that chilling the dough took the stickyness out of it and firmed it up quite a bit. I divided it into four balls, stuck them side-by-side in a bread pan like kids on a rollercoaster, and baked it in our oven (have I mentioned that oven is brand-spanking new and I love it?) It wasn't done when the book said it would be (how dare they!) so I baked it for 20 minutes longer. Of course my timing was perfect *wins*. I took some pics while it cooled and finally cut it open when I couldn't stand it anymore. It was amazing. SO good. It was unbelevably light, a slight sweetness on the edge, an extremely pleasent flaky crust, and filled with an overall irresistable butteryness that melted in your mouth. I had some with butter on it, but honestly, the rich butter taste to the bread was more than enough. It was truly inspiring. We ended up just eating the loaf for dinner, there's just 3 measly slices left. My brother said it was so delicious, it should be illegal. He was right. It IS illegal. Dudes, if you haven't had brioche before, I command you as your favorite mad baker woman to eat some before your day is over, even if it means baking it yourself. Ask, I WILL give you the recipe. I want everyone to have this.
I'm sorry. I know I ramble about all this, but I still have more to say, so keep going :D
*ahem*
So the first thing we made in our new oven were oven sandwiches, made with fresh tomatoes from our garden, fresh sweet basil, also from our garden, some cheddar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Oh and they were made on my mom's sandwich bread which is always delicious. We used our brand-new broiler INSIDE the oven, not under it! :D It was exciting. Hm. Now that I'm writing this I realize that I already wrote about these. Oh well, you get to see pics this time around.
I suppose I should update you all in the status of Laurel and I's bakery-opening is coming along. Laurel and I's...is that real grammer? *shrugs*
Laurel is going for her small business degree still at College of the Sequias, she's got a few semesters left still, two I think. I was planning on doing the same, but I haven't fully made up my mind yet. I might just go for a certificate in business, which would be a two-semester program (versus the four-semester program of a degree). I would have no problem going for the degree...if I were a different person. I am not a school person. I like it just fine and all, but it's really not my cup of tea. I'm grateful for it and the things I've learned, without it I'd be even more hopeless at subjects like maths...ecchh...but I really don't want to spend any extra un-needed time there. Laurel is awesome. She excells in school and revels in it. That's a good thing too, or else neither of us would have any idea what we were doing with the business aspect of owning a bakery :P
Anyways, I'm taking a few classes this fall at COS, hopefully I can still get all the ones I wanted before they fill...we'll see. I'm going to see a counselor, which is pointless if you ask me, so he can tell me the classes I need to take to get what I want. Which is dumb because I know what I want. But I can't register until I see one. Blah. So yeah that's Wednesday, which is also when I'm taking my placement test, which I'm NOT excited about. But whatev.
That's enough talk about non-food related subjects! I'm off to sleep...eventually..not yet...but soon...to have dreams of illegal brioche and whatever else my freaky mind decides to make me dream. Sleep well, whoever you are reading this, and leave me comments dudes.
~lacey
"Oh, God above, if heaven has a taste it must be an egg with butter and salt, and after the egg is there anything in the world lovelier than fresh warm bread and a mug of sweet golden tea?"
Frank McCourt-Angela's Ashes
The answer is this: traditional pizza sauce is made smooth, and has more spices and herbs than spaghetti sauce. The simplest sauce for pizza you could make is tomato sauce, garlic, basil, and oregano. Spaghetti sauce can be made with big chunks of tomato, or smooth, but usually has vegetables or italian sausage added to it, along with the traditional herbs and spices used in most italian cooking.
So there. With my curiosity finally satisfied, I decided to make spaghetti, food sent from heaven above, with a new recipe. When I watched the food movie No Reservations last night and saw aaron eckhart eating spaghetti, I couldn't wait any longer and I decided to make some.
Well ok, that's a lie, I went and happily slept for 9 hours, ate breakfast, did some stuff around the house, then I made it. So really I did wait much longer than I wanted, but who cares, I made it eventually.
I didn't make the spaghetti from scratch this time, because I was just focusing on the sauce itself.
But! I will next time, I promise. I started out with some roughly chopped onions cooking in some olive oil in the skillet, along with some fresh Gilroy garlic. I added a can of tomato sauce, and a can of chopped cooked tomatoes and let those hang out for awhile and get to know eachother. Then I threw some otehr good stuff in, steamed chopped carrots, mushrooms, fresh basil, fresh oregano, pepper, and a few other things. I simmered it up and meanwhile cooked some whole wheat spaghetti. I threw them all together in a bowl and tossed on some fresh parmesan, and there ya go. Man it was gooooood. One of the best bowls of spaghetti I've had in my life. I wish you all could have eaten it too.I had also been wanting to try a new bread, something other than my oh-so-good garlic bread that I love so much, so I brought out our trusty Joy of Cooking book, and picked out a bread. I decided to make brioche, which I'd never even heard of before, but the book made it sound pretty dang good. I'm not even sure, but I think it might be italian bread? Sounds like it anyways. I had actually started making the bread to go with the spaghetti, but I was stupid and once again didn't read my bread recipe all the way through to see how long it needed to rise and all that jazz. I thought it'd just be a standard 3 hr. rise in all, but no! After rising for an hour and a half, you had to let it chill out in the fridge for 4-12 hours! Well I was already half-way into making it, so I figured on having it with dinner instead. I was skeptical when I saw how sticky and wet the dough was, but the book warned to avoid the temptation of adding extra flour, so I pushed my doubts aside and stuck it in the fridge. After waiting 5 excruciating hours filled with
anticipation, anxiety, and out-right constipation of thoughts reeling in my head about this bread, I was pleasently surprised to find that chilling the dough took the stickyness out of it and firmed it up quite a bit. I divided it into four balls, stuck them side-by-side in a bread pan like kids on a rollercoaster, and baked it in our oven (have I mentioned that oven is brand-spanking new and I love it?) It wasn't done when the book said it would be (how dare they!) so I baked it for 20 minutes longer. Of course my timing was perfect *wins*. I took some pics while it cooled and finally cut it open when I couldn't stand it anymore. It was amazing. SO good. It was unbelevably light, a slight sweetness on the edge, an extremely pleasent flaky crust, and filled with an overall irresistable butteryness that melted in your mouth. I had some with butter on it, but honestly, the rich butter taste to the bread was more than enough. It was truly inspiring. We ended up just eating the loaf for dinner, there's just 3 measly slices left. My brother said it was so delicious, it should be illegal. He was right. It IS illegal. Dudes, if you haven't had brioche before, I command you as your favorite mad baker woman to eat some before your day is over, even if it means baking it yourself. Ask, I WILL give you the recipe. I want everyone to have this.I'm sorry. I know I ramble about all this, but I still have more to say, so keep going :D
*ahem*
So the first thing we made in our new oven were oven sandwiches, made with fresh tomatoes from our garden, fresh sweet basil, also from our garden, some cheddar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Oh and they were made on my mom's sandwich bread which is always delicious. We used our brand-new broiler INSIDE the oven, not under it! :D It was exciting. Hm. Now that I'm writing this I realize that I already wrote about these. Oh well, you get to see pics this time around.
I suppose I should update you all in the status of Laurel and I's bakery-opening is coming along. Laurel and I's...is that real grammer? *shrugs*
Laurel is going for her small business degree still at College of the Sequias, she's got a few semesters left still, two I think. I was planning on doing the same, but I haven't fully made up my mind yet. I might just go for a certificate in business, which would be a two-semester program (versus the four-semester program of a degree). I would have no problem going for the degree...if I were a different person. I am not a school person. I like it just fine and all, but it's really not my cup of tea. I'm grateful for it and the things I've learned, without it I'd be even more hopeless at subjects like maths...ecchh...but I really don't want to spend any extra un-needed time there. Laurel is awesome. She excells in school and revels in it. That's a good thing too, or else neither of us would have any idea what we were doing with the business aspect of owning a bakery :P
Anyways, I'm taking a few classes this fall at COS, hopefully I can still get all the ones I wanted before they fill...we'll see. I'm going to see a counselor, which is pointless if you ask me, so he can tell me the classes I need to take to get what I want. Which is dumb because I know what I want. But I can't register until I see one. Blah. So yeah that's Wednesday, which is also when I'm taking my placement test, which I'm NOT excited about. But whatev.
That's enough talk about non-food related subjects! I'm off to sleep...eventually..not yet...but soon...to have dreams of illegal brioche and whatever else my freaky mind decides to make me dream. Sleep well, whoever you are reading this, and leave me comments dudes.
~lacey
"Oh, God above, if heaven has a taste it must be an egg with butter and salt, and after the egg is there anything in the world lovelier than fresh warm bread and a mug of sweet golden tea?"
Frank McCourt-Angela's Ashes
Saturday, August 2, 2008
flour-less chocolate cake
I hate to start this blog out with a pathetic crappy picture of something so awesome as flour-less chocolate cake, but what can I say? I had plans to take good pictures of it before we ate it, but april had to go so she took bites out of it with her fork and ran. I could have protested until I had some good shots, but by that time the mint was already hopelessly wilted and the powdered sugar was starting to dissolve, and it was 12 am, so I didn't care much anymore. All I wanted was a slice of that cake.Now, unless you've eaten flour-less chocolate cake yourself before, you have no idea what you are missing out on. It's probably the richest, most chocolatey-est, wonderfully sweet and pleasureful confection you can ever ever eat. The picture does it no justice. "That's pure sin on a plate, that's what that is," as my brother-in-law described it. It's just unbelievable. I want to bake each of you a flour-less chocolate cake sometime in your life. I will do it.
The newest exciting news around the house-we got a new oveeeeeeeennnnnnn!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D See how much I looooooooove it. It's beautiful. I love it. Our old oven was a complete mess. It
served us very well while we had it, but it's time had passed a long time ago. When they delivered our new one on tuesday, me and mom spent at least 10 minutes marveling at how well the door opened and closed without a sound (our old oven only opened about halfway, and not without a tired old screech ringing throughout the house. And it never closed all the way either which made it impossible to heat up in a decent amount of time...all the while heating the kitchen up as well from the escaping hot air to about a million degrees) I'm so happy with our new oven. It has a broiler on the inside! That may seem old-hat to you guys, but our old oven had a broiler built into the bottom, which was impossible to use because no decent sized pan would fit into it, and every time it was opened it dropped tons of burnt up charcoal and turn our floor black right under it. In fact, the dude that came out to look at our oven said they don't even make ovens with broilers like that anymore. hah.So anyways, we had oven sandwiches in it last night. Nothing fancy really, just tomatoes, cheddar, olive oil, basil, garlic. I was able to switch the oven light on and look through the window to see if they were done yet! (yeah...our old oven had no light and no window on the front... :D)
I'll be off now to bake some bread or something. I wanted to make olive bread, but we have no olives, so that won't work. I'm going to try a new recipe. I don't know what yet, but I'll find something.
goodbye.
~lacey
“A cook, when I dine, seems to me a divine being, who from the depths of his kitchen rules the human race. One considers him as a minister of heaven, because his kitchen is a temple, in which his ovens are the altar.”
~Marc Antoine Désaugiers
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