latest purchase

I bought these super cute cookie cutters at Ikea this morning... definitely not a premeditated purchase. I noticed the squirrel first. Then the moose. Cute, cute, I thought. Porcupine, even cuter. But even then, I figured I could do without them. And that's when I noticed the snail. Not sure why or when I developed a soft spot for molluscs, but I do indeed have one. I guess I'll have to throw a woodland-themed party sometime soon, and let these little guys see some action.

super-villain

I've made a horrible, horrible discovery -- homemade ice-cream sandwiches. Cookies. Ice-cream. They are two things that, independently, I already had a dangerous liking for. Dangerous, because I have no self-control when either of them are in my kitchen. Now that they have combined forces, they are like a super-villain, and I am powerless against them...



The cookies pictured above are among my favorites -- oatmeal -- very similar to this Betty Crocker recipe, but sans walnuts, and with cinnamon added. The ice-cream is Dreyer's Vanilla.

welsh cakes

I'll admit that this is an odd first post to be writing after getting back from my trip. I have lots of stories and photos to share, but for now, I'm blogging about Welsh cakes.

My lovely Welsh relatives offered them to me often while I was in Wales, usually for tea. They're a little bit like scones, or American biscuits, but fried instead of baked. I liked them so much that I vowed that I would learn to make them when I got home. Lucky for me, they're really quite easy to make, and I already had a recipe in my handy Wycliffe International Cookbook.

The Welsh version.
My version.
Here's the Wycliffe recipe I used:

Combine:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

Cut in:
1/4 cup shortening (I used butter)

Add:
1/4 cup raisins (I'm not usually a fan, but I like them in these cakes)
2-4 tablespoons milk, enough to hold batter together

I rolled them into about 1 inch balls, and then squished them flat. You should end up with something about 2 inches across and about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Flour both sides, and then cook in a pan or on a griddle, over low heat. Cook them until they're golden brown on both sides. Sprinkle them with a little sugar, and they're ready to eat!

peanut butter kiss cookies

I had a long nap this afternoon, and then this evening suddenly had this unstoppable urge to bake. Peanut butter cookies are a stand-by for me, but tonight I decided they needed some complementary chocolate. So I ran to the store for some Hershey kisses, and voila. I made a double batch which turned out to be no less than 7 dozen cookies. That's right, folks -- 84!

Which also meant 85 kisses that were unwrapped and squished on (though one of them was lost to the floor).
Amazingly, I was not tempted to eat any of the dough, kisses, or even a freshly-baked cookie. I did eventually eat one, but only because it was broken and by that time I had decided that it was really my duty to test them out and see if they tasted OK. But seriously, I think I would usually gorge myself on cookies -- which is why I don't make them more often! -- so something must be wrong with me. Maybe I'm coming down with the dreaded influenza.

pb cookies

I wouldn't say that they're my ultimate favorite cookie, but definitely in my top five [with oatmeal, gingersnap, chocolate peanut-butter chip, and chocolate mint chip]. And there's certainly something comforting about a soft, warm peanut butter cookie...

of cinnamon rolls, idols, and facebook converts

Last night I went to an American Idol/very-important-football-match party at Sal and Kai's place. I knew that I wanted to contribute some type of edible sustenance to the get-together (it was going to be a long night), and finally decided to try my hand at cinnamon rolls. Two months ago, I attended a little cinnamon roll tutorial taught by the cinnamon roll goddess herself, Mari H. But even with Mari's expert advice and recipe in hand, I still felt my usual yeast-induced nervousness (will the yeast work? will the dough rise?) .

Despite of my worries, the whole process (though quite time-consuming and a little messy) went very smoothly.

Here's a picture of the dough rolled out with all the appropriate tools and ingredients. Rolling pin, flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon, dental floss. The dental floss is a little tip from Mari -- you use it to cut off each individual roll. I wanted to take more pictures of each individual step in the cinnamon roll process, but found the dough a little messier than expected (my mom took the picture above because my hands were covered in flour). I was also afraid of shocking readers (especially those who actually consumed the rolls) with the inside knowledge of how much butter and sugar went into them... trust me, it's better to be ignorant on this...

Before baking.
After baking.

Jon and a hungry Sal.

Cinnamon roll with gooey frosting...

While waiting for the 11:30 showing of American Idol, those of us with Facebook checked our accounts.

And those of us without Facebook were persuaded to sign up for accounts.

I left before the champion's league game started (so didn't see Liverpool's defeat -- sorry Kai and Mike!). But with a successful cinnamon roll experiment, American Idol, and a couple new Facebook friends, it was a very good evening.

today's small successes

Believe it or not, this is my 80th post! That's not one of the successes I originally planned to write about, but I must say that I am proud of myself for posting as much as I have. Granted, many (or even most?) of my updates aren't exactly enthralling, but considering my previous experience with blogging on Xanga, I'm very proud of my improved consistency as a blogger.

Small Success #1: Successful Baking Experience
Double chocolate mint chip cookies -- yum! For me, the mint and chocolate combination ranks up there with peanut butter and chocolate, and I think these are possibly my favorite cookies ever. They were made using a recipe on the back of the Hershey's mint chocolate chips package. I made them for the first time about a year ago, and then was severely disappointed when I could no longer find the chips at City'super. But they suddenly reappeared a few weeks ago, at which time I immediately bought myself a small supply. I don't usually do much baking when it's just my parents and me around, but my sister and two of her kids will be coming down for a short visit tomorrow, so I figured that she could help us shoulder the calorie load.


Small Success #2: Organizational Feat

I've never been the most organized individual, yet good organization is something that I've always aspired too. I probably have a higher tolerance for disorder than a neat freak, but even so, I've realized that being disorganized creates a certain amount of stress for me, not to mention sucks up time whenever I need to find something that's gotten misplaced. I've also realized that not being a naturally organized person doesn't mean that there's no hope for me. There are measures I can take to train and help myself improve my organizational skills. Today I took some steps.
This is rather embarrassing, but I'll share it anyway, in the hopes that it will encourage others who are still fumbling in organizational darkness. Ever since I started taking classes at HKU in September, I've been given a variety of papers for my reference. These papers -- articles and handouts mainly -- gradually accumulated to the point at which they outgrew the folder that had been intended for their storage. And this is when the story starts to get embarrassing... instead of buying a new folder to store my burgeoning paper collection, I allowed the folder to evolve (or devolve? is that a word?) into a large pile on the floor of my bedroom. This pile continued to grow -- being knocked about and pushed out of order -- until recently when I gathered it up to put it into hiding. But though it was out of sight, its formless piling presence still haunted me. So today I decided enough was enough. I went to a stationery store and bought a large binder. Once I was home, I got the hole puncher out and finally removed the infamous pile from its dark hiding place. After about 20 minutes of sorting and hole-punching, I had a nicely organized binder with tabs delineating the different courses. Like most things that I put off doing, I was surprised by how quickly and easily I was able to accomplish this task. Another lesson learned? I hope so!

"What's the American man's favorite dessert?"

Happy [American] Thanksgiving! I'll be eating Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and some of their colleagues later today. It's a little disappointing that I couldn't invite friends over like last year -- what fun we had spending most of the day in the kitchen, preparing the whole Thanksgiving spread! But I guess this year won't be quite as much work.

But I will get to contribute something to tonight's meal. My mom was given the responsibility of bringing pies, and I offered to help her with a regular pumpkin pie, and my favorite experiment from last year: a pumpkin cheesecake.

So I set to work this morning, soon after I got up. For the pumpkin pie, I used my mom's trusty circa 1969 Betty Crocker cookbook.


I decided to make the crust first, and soon found crust recipes at the beginning of the pie section, right underneath this very nice introductory paragraph. Definitely worth a read. I think my favorite part is: "If you care about pleasing a man -- bake a pie. But make sure it's a perfect pie. "


So as Betty suggested, I spent some time with the chapter, and tried one of her family-tested recipes. I've done my best to "make sure it's a perfect pie," and now it'll be up to those eating it.

chocolate chip cookie conversion

I was never a big fan of chocolate chip cookies (hereafter refered to as CCC). I know that they hold "favorite cookie" status for a lot of people, but I always seemed to prefer ginger snaps or oatmeal, or even an occasional peanut butter.

Well, things have changed. I had a discussion with Susie the other day about this very topic, and she expressed her opinion that I just hadn't found the Mr. Right of CCC Recipes. I conceded that that was a possible explanation, but still had my doubts.

Well, today I received her CCC recipe over email, and as I was in the mood for some baking this evening, I decided to give it a try. Well, let me just say that I have never consumed so much chocolate chip cookie in my life. I just couldn't stop myself, and ended up eating an ungodly amount of the stuff, in both cooked and uncooked states. Didn't I post something recently about maybe having a problem with self-control? Well, I think that was confirmed tonight... But, to ensure that I don't finish the entire batch on my own, I think I will take the remaining cookies to school tomorrow.